Originally published in 1989, this study provides an informed and critical analysis of local partnerships between the private and public sectors in response to the unemployment problems. Until this book was published, there had been little objective analysis of the workings of the local partnership model with big business. This book assesses the contribution of local enterprise agencies, and how they related to other dimensions of policy responses to unemployment. An important element of the analysis is a number of local case studies of established partnerships in different parts of the United Kingdom. The book discusses the factors that lead to effective local response, in terms of organizational structures and networks and programmes of activity. It places local factors in a wider political and economic context in order to provide a realistic assessment of the motives and impact of policy actors.

Jeremy Richardson is an Emeritus Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He was previously Nuffield Professor of Comparative European Politics at Oxford. Prior to moving to Oxford had been Professor of Politics at Strathclyde, Warwick, and Essex Universities. His main interests are in the role of interest groups in the policy process, the policy change process, and the processes of European integration. He was the Founding Editor of the Journal of European Public Policy and is currently Co-Editor of the Journal. His recent publications include Policy-making Under Pressure. Rethinking the policy process in Aotearoa New Zealand (2021: Co-Edited with Sonia Mazey), and British Policy-making After Brexit (2023: Special Issue of the Journal of European Public Policy co-edited with Patrick Diamond). In 2011 he was the recipient of the European Union Studies Association award for Lifetime Achievement in European Studies.

Chris Moore was a Lecturer in the Department of Organization, Management and Employment Relations at the University of Strathclyde.

Jeremy Moon was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Government, University of Strathclyde.