Boundaries as Junctures: Collaborative Boundary Work for Building Efficient Resilience

This article is a theoretical contribution to reconsidering the boundaries that are central features of collaborative public management. We identify two contrasting ways of doing boundary work: one oriented to treating them as barriers that promote separation and the other to treating them as junctures that enable connecting. We describe three general prac-tices for creating junctures: translating across, aligning among, and decentering differences. We argue that orienting boundary work in collaboration to making connections supports efficient resilience, making it possible for systems to work even when they are disrupted or when resources are constrained. We illustrate the practices and their benefits with examples from collaborative public management. This article is a theoretical contribution to reconceptualizing boundaries in public man-agement and the implications of public managers ’ boundary work practices for resil-ience. Collaborative management, a central feature of modern public management, is commonly defined as a “boundary-spanning ” endeavor (Crosby and Bryson 2005;