Joining Forces in Urban Restructuring: Dealing with Collaborative Ideals and Role Conflicts in Breda, the Netherlands

Abstract

Cooperation within urban restructuring processes is now a normal course of events in Western countries. Local government works together with other parties to reach the set goals of urban restructuring in targeted urban areas. Partnerships are formed and forces joined. Most parties involved consider cooperation in urban restructuring necessary; it is not, however, an easy process. Theoretical ideas and ideals about policy networks and governance are difficult to put into practice. We critically evaluate cooperation in the urban restructuring process in the city of Breda, the Netherlands. The findings indicate that the ideals of network theory are still far removed from practice, owing to role conflicts between neoliberal ‘new’ managerialism and interorganizational networking on the one hand and role conflicts between and within the hybrid organizations of the privatized housing associations on the other.