Community Engagement and Its Challenges in Complex Governing Networks: Co-Design Challenges and the Incongruency of Governing Networks?

The question of how to govern multiscale problems in today’s networked environment is an important topic in public administration and public management. This paper addresses the complexities involved with managing the interaction of actors operating in dynamic networks and various scales of network governance. Specifically, this study examines the role of governance networks and co-design of policy at the local level. Through examination of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and federal waivers associated with the policy to support opportunity youth in local communities across the U.S., this study sheds a better understanding of the role of local public agencies in implementing a federal policy in different networked governance environments.