LAUSR

This essay advances the proposition that the quality of the collaborative process can exercise considerable influence on the success and sustainability of community initiatives, especially those addressing community health and wellbeing. The force and direction of this influence, the essay argues, is largely accounted for by stakeholders’ perceptions of their collective power and whether the collaborative process feels authentic. Further, this influence can last for many years, flowing downstream from stakeholders participating in early stages of the collaborative process to those giving and receiving care. The essay offers a phenomenological account of collaboration – as animated by the flow and force of affective energy – to address several critical questions: what motivates collaboration; what sustains group cohesion; what are the features of high-quality collaborative processes; and what makes a collaborative process authentic? The essay concludes with an affective re-specification of authenticity – grounded in vitality, not essence – to explain why some collaboratives are more successful than others.