Coordination or competition: Obstacles and success factors for integrated partnerships at local level

Abstract

Governments are committed to the establishment of partnerships with community as a new mechanism for renewal in inner urban areas. A current research and community development project taking place in Melbourne was conceived as a means of establishing a partnership between local government, state government and not-for-profit agencies by developing a Lifelong Learning Hub as part of a public housing redevelopment project. While the existing service providers initially welcomed the idea of the hub, its establishment proved problematic. The cooperative nature of a partnership to provide improved services conflicted with the competitive nature of the existing services and the policy climate under which the regeneration project was established.