The Fall and Rise of the Local Community: A Comparative and Historical Perspective

Abstract

In pursuing an historical and comparative approach, the article aims at exploring the relation between local government and 'local community'. For comparative purposes, the paper draws primarily on the UK/England, Germany and Sweden as pertinent examples. The explicitly historical approach of the article promises to recognise (and perhaps even rediscover) the distinct and, at the same time, symbiotic and dialectic development and relation which have existed between local government and local community throughout their evolution-from the 'founding period' of modern local government during the 19th century, through its development under the (centralised) welfare state in the (mid) 20th century, to the present-day. The historically educated perception should be helpful to identify and assess the dynamics and perspective of the recent 'rise' of the local (political, social and economic) community and its impact on redefining and recalibrating the relation and balance between local government and what, in the current social science debate, is called 'governance'—with the 're-emerging' local community and its manifold political, social and economic actors becoming part-and-parcel of the expanding and multiplying networks of (non-public) actors that are captured under the term and concept 'governance'.

Unpacking the Formation of Favourable Environments for Urban Experimentation: The Case of the Bristol Energy Scene

“…The period from the 1970s to 2015 covers drastic changes in the governance arrangements imposed on UK cities. It is not surprising that developments in Bristol were affected, and that the passage between settlements was coupled with governance changes initiated from Westminster, given how little discretion has traditionally been afforded to English local authorities [81,92]. However, rather than a linear process of imposing new changes from above, the case study demonstrates that it accommodating or resisting these developments at the local level were also crucial.…”

“…[91], underpinned by a commitment to a 'third-way' politics between the 'old welfare state' and the neoliberal lean state. This returned some strategic control over service provision to local governments, albeit with a redefined role: the local government was to exert informal influence, convening, coordinating, and acting as 'chief networker' in facilitating service improvements through local strategic partnerships [92]. One such partnership was established in Bristol, building on the Local Agenda 21 (LA21), and helped embed climate change in the local political agenda.…”

Industrial welfare and the state: nation and city reconsidered

“…Various aspects of territorial community were more congruent with government before the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Wollmann 2006). 5 Local self-governments in medieval England and Sweden were closely aligned with rural communities where full-scale feudalism was less common.…”

Local Public Services in Italy: Still Fragmentation

“…21.2 above), during the nineteenth century, provision of basic personal social services and aid for those in need was largely left, in what was effectively a pre-welfare state era, to churchaffi liated charities, bourgeois philanthropists, workers' self-help cooperatives and so on, in other words, to the social community (for the historical distinction between the political and the social community , see Wollmann 2006 ). One might point to the recent ascent and re-engagement of societal and civil players, and new insistence that individuals and their families should take primary responsibility for coping with socio-economic needs as a re-emergence of the nineteenth century, pre-welfare state social community.…”

“…At the same time, personal social services, such as care for the elderly and frail, were left largely to the 'social community' made up of philanthropists, charitable non-for-profi t organisations, workers' cooperatives, societal self-help groups and the like (for the distinction between 'political' and 'social community', see Wollmann 2006 ).…”