Abstract
This study examines the effects of regional social relations on social partnerships, and explores the ways in which the partnerships themselves effect change in regional and State relations. These relations shift as the State becomes a more active partner, and new relations form as partnerships develop capacity to influence social relations in regions. Two cases are presented, describing partnerships initiated in the 1980's by the State of Massachusetts' Industry Action Project: the Needle Trades Action Project and the Machine Action Project. These cases examine one State initiated effort to pursue economic and workforce development and stabilization through mandated regional partnerships, focused on industry sectors. In the 1980's, new understandings of problems in workforce and economic development led to innovative, regionally focused industry-labor-community-public sector partnerships. These partnerships reflected an interdependence between the social and economic spheres, and recognized social relations as a critical resource of, and for, regional economic and social viability. Publicly initiated and focusing on issues of public concern, social partnerships challenge widely accepted notions of problem divisibility and interdependence, and question the inevitability of the impacts of globalization. Through social partnerships, new understandings are forged, new processes for problem-solving and analysis developed, new players are included, and alternative and proactive solutions to regional challenges are enacted. The study suggests that social partnerships are not simply technical problem solving forums; rather, they restructure regional social relations through which new integrated, sustainable opportunities emerge. Therefore, supporting new social relations is an important role for the State leading to development that is representative of the public interest. The study offers two recommendations: first, that policy initiatives should avoid functionally oriented technical solutions in responding to deep-seated and broad-based social problems, supporting instead long-term systemic and developmental change; second, that theory needs to de-emphasize structural solutions such as networks, alliance, even partnership formation as vehicles for change, examining instead the social relations and processes within these structures that effect change in the public interest.