Rethinking scale in public administration: Scalecraft and frontline work in England's localism agenda

Abstract

This article reviews how scale concepts feature in governance studies and demonstrates that scales are overwhelmingly used descriptively. Questioning the meaning of scales has been considered peripheral to pursuing the aims of public administration studies, and the article calls for this to change by conceptualizing scale as a political concept. Focusing on the localism agenda reflected in England's ‘academy schools policy’, the article empirically demonstrates the political nature of scale by identifying how ‘the local’ functions as a powerful political discourse. Analysis shows scales being used strategically by frontline workers, exposing scale as a malleable concept for resisting or supporting political agendas—a practice which is called ‘scalecraft’. Revealing contrasting meanings of the local enables analysis to suggest how and why localism has been met with contrasting degrees of controversy. The article suggests how this new approach to scale can be integrated in future studies of governance and frontline work.

Working towards health equity for ethnic minority elders: spanning the boundaries of neighbourhood governance

“…However, it has been strongly criticised by researchers concerned with social justice. Levitas (2012), Papanastasiou (2017) and Andreotti et al (2012) find localism unjust since it moves the responsibility for health inequalities from the state to local authorities, who have limited ability to tackle underlying structural inequalities. In the Netherlands, the risk that neighbourhood governance will increase inequality is compounded by the fact that localism has been coupled with austerity measures in the last decade, similarly to the UK (Bailey and Pill, 2011; Janssen et al , 2016).…”