Partnership and policy networks in rural local governance: Homelessness inTaunton

In this paper we discuss the importance of 'partnership' and 'policy networ ks' in the new contemporary governance of rural areas. We use these notions to contextualize the representation of, and policy response to the particu lar issue of homelessness in the rural service centre of Taunton in Somerse t. Here particular partnership networks have been brokered by the local aut hority which bring together a wide range of business, voluntary and communi ty interests with a stake in the homelessness issue. Strong pre-existing di scourses of homelessness in Taunton characterize the issue as one of a town centre problem of 'beggars, vagrants and drunks'. We offer evidence from t he local press to suggest that these discourses have been persistently pedd led by particular interests in the town. New forms of partnership were inev itably embroiled with the pursuit of these existing discourses, and contrar y Voices were unable to redefine existing social relations within policy ne tworks. The evidence from Taunton suggests that where partnership merely in volves attempts to repackage existing resources, it seems unlikely that it will fulfil some of the more optimistic claims for a more pluralist form of governance in the local arena.