What Is Partnership – Lessons from Copenhagen's Metro Project

This paper seeks to understand the being of partnership in long term public private partnerships. Here being is understood as a particular world view which governs action, by giving rise to what is the right and wrong thing to... [ view full abstract ]

This paper seeks to understand the being of partnership in long term public private partnerships. Here being is understood as a particular world view which governs action, by giving rise to what is the right and wrong thing to do. To approach this question, a case study of a longer term partnership was conducted. The Copenhagen Metro project was reviewed using methods developed by the author in her doctoral thesis (Sturup, 2010) in an effort to understand how partnership was understood and evolving as a mode of being within the project. In conceiving partnership as a mode of being generated in the interrelations of the parties and reflected in the rationalities, knowledge and technologies used, a different way of thinking about what supports or interrupts partnership in these relationships becomes available. The source of partnership is placed in the parties, their relations and understanding of the project, rather than in the contract.
STURUP, S. 2010. Managing Mentalities of Mega Projects: The Art of Government of Mega Urban Transport Projects PhD Doctorate, University of Melbourne.