Partnerships, power, and scale in rural governance

Partnerships have become established as a significant vehicle for the imple mentation of rural development policy in Britain. In promoting new working relationships between different state agencies and between the public, priv ate, and voluntary sectors, partnerships have arguably contributed to a rec onfiguration of the scalar hierarchy of the state. In this paper we draw on recent debates about the 'politics of scale' and on empirical examples fro m Mid Wales and Shropshire to explore the scalar implications of partnershi ps. We investigate how discursive constructs of partnership are translated into practice, how official discourses are mediated by local actors, the re lationship between partnerships and existing scales of governance, and the particular 'geometry of power' being constructed through partnerships. We a rgue that the existing scalar hierarchy of the state has been influential i n structuring the scales and territories of partnerships, and that, despite an apparent devolution of the public face of governance, the state remains crucial in governing the process of governance through partnerships.