Boundary Spanning in Local Governance: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Complex societal challenges require collaboration between organizations, often with conflicting priorities and ways of working. Connecting organizations has come to be referred to as boundary-spanning. There is a need to understand the features of boundary-spanning at the local level, since policy-makers and practitioners from different sectors need not only to work together but also to relate to the recipients of their interventions. Addressing this gap, a scoping review was conducted. The review highlights the need to carve out a contextualized conceptualization of boundary-spanning that accounts for the distinctive features of this work when embedded in local community context.