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Report

Partnership working in rural regeneration: Governance and empowerment

Over the past 15 years, partnerships have emerged as a commonplace feature of rural regeneration, yet little is known about how these partnerships work in practice – about their successes or about the obstacles to effective working.

Written by:
Bill Edwards, Mark Goodwin, Simon Pemberton and Michael Woods
Date published:

This report presents the findings of a two-year research project analysing 154 rural partnerships in mid-Wales and Shropshire. It examines the processes involved in building and maintaining partnerships in rural areas and seeks to establish why some partnerships effectively build capacity while others do not.

Drawing on an extensive database of partnerships in the study regions and six detailed case studies, Partnership working in rural regeneration discusses:

  • characteristics of rural regeneration partnerships;
  • the organisation and structure of such partnerships;
  • the experiences of working in partnership;
  • the implications of partnerships for future rural governance strategies.

Examples of both good and bad practice are highlighted throughout, particularly on issues of partnership aims and objectives, strategies, structure, representativeness, training, resources and funding.

Summary