Developing a power perspective on public service contracting: evidence from Scotland’s homelessness sector

Power dynamics in cross-sector partnerships remain underexplored, despite well-recognized power disparities between partners. Responding to calls for greater attention to power, this study uses Scotland’s homelessness sector as an empirical setting to develop a power perspective on public service contracting. Drawing on Lukes’ three-dimensional framework, it shows how decision-making, non-decision-making, and ideological power are exercised through contracting arrangements and how these dynamics shape non-profit strategies and operations. The study advances public service contracting theory by reconceptualizing contracting not merely as a technical instrument for service delivery but as a governance system that institutionalizes and reinforces power asymmetries.