I'm not sure I entirely agree with the gist of Paul's comment or where it
might take us. Unpacking this discourse of 'joined upness' requires more
than a search of the archives for occasions where similar phrases have been
employed before. The uniqueness of the recent interest in joined up working
surely stems from the outgrowth of 'multi-agency' or 'inter-agency'
initiatives of the 1990s which laid the foundations of the new local
corporatist managerialism centred on urban and regional (re)generation.
This is a quite distinct development and, working in the field of 'community
safety' planning, one of my chief interests/concerns has been the often
rather ambiguous relationship between 'joined up' working and issues of
democracy and accountability. This, it seems to me is captured as a theme
in the 4th of Tim Clark's 'feedback' points circulated earlier. As critics
and analysts of these new departures in social management (rather than
project 'evaluators', who, it sometimes seems, are becoming increasingly
indistinguishable from the planners themselves) I'd agree with Tim that we
need to ask the more awkward questions about this 'new' joined up governance
rather than join the supporting cast of those celebrating the new rhetoric.
Ah, now, that's better.
PSq.
> ----------
> From: Paul Spicker
> Reply To: Paul Spicker
> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 9:42 am
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Joined up policy
>
> Although the phrase "joined up policy" is recent, there's nothing new
> about
> the idea; there are sources from the 1940s which are concerned with the
> inter-connectedness of government policy, and this was the basis for
> arguments for social planning. This idea went into abeyance, though, and
> concern about disconnected policy only re-emerged in the 1970s. One of
> the
> key sources must be the Central Policy Review Staff's A Joint Framework
> for
> Social Policies, published in 1975. Tessa Blackstone, a key figure in New
> Labour, was in the CPRS.
>
> Paul Spicker
> University of Dundee
> Dundee DD1 4HN
> Scotland
>
> Tel: + 44 1382 344929
> Fax: + 44 1382 344675
>
> Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/politics/socialpolicy
>
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