Partnerships and Regimes

Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001. During the 1990s, urban regeneration partnerships proliferated in the UK. It is now commonplace for many individuals and organizations, including businesses, community groups, the voluntary sector and other public sector bodies, to co-operate with local authorities in a wide range of activities. Interest in partnerships between local government and local businesses has been given added momentum by the increasing popularity of urban regime theory as a tool for understanding urban politics in the UK. Regime theory is an American neo-pluralist account of urban politics which is concerned with local collaborative dynamics and processes, particularly those between local government and business leaders. It focuses on one facet of local governance, the relationship between the local authority and the business sector in regeneration activities.