This research study is about partnership working in the human services using community mental health as a context. The purpose of this type of research has relevance today as governments at all levels in Australia are adopting partnerships as social policy tools to address social problems. The rationale for these policies appears to be based on recognition that large social problems require holistic responses through the working together of multiple agencies. However despite the volumes of material about the programmatic means for enacting partnerships I found little which attended to the micro practices of partnership. The lack of guidelines on how to engage in partnership becomes problematic as partnerships in social service contexts have complexities and can be difficult to enact. Moreover actors may feel undermined when it is taken for granted that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to enact partnerships. A case study is conducted on how partnerships are enacted within Bethany Outreach Services, a pseudonym used to represent a psychosocial support service in the Perth metropolitan area. Semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with seven participants engaged in a partnership within community mental health. The literature is analysed for its contribution to the critical question of how to “do” partnership. Case examples are utilised to contextualise key principles of partnership. Key elements of theoretical perspectives are applied as a way to better understand how partnerships might work better. Narratives from the literature and the experiences of people as seen through this case study are examined to arrive at some key elements of partnership. Despite their complexities partnerships provide an opportunity for actors to engage their humanity and build relationships based on human qualities such as respect, communication and the sharing of resources. These qualities build social capital, which can be developed in new partnership contexts to address new problem domains. It is through these qualities that partnerships might give meaning to the 'Human' in Human Services.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-332) Concerned with the utility of the concept of social exclusion in Australian housing and urban policy. The question is explored through comparative analysis of the inclusionary strategies that comprise Australian housing authorities' "whole of government" approaches to estate regeneration, on six case study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-332) / x, 332 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Concerned with the utility of the concept of social exclusion in Australian housing and urban policy. The question is explored through comparative analysis of the inclusionary strategies that comprise Australian housing authorities' "whole of government" approaches to estate regeneration, on six case study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001

Australia, like other Western liberal democracies, has undergone extensive social policy restructuring as a result of neoliberalism. While neoliberalism had its genesis with Australian Labor governments during the 1980s, it secured the status of orthodoxy under the radical conservatism of the Liberal Coalition government (1996 - 2007). Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard a widespread campaign was instigated to advance neoliberal social policy measures across all spheres of social life, leading to the dismantling of rights for a diverse range of social groups including women, refugees, people with disabilities and Indigenous Australians. The restructuring of social provisioning with the intensification of neoliberalism was largely driven by workfare – a key domestic social project of neoliberal global restructuring. The thesis examines the Australian experience of workfare and the primary areas of contestation and struggle that emerged in this environment for the Australian Disability Movement during the peak period of workfare restructuring for 'disability' (1996 – 2005). The thesis draws on the work of critical disability theory to discuss the bivalent social collective identity of disability as it cuts through the politics of recognition and the politics of distribution. From here, the thesis engages with sociological work on emotions, bringing together theories of disgust and disability. The thesis demonstrates that there is a synergy between disability and disgust that informs the moral economy of disability; framing, shaping and articulating able-bodied – disabled relations. Drawing on the policy process method the research involved extensive qualitative interviews with members of the Australian Disability Movement, disabled people involved in workfare programs, service providers and their peak organisations, families, as well as the policy elite charged with the responsibility of disability workfare restructuring. Additionally, the study incorporated a range of documents including parliamentary Hansards, key policy texts, government media releases, and publicly available information from disability specialist services and the disability movement. The analytical centrality of policy processes highlighted the strategic interrelationship between macro-structural policy discourses and practices and the role of policy actors as agents, including those collective agents engaged in mediating disability social relations. Three dominant themes emerged from the analysis of the data: movement politics, representation and participation; emotions and processes of moralisation; and finally, the role of temporality in inscribing (disabled) bodies with value. Each of the findings chapters is dedicated to explicating these mechanisms and the effects of these discourses and practices on disabled people involved in workfare programs and the disability movement's struggles for respect, recognition and social justice.