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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -There are two connected purposes: to reflect on the widespread current use and abuse of the term "public-private partnership", and to present a case study of an unusual joint venture associating a public and a private enterprise in delivering a multi-utility service in the Canberra region of Australia. Design/methodology/approach -The article combines the case study method with a review of relevant discourse about PPPs.Findings -On the case study evidence presented, the article concludes that this joint venture comes much closer to being a genuine public-private partnership than many arrangements loosely described as PPPs today. Practical implications -The article invites the practitioner/academic community to think more precisely about the factors that need to be considered before it is appropriate to claim that a PPP exists. Originality/value -The joint venture that is the subject of this case study has not previously been analysed in this way. The article suggests that it has value in serving as a model for the development of better thinking about PPPs.

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A key theme of recent reforms in public management in various countries is the perceived need for many organizations in government to have a degree of legal and operational autonomy. In studying this and other aspects of the reforms, there is considerable merit in examining how the underlying ideas have been explored in earlier works. In this article, we argue that this is particularly relevant to the current interest in organizational autonomy. Pertinent ideas, issues and concerns were addressed several decades ago by scholars such as Macmahon, Seidman, Selznick and Follett. The contributions of these scholars have continuing analytical value and deserve to be revisited.

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