Role of social partnership in urban development and mechanisms of its formation

The article presents various theoretical approaches to understanding the essence of “social partnership” and “corporatism”. The evolution of the concept of “corporatism” allowed us to define an approach to modern “social partnership”, which is based on the idea of tripartism - a system of a three-way inter-sectoral interaction. The authors put forward and support a hypothesis that it is possible to ensure accelerated sustainable development of towns and other municipalities and the implementation of its strategies on the basis of social partnership between government, business, and residents. Socially significant projects are the most efficient forms of the organization of social partnership in a town. Such projects have a positive impact on the dynamics of a town’s socio-economic indicators, psychological climate, social well-being of residents, and business community. The essence of social partnership is the creation of a stable social relationship, when authorities, businesses, and residents, on the basis of a jointly adopted development strategy and organized dialogue, combine efforts and resources and, in the course of developing and implementing joint projects, solve town’s existing problems together. The level of trust between urban stakeholders increases. It significantly reduces all risks of institutional interaction and increases the efficiency. During the implementation of socially significant projects, developed for the urban development strategy that clearly defines vectors of the desired future, a main unifying goal should include the formation of people’s sense of responsibility for their town, their confidence that they can do what they need, a feeling that they are needed, and understanding that the future of a particular territory and future generations, who will live there, depends on them.