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In Europe, as in other developed regions of the world, formal protected areas (PA) are, almost by definition, conservation islands within a wider landscape of intensive farming, towns, industry and transport links. The recognised need for “more, bigger, better and joined” implies the need for complementary approaches. The purpose of this paper is to examine some innovative funding and delivery mechanisms in the UK and their strengths – and weaknesses – compared to the formal system of PA.

Building on recent research undertaken for the UK Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) the HLF landscape partnership (LP) programme is described and related to other area-based approaches including the Wildlife Trust’s Living Landscapes, the Futurescapes programme of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the UK government’s Nature Improvement Areas (NIA).

LPs represent an increasingly important vehicle for securing conservation of the natural and cultural heritage alongside the formal system of designated PA. Their reliance upon local initiative, community engagement and multi-agency participation presents significant advantages. The strength of the LP approach is that it is “bottom up” and in some ways opportunistic.

Non-tax funding of innovative approaches to landscape governance presents significant opportunity for natural and cultural heritage conservation, particularly in their capacity to mobilise local enthusiasm and support. However, it fits also with neo-liberal approaches which seek to transfer to the “third sector” responsibilities previously the province of local and national government.

This paper is one of a very limited number of studies of developed-country LPs. It widens the concept of “PA” beyond formal IUCN categories and indicates the potential for innovations in funding and governance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate public partners’ motives for seeking and/or accepting partnerships with third sector organisations.

The approach is to seek to identify and explain motives from different perspectives; as responses to government failure or voluntary failure, as related to governance structures, and/or as driven by resource dependencies. The empirical material was gathered through semi-structured interviews with public employees in Swedish municipalities. The aim of the interviews was to grasp the public partners’ motives for partnerships with third sector organisations. Each interview started with questions on the presence and forms of partnerships, thus creating a backdrop for the motives, both during the interview and as a map of the partnership landscape.

The most prominent motives for public engagement in partnerships with third sector organisations are related to democratic values, the need to solve concrete problems, and economic rationality. The motives vary with the type of partnership of which there is considerable variation in scale, content and contribution; the types of partnership vary with different policy fields and services. Different perspectives highlight different motives but none of them excludes other perspectives.

The main contribution of the paper is the empirically based findings of a multi-layered public–third sector partnership landscape where policy fields, forms and complex motives are intertwined.

This chapter will consider the spatial implications in disrupting hierarchies and shifting identities in the undergraduate environment and explore the extent to which space can act as an agent of change in this process. Drawing on research and empirical evidence, the chapter explores the link between the re-design of learning and the design of the physical space. As this chapter will illustrate, when the active learner is centrally positioned in the learning spaces of the future, space can support relational and dialogic learning experiences and promote learner agency and reflexive learner engagement in a way that has the potential to become a platform for transformative educational change. As educational spaces are re-conceptualised, recognising a fundamental shift has taken place in how, when and where we learn, it can be argued that space is acting as an ‘agent of change’ facilitating change in pedagogic practice, relationships and methods.

At the centre of recent reforms relating to Scottish teacher education is the report of a large-scale review, ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ (Donaldson, 2011). This chapter provides a critical overview of one aspect of the review, namely partnership. Two key agendas underpinned the 50 recommendations contained in the Donaldson Report: the development and strengthening of partnership between universities, local authorities and schools; and, the modernisation and ‘re-invigoration’ of teacher professionalism. In ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ it was argued that both of these are required for the development of ‘high quality’ teachers through initial teacher education. The report positioned teaching as an intellectual occupation, highlighting the complexity involved, making clear that teacher preparation should remain within the context of higher education.

Although the key messages from ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ received support from across the education sector, the extent to which they have been achieved in practice remains unclear. We will explore the extent to which this key text has been translated into current initial teacher education provision through results from the Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE) Project and the ways in which partnership was experienced in post-Donaldson working. Through this partnership working will be examined in Scotland. The chapter will conclude by considering where we are now, and some final thoughts will be presented about the role that ‘Teaching Scotland's Future’ can play in a changing partnership policy landscape.

This conceptual paper examines the need for viable theoretical models of international learning alliances in the light of cooperative games and complexity in two distinguished educational settings. Game theory is used to demonstrate the need for the top managerial executives to acquire a detailed understanding of decision makers' behaviours and trigger the deployment of complex analytical methods. The paper scrutinizes Russia's pursued aggressive approach using shock therapy, also suggest the critical need to reform policy.

Combining the critical analysis of (1) cooperative games and (2) adaptive systems structures, a dependable model is derived, which sets the baseline for determining the role of costs and gains. The analysis is supported using a real-world example of an alliance between British University (the X and Y alliance) and Russian University. It also emphasizes the importance of both internal and external pressure variables closely connected with the cooperative games, adaptive system and shock therapy.

Two features of alliances have been emphasized. The first is the importance of informal relationships in the evolution of partnerships and of cooperation. This is a well-known factor in the success of any relationship. Especially in international partnerships, empathy at the individual level is perhaps necessary to bypass the influence of historical and cultural differences that are barriers at the macro level, preconditions rather than consequences of successful policies and contractual arrangements at the level of organizations and governments. The second feature is interdependence at the cost–benefit level and in the domain of decisions. The cooperation of both partners is required to realize payoffs.

The implication of this paper is a guideline for regulators and policymakers designing worldwide alliances in higher education. In addition, this paper covers an interesting domain that could be of interest to organizations involved in forming strategic alliances, developing and re-engineering policies for strategic coalitions and setting future profitable payoff relationships within the contextual limitations of X and Y.

This paper creates new knowledge by concisely examining the meaning of strategic alliances in the context of the global education industry.

This paper aims to consider whether there is significant divergence between the Welsh and English approaches to partnership working.

The analysis reported stems from a research project, commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2002, which examined the extent and effectiveness of three‐sector partnerships. The findings from the Welsh study are contrasted with the findings of a number of studies of the modernisation agenda in English local government.

First there are increasing numbers of partnership programmes which are born and bred in Wales. Second, Wales has unitary local government and so it does not have the complexity of two‐tier structures which frustrate partnership working in the English shires. Third the Welsh polity is a small one with short and close vertical linkages between national and local actors. Fourth, the engagement with the private and voluntary sectors as political stakeholders is a higher political priority in Wales than the involvement of these sectors in service delivery. These differences mean that partnership has a rather different emphasis in Wales.

Although focused on Wales, the article raises greater questions about the purposes of partnership working. More work is needed, however, on the measurement of partnership performance.

The paper raises questions both about the rationale of partnership governance and about the institutional factors likely to influence success.

The paper contributes to the new research area of comparative patterns of UK governance.

The ever-changing educational landscape, exacerbated by recent events surrounding COVID, political and cultural unrest, necessitates educators who are antifragile, able to withstand pressures and thrive amidst uncertainty. To this end, the pilot study reported here aims to examine mathematics educators’ initial reflections on what it means to be a risk-taker in the classroom, what prevents them from engaging in instructional risks and what would support their instructional risk-taking.

The pilot study utilized interviews with participants, including four pre-service teachers who were enrolled at the university and seven in-service teachers who were employed on active PDS campuses within the school district.

Preliminary findings suggest teacher beliefs concerning risk-taking, the barriers to engaging in such behaviors and the support needed to be able to take instructional risks. Results highlight the role of school–university partnerships in cultivating a culture of risk-taking through active collaboration and dialogue.

These findings have important implications for universities and PDS partners engaged in preparing teachers for an educational field that is unpredictable and continually changing. Additional research should be completed in varying PDS settings.

Findings highlight the role of school–university partnerships in cultivating a culture of risk-taking through active collaboration and dialogue.

Educators are currently faced with an unprecedented instructional landscape. Antifragile, risk-taking teachers are needed who are adaptable and innovative, thus better equipped to enter the challenging and uncertain realities of education.

Strong home-school partnerships consistently and substantially benefit children’s academic and social development. Home-school partnerships are considerably affected by the settings in which they take place (e.g., rural, urban, suburban), the characteristics of the partners (e.g., parents and teachers), and their relationships with one another (parent-teacher partnerships). In rural communities, supportive home-school partnerships promote young children’s success but have proven difficult to implement. African American families with young children residing in rural communities experience unique social and institutional challenges and benefits that are particularly salient for fostering home-school partnerships. Thus, the landscape of rural communities is an important and essential consideration for understanding the intersection between race and home-school partnerships. This chapter focuses on the promise of positive home-school partnerships for rural African American children, their families, and their schools. Home-school partnership as an essential component of children’s academic and social development is defined, and sample home-school partnership intervention programs are described. Finally, existing policy investments related to the facilitation of home-school partnerships are explored and policy recommendations that promote such partnerships are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of social impact assessment (SIA) principles to evaluate the contribution of cultural heritage to social sustainability, supporting both a people-centered and socially responsible approach to heritage management.

Specifically, the paper explores SIA as a methodological tool for post-project evaluation, used to define projects’ contributions to aspects of social sustainability through analyzing impacts of participation in a rural context case study, that of the Scapa Flow landscape heritage scheme in Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK.

Based on research findings from the thematic analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews on impacts (with heritage managers, planners and participants in the scheme), the paper proposes a combination of heritage value assessment process with social impact identification to achieve a context-relevant assessment of social sustainability. Existing research around social capital and sense of place supports the analysis of relevant impacts and heritage values. Findings support overlaps between socio-environmental impacts, when looking at the role of heritage for community well-being in rural contexts.

The qualitative approach allows for a context-relevant, bottom up impact assessment and allows for multiple stakeholders perceptions to be included.

The proposed methodological approach has greater implications for the work of institutions and professionals involved in project evaluations that can inform participatory heritage project planning, ensuring high social relevance.

Application of SIA principles in heritage sector can increase social benefits of heritage projects and enable wider community participation in processes of heritage management.

Through this case study, the effectiveness of SIA principles when applied in cultural heritage project evaluation is discussed, reflecting on a novel methodology for impact assessment in heritage.