Rethinking Collaboration and Partnership: A Public Policy Perspective

Issues of coordination, collaboration and partnership are now at the forefront of much tourism research on finding new solutions to resource management and destination development problems. However, despite the value of such attention in possibly improving destination management and the development of more sustainable forms of tourism, the concepts have remained relatively poorly critically analysed from a public policy perspective. The paper argues that the emphasis associated with network concepts is related to the changing role of the state in Western society and the attempt to find market or semi-market solutions to resource and production problems. However, the paper argues with reference to examples from various Western countries, and Australia in particular, that caution needs to be applied in the utilisation of these concepts because of the implications that they may have for notions of governance and the public interest. In addition, the paper argues that the predominance of narrow corporatist notions of collaboration and partnership in network structures may serve to undermine the development of the social capital required for sustainable development.