Governance

Combining a detailed case study of the city of Bristol with wide-ranging information and analysis from other sources, this report addresses key challenges facing policy makers, practitioners and academics in their efforts to understand and impact on the changing nature of urban environments today.

Current policy encourages 'partnerships' between statutory organisations and professionals; public and private sectors; with voluntary organisations and local communities. But is this collaborative discourse as distinctive as the government claims? These claims are critically examined, using evidence from a wide range of welfare partnerships.

Using Detroit as a case study, this important book argues that cycles of neoliberal policy-led expansion and contraction created hollow shells of once vibrant industrial centres, and explores the potential for large scale cooperative networks to promote urban regeneration and sustain local economies