Increasing attention has been given to the role of leadership as an important determinant of growth at the regional or local scale (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), [2010]. Regions matter. Paris: OECD, [2012]. Growth in all regions. Paris: OECD). Scholarship on the leadership of places, however, remains an underdeveloped field, with much research either overly reliant upon perspectives drawn from management disciplines or limited to case study analysis of 'success' stories. While there have been significant exceptions (Stimson, Stough, with Salazar, [2009]. Leadership and institutions in regional endogenous development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar), too little attention has been paid to developing a systematic approach to understanding place leadership. This paper reviews the literature on the leadership of places and argues there is now a sufficient body of scholarship to enable the development of more analytically rigorous approaches. It also posits that effective leadership is now more important for the success of places than in the past and that contemporary growth dynamics are likely to raise its significance further. The paper argues that governments and communities alike can encourage the development of local leadership and that the steps needed to achieve this objective are already well known.

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Crude comparisons between people with and without disabilities obscure how disadvantage is patterned according to impairment type and gender. The results emphasize the need to unpack how gender and disability intersect to shape socio-economic disadvantage.

This paper examines the leadership of placescities, regions, communitiesin Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom and explores the capacity of vignettes to generate new, theoretical and empirical insights. It uses vignettes to identify the features of place leadership evident in 12 case studies across six nations. The research finds significant commonalities in place leadership with respect to the importance attached to boundary spanning, the role of government officials in responding to the prospect of regional decline or growth and how the nature of the challenge confronting a locality determines the adequacy of the response.

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Making sense of leadership in urban and regional development. Regional Studies. This editorial paves the way for the articles addressing several contemporary sub-national leadership experiences in England, and Sweden. It introduces place leadership as a mode of reflexive agency in urban and regional development, and discusses the value as well as the difficulties and limitations of studying it. Place leadership has the potential to provide an additional 'agential' lens through which issues and relationships of structure and agency can be explored in urban and regional development. KEYWORDS place; leadership; region; city; development 摘要 理解城市与区域发展的领导。Regional Studies. 本编辑评论为处理英格兰，澳大利亚，芬兰，中国，荷兰，挪威，爱 沙尼亚，丹麦与瑞典中的若干当代次国家层级领导经验的文章铺路。本评论引介地方领导，作为城市与区域发展中 具反思性的行动模式，并探讨研究地方领导的价值，困难与限制。地方领导具有潜力提供额外的'行动'视角，以此探 索城市与区域发展中的结构和行动者之议题与两者之关係。 关键词 地方; 领导; 区域; 城市; 发展 RÉSUMÉComprendre le leadership dans l'aménagement du territoire. Regional Studies. Cet éditorial ouvre la voie aux articles qui abordent de nombreuses expériences récentes en leadership au niveau infranational en Angleterre, en Australie, en Finlande, en Chine, aux Pays-Bas, en Norvège, en Estonie, au Danemark et en Suède. On présente ici la notion du leadership de l'espace territorial (place leadership) comme moyen d'entremise réflexive dans l'aménagement du territoire, et discute de la valeur ainsi que des difficultés et des limites qui se posent quand on l'étudie. La notion du leadership de l'espace territorial permet potentiellement d'examiner dans un optique supplémentaire 'd'entremise' les questions et les rapports de structure et d'entremise dans l'aménagement du territoire. MOTS-CLÉSespace territorial; leadership; région; grande ville; développement ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Der Ortsführung in der Stadt-und Regionalentwicklung Sinn verleihen. Regional Studies. Dieser Leitartikel bereitet den Weg für Artikel, in denen verschiedene aktuelle Erfahrungen mit subnationaler Führung in England, Australien, Finnland, China, den Niederlanden, Norwegen, Estland, Dänemark und Schweden erörtert werden. Die Ortsführung wird als Modus der reflexiven Wirkmächtigkeit in der Stadt-und Regionalentwicklung eingeführt; ebenso werden der Nutzen sowie die Schwierigkeiten und Grenzen einer Untersuchung dieses Themas erörtert. Ortsführung bietet das Potenzial eines

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.

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