Complex community development projects: collaboration, comprehensive programs, and community coalitions in complex society

Abstract

Community development programs are becoming increasingly complex as a result of societal complexity and our greater appreciation of the difficulty of solving community problems. Case studies of successful community development organizations suggest that they cope with complexity by developing specialized projects that are (1) multi-organizational collaborations among intervention organizations and resource providers; (2) multi-functional or comprehensive efforts at integrated problem solving; and (3) multi-jurisdictional coalitions of diverse communities working together. The organizations examined in this paper show that well-designed projects can manage complex tasks. However, the organizational cost of complexity in terms of administrative time and coordination is unnecessarily high.

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