Public–Private Partnership: A Delusion for Urban Regeneration? Evidence from Italy

Abstract

Public–private partnership (PPP) is currently sought by scholars and policy-makers as a tool for overcoming the financial crisis of the State and low performance in public administration. Also, it is deemed as an opportunity to bring added value to projects and their contents in order to meet new, emerging social demands. Despite the growing attention paid to PPPs, international literature has been questioning their actual effectiveness and viability. PPPs suffer indeed from a lack of strategy-making and dynamism in public sector organizations: public action geared towards private business cooperation requires advanced accounting, management and steering skills that cannot be easily developed. Such issues match with the latest developments in the field of urban regeneration and represent a major stake for local governments. On the basis of empirical evidence from Italian urban regeneration projects, the paper highlights an actual paradox for urban policies. Even when favourable conditions for project management are met in the public sector, PPPs seem either unable to deliver innovative solutions or secure an actual, long-term engagement of private and public resources.