John Diamond

Managing Change or Coping with Conflict? - Mapping the Experience of a Local Regeneration Partnership

Post May 1997 the conventional approaches to regeneration strategies in Britain have focused upon establishing local partnerships between - not only service providers an d potential employers - but also local community-based groups. Neighbourhoods or ‘localities’ are now seen as the arenas within which coalitions of local interest groups meet to identify needs, to allocate resources and to engage with local communities. This paper will examine the assumptions behind such approaches and will explore the sites of conflict an d the ways in which local managers attempt to reconcile differing aspirations and expectations. The paper draws upon a series of interviews with participants in regeneration initiatives in Manchester, and will suggest that regeneration managers occupy a significant place in arbitrating between different interest groups. In particular, the role of multi-agency working will be explored an d the ways in which professionals (from a variety of occupations) seek to negotiate common terms of reference and understanding.

Au revoir to partnerships: what's next ?

Purpose – To review the current debates on partnership working and to examine whether a “fitness for purpose” test is an appropriate way of evaluating existing developments.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the conceptual frameworks within which the partnership discourse has been located, and reflects on whether this enables both practitioners and academics to make sense of the partnership literature and arrangements.Findings – The paper argues that existing frameworks are limited and suggests that alternative models need to be considered.Practical implications – The paper invites the practitioner/academic community to reassess existing models in the light of experience and analysis.Originality/value – The paper provides an alternative framework within which to situate partnership development and practice.

Strategies to resolve conflict in partnerships: reflections on UK urban regeneration

Partnerships to lead on urban regeneration initiatives in the UK claim to facilitate inter‐agency working and local involvement. They are presented both as ways of ensuring the effective management of services within neighbourhoods and as potential “change agents” in the way they bring together different (and sometimes competing) interest groups. Regeneration partnerships are, therefore, often the sites of unresolved conflict. This paper, which draws upon interviews with local regeneration managers and local community representatives in Manchester explores possible strategies for resolving such conflict. In particular it suggests that the use of supervision in the public and community sector needs reforming in order to provide externality for those involved.

Research into regeneration: gaps in our knowledge base

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview to four papers in this issue that deal with regeneration.Design/methodology/approach – This guest editorial summarizes four papers from a regeneration management conference held at the University of Liverpool.Findings – City growth coalitions are, it seems, in abundance, and one should be aware of their unintended outcomes, likewise, such outcomes that occur during partnership processes.Originality/value – Readers gain a quick overview of regeneration which will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

Reflections and Speculations on Teaching and Learning in Public Administration

The scale and impact of the current global financial and economic crisis affect not just the public and political institutions established to manage the economy, but also those programmes in institutions of higher education which seek to work with professionals, practitioners and decision makers. If we can witness a public crisis of confidence in the capacity of our existing family of institutions to manage the change, then we might expect to observe similar changes in universities, too. This article reflects upon the nature of the relationships between universities (business and management schools) and the wider public and political community. It also attempts to anticipate some of the potential consequences of the crisis in terms of how the academy might reflect upon its assumptions concerning teaching and learning approaches, and expectations within the discipline of public administration. We suggest that the present crisis is an opportunity to think about the curriculum and pedagogic choices we make and to promote a more collaborative approach to learning, drawing upon models of reflection and professional practice to be found across different disciplines including social work and teaching.

Reflecting on the processes of a local evaluation: Networks, narratives and partnerships

Purpose – Seeks to draw together a number of separate but, arguably, inter‐related themes which are present for those involved in “sense making” within and across public and third sector agencies or organisations.Design/methodology/approach – Uses a case study approach of one community‐based network in South London to explore the ways in which action learning can facilitate self‐reflection and open up the processes of partnership to a wider audience.Findings – The particular challenge for any evaluator is to identify the ways in which definitions and meanings are shared or contested by participants. These can be “heard” through the different narratives which are constructed by those engaged in the evaluation process.Originality/value – Attempts to identify what the critical questions were for those involved and provides a commentary on the experience.

Challenging the status quo: the role and place of Third Sector organisations

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) Report published in June 2008 for the role of voluntary, community and faith (VCF) based organisations in supporting and developing networks of support and influence at the local level.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon the empirical data collected for one of the case studies in the JRF report and develops the conclusions drawn.Findings – The roles played by key individuals in VCF organisations may “open” up access to services for refugee and asylum seekers but they may also inhibit access. Their significance as centres of influence and authority in a post‐representative form of local democracy suggests that their role may have been under‐estimated in the UK. At the same time, local state organisations are experimenting with devolved street based or neighbourhood focussed approaches and these twin developments raise issues of accountability and decision making.Research limitatio...

Sustainable Communities: University-Community Partnership Research on Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development

The aim of this paper is to examine the role that university research can play in sustainable development at the level of community. The methodological approach is action research undertaken in collaboration with voluntary and community organisations, addressing their needs and including high levels of participation. An outline of the nature of sustainable communities and engaged university research, is followed by case examples of five collaborative research projects, each generating different types of qualitative data, which inform sustainable development of communities in diverse ways. The studies indicate that university-community partnerships can provide understanding of the challenges facing people in communities; encourage innovative local action for sustainability; and contribute to policy development at different levels. They do this via the creation of ecological ‘edges’. The challenges facing universities doing this kind of research are highlighted.

Intra‐organisational collaboration in one UK university: potential for change or missed opportunity

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the promotion of intra‐organisational collaboration within a university setting.Design/methodology/approach – An ethnographic approach influenced by a phenomenographic framework of analysis was used.Findings – Content analysis of qualitative data resulted in 11 overlapping themes being identified in respect of collaboration. Final analysis led to the identification of four hierarchically inclusive degrees of collaboration.Research limitations/implications – The research, whilst based within one UK university, raises important conceptual as well as practical questions.Practical implications – The implications of this paper have relevance for the ways in which universities and other agencies promote intra‐ as well as inter‐departmental (or agency) working.Originality/value – By using the framework developed it is possible to see parallels across different professional and agency settings.

Regeneration management and globalisation: developing a synthesis?

The proposal for this special edition of Local Government Studies came some time before the collapse in the international financial and banking system. At the present time (autumn 2008) it is still too early to be precise about the impact this economic and political crisis will have on regeneration projects. We can assume that those initiatives based upon rising property prices and land values or those assuming that they can provide regional or sub-regional sites for perceived anchor initiatives, such as conference centres, retail parks, leisure and recreation sites or transport hubs (airports, rail and bus terminals), may not be as successful as their proponents thought. We are struck by the relative ease by which it is possible to name or to describe the particular form that regeneration projects take. We are only too aware that it is possible to develop an argument seeking to assert that there is already a ‘global’ brand that we can attach to regeneration initiatives. We can observe how there is an apparent conformity to the retail sector and also that over the past 20–25 years we can (almost) predict what will be present in international airports, shopping malls across the advanced economies and how there is popular perception that retail sites are occupied increasingly (wherever you are) by a familiar grouping of stores. The Wall Mart/ Starbucks trend illustrates a wide range of social, economic and marketing trends. At the same time there has been the emergence of a regeneration discourse that appears to promote and reflect an apparent ‘coming together’, not just of what the regeneration package needs to contain, but a shared analysis of why the package is necessary in the first place.