PurposeThis paper aims to present some of the key obstacles and general conditions which shape regional cooperation between municipalities of Poland's third largest agglomeration of Gdańsk, also called Tri‐City.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the role of leadership in organizations representing business interests, and the competing and conflicting perspectives on the “right” scale to do so – local and/or regional, drawing on participatory insights into the relevant processes.FindingsIt is found that economic competition and post‐1990 neo‐liberal governance practices enhance the isolationism and rivalry between localities within the agglomeration. Any public claims to “cooperation” are mainly limited to the practicalities of public transportation. Individual actors and their personalities and policy‐making abilities play a key part in any collaborative agenda, often pushed by EU funding conditions that require institutional collaboration.Originality/valueThe obstacles to, and mechanisms of, city‐regional governance are very topical. The contribution of this paper is timely and offers a rare insight into the competing ambitions and “visions” in local public administration after the end of communist‐era top‐down government.
The process of metropolitanisation of the Gdańsk area is facilitated by public discourse involving local and regional politicians, media, and inhabitants. The discussion is based upon historical narrations, but also local ambitions, hopes and emotions, as well as infrastructural projects and investment attractiveness. Foucault suggests that modern power is a dispersed set of micro-practices, many of which operate through the normalising gaze of surveillance regimes. Gdańsk metropolitan cooperation, competition and encounters make the core of the paper; local and regional unifying initiatives and processes are accompanied by examples of separatism, identity conflicts, and political disagreements
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