Investigating partnerships: research questions

The following sub-questions drive the fieldwork:

The research will seek to understand how partnership expectations are formed and communicated. The partnership ‘offer’ indicates what assumptions are made, what issues are anticipated, what conditions or limitations are imposed and what priorities and aims are established at institutional and interpersonal levels. The fieldwork will explore how spaces of control and risk are constructed at each Circuit region – observing how these affordances shift and adapt as the programme 

Also worthy of consideration is the question of how Circuit’s partnership offer differs from other models of partnership, as identified through surveys of relevant policy and practice-based literature. 

The research will examine the different models of partnership being tested, how these approaches are received and what ideas are being implemented in order to realise partnership activity. The fieldwork will also attempt to capture the development of partnership through observations of various administrative and dialogic rituals. By reflecting on the performance of hospitality and relationship management, it is hoped the data will reveal how power is manifested and distributed between partners. 

The fieldwork will examine the cultural, political, psychological, physical and economic barriers impacting upon partnership – including professional differences amongst practitioners and social exclusions amongst young people. The ways in which these barriers are negotiated will also be scrutinised.  

Finally, the research will aim to understand what is produced and learnt as a result of partnership, and how a partnership methodology affects participant experience and organisational change.