Legitimization of cross-sector partnerships: Actor strategies within the institutional complexity of state, economy, and civil society

跨部门伙伴关系是来自社会不同部门（国家、经济、民间社会）的行为者共享资源和信息的协作安排，以便以共同目标解决社会问题。促进这些治理形式的一个核心驱动力是这样一种假设，即来自不同部门背景的合作伙伴可以处理不同的资源和能力，如果利用这些互补性来实现经济、社会和生态附加值的目标，就能更有效地解决社会问题。在目前的研究中，结构观点在形成和成功的条件以及跨部门伙伴关系的结构和影响方面占主导地位。然而，关于在伙伴关系中合作的个体行为者微观层面的互动主义观点尚未得到很好的发展。这些行为体不是国家、经济和公民社会的不同部门框架和规范结构的被动接受者，但他们可以积极和战略性地参与这些框架，以确保合法性。然而，跨部门伙伴关系的正当性还需要进一步研究，因为其成功不仅取决于其功能效率，还取决于其社会合法性，尽管由于其制度上的模糊性而成为合法性归属的分散目标。我们的研究项目有助于从理论上和经验上记录跨部门伙伴关系中的个人行动水平，并探索与上级组织和部门背景的相互关系。我们关注以下研究问题：1)国家、经济和公民社会的部门逻辑以及公共、私营和非营利组织的组织逻辑如何在跨部门伙伴关系中合作的行动者的身份主张和解释模式中表现出来？2)参与者使用什么行动策略来解决其部门和组织中潜在的冲突逻辑？3)这些行动策略如何影响伙伴关系内部和外部合法性的发展和维护；内部合法性和外部合法性之间的动态互动是什么？这个项目的理论背景是制度逻辑的概念，这是最近在社会学制度主义中发展起来的。该研究项目以过程追踪为基础，在三个深入案例研究的范围内分析了三部门伙伴关系。

Cross-sector partnerships are collaborative arrangements in which actors from different sectors of society (state, economy, civil society) share resources and information in order to work on societal problems with a common goal. A central driver of the promotion of these forms of governance is the assumption that partners from different sectoral backgrounds dispose of diverse resources and capabilities and that societal problems are solved more effectively if these complementarities are used with the goal of economic, social, and ecological added value.In current research, a structural perspective predominates on the conditions of formation and success as well as on the structure and impact of cross-sector partnerships. An interactionist perspective on the micro level of individual actors that cooperate in partnerships, however, is not well developed yet. These actors are not passive recipients of different sectoral frameworks and normative structures of state, economy, and civil society, but they can actively and strategically engage with these frameworks to secure legitimacy. However, the legitimization of cross-sector partnerships should be subjected to further research as their success is not only dependent on their functional efficiency but also on their societal legitimacy though being a diffuse target for the attribution of legitimacy because of their institutional ambiguity.Our research project contributes to theoretically and empirically record the level of individual action in cross-sector partnerships and to explore the interrelations with superordinate organizational and sectoral contexts. We focus on the following research questions:1) How are sectoral logics of state, economy, and civil society as well as organizational logics of public, private, and nonprofit organizations manifested in identity claims and interpretation patterns of actors who cooperate in cross-sector partnerships?2) What action strategies do actors use to address the potentially conflicting logics of their sectors and organizations?3) How do these action strategies affect the development and maintenance of internal and external legitimacy of the partnership; and what are the dynamic interactions between internal and external legitimacy?The theoretical background of this project is the concept of institutional logics, which has recently been developed within sociological institutionalism. The research project is based on process-tracing and analyzes tri-sectoral partnerships within the scope of three in-depth case studies.