The Discourse of Local Partnership in the United Kingdom

This paper considers critically the question of what constitutes „local partnership‟, including the stated meanings and implicit power relationships within, for instance, public/private partnerships, specific projects such as Building Schools for the Future or the „area partnership‟ arrangements within new English unitary councils. A number of meanings are deconstructed within this prevailing discourse of partnership, including the gaps between a notion of partnership as collaborative advantage, partnership as a means of central government imposing its solutions, partnership as patronage, and the language of partnership as a means of defining the world within a managerial perspective. The discussion then considers how the themes of the discussion can be addressed empirically, and turns to the experience of local governance in Scotland where it is suggested the discourse of partnership can in some ways be contrasted to the typical patterns of partnership in England. It is suggested that power relationships are different within the governance relationships of Scotland and of England. The paper concludes with a critical perspective on what the discourse of partnership now means, together with prospects for further research.[...]