Idealistic and Pragmatic Versions of the Discourse of Partnership

Abstract

Although the term ‘partnership’ is increasingly widely applied to a range of inter-organizational engagements within diverse international settings, its meaning is very unclear. This paper analyses how actors involved in implementing partnership working constructed its meaning. It draws on a case study from within the refugee resettlement field to reveal two contrasting versions of the discourse of partnership: a more ‘idealistic’ version of partnership as a ‘good thing’, and a more ‘pragmatic’ version that represented partnership largely in terms of the instrumentality of stakeholders. The tensions between trust and power within inter-organizational relationships are reflected in the uneasy relationship between these versions, and the effects of this tension on the enactment of partnership in the case study project are discussed. The paper considers the implications of these findings for researching and implementing partnership working more widely.