Working Across Boundaries: Barriers, Enablers, Tensions and Puzzles

Abstract

The notion of working across boundaries continues to receive attention from scholars and practitioners of public policy, administration and management. In recent times, much emphasis has been placed on notions of inter-organisational, inter-jurisdictional and inter-sectoral working and a range of terms have emerged to capture this phenomenon: horizontal coordination, joined-up government, collaboration, whole-ofgovernment, holistic government, collaborative governance and so on. However, there is a core element that binds these various manifestations – the notion that we must traverse boundaries to achieve goals.