The development of a theoretical model of partnership : with a case study on the Coventry and Warwickshire partnership assembled forthe first round of the single regeneration budget

摘要

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s partnership has come to be the accepted mechanisms for the delivery of regeneration initiatives. The widespread evidence of partnership working across all spheres of government activity suggests that it now represents the new economic orthodoxy in the approach to co-ordination. During the same period there has been considerable attention drawn to the emergence of new forms of co-ordination based upon networking. The growth of partnership and networking has however proliferated in the absence of any systematic evaluation of their efficacy as an organisational form. Throughout this period a major objective of regeneration partnerships has been to alter the internal dynamics of partnership by broadening the range of participants involved. Partnership and network forms of working have thus become significant channels through which a range of actors have been incorporated into regeneration initiatives. In light of the growth of partnership and networking a major lacuna in our understanding arises from the absence of any theoretical framework which might describe the specific characteristics of these organisational forms of co-ordination. This thesis seeks to fill that vacuum by postulating a theoretical model of both partnership and network forms of co-ordination. The key attributes of the two models are identified, with common characteristics and key differentiating qualities discussed. This approach generated a set of analytical tools (a partnership checklist) designed in the first instance to be of practical use to the community and voluntary sectors as they engage in partnership but also to be of use to practitioners and participants generally. The checklist was tested on the Single Regeneration Budget partnership formed by the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership, however, the insights developed have wider application for our understanding of partnership and networks in general.