From public-private partnership to infrastructure governance: meaningful change in narrative - or rhetorical sidestep?

This chapter explores if there has been a shift in the narrative from PPPs to infrastructure governance, and what consequences such a changed narrative might have for practice and research. Twenty years ago, Stephen Linder (1999) considered the ‘multiple meanings’ of PPPs and saw this as superseding earlier conceptions of privatization. Perhaps we are currently also in a time when another transition period is occurring and where a broader term is about to supersede PPP? The chapter explores the concepts of ‘governance’ and ‘infrastructure’ and then ‘infrastructure governance (IFG)’, and points to four meanings of infrastructure governance. We suggest that IFG can be interpreted as: a more decentred approach; as a different way to approach the reform and change agenda; as underlining the hybrid nature of the field of infrastructure; and as focusing on the need for an interdisciplinary approach. It is concluded finally that the phrase ‘infrastructure governance’ will no doubt continue to have both a strong linguistic function as well as a potentially useful structural function when it is applied to the world of PPPs.