Delivering Public Services: Locality, Learning and Reciprocity in Place Based Practice. Issue 4 (19th November 2016) - Marsh, Ian
Abstract: Policymakers across myriad jurisdictions are grappling with the challenge of complex policy problems. Multi‐faceted, complex, and seemingly intractable, 'wicked' problems have exhausted the repertoire of the standard policy approaches. In response, governments are increasingly looking for new options, and one approach that has gained significant scholarly interest, along with increasing attention from practitioners, is 'place‐based' solutions. This paper surveys conceptual aspects of this approach. It describes practices in comparable jurisdictions – the United Kingdom, the EU, and the United States. And it explores efforts over the past decade to 'localise' Indigenous services. It sketches the governance challenge in migrating from top‐down or principal‐agent arrangements towards place‐based practice. The paper concludes that many of the building blocks for this shift already exist but that these need to be re‐oriented around 'learning'. Funding and other administrative protocols may also ultimately need to be redefined. Abstract : This paper considers the international application of place‐based approaches to assess their potential to meet policy challenges in Australian settings. It examines how such approaches have been conceptualised in other jurisdictions, and the challenge in migrating these to contextualised, yet accountable, governance regimes in local Australian contexts.