The role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions

Abstract

This paper examines the role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions. Extant research on resilience has examined 'economic' factors. This paper adds to the academic discourse by considering how effective leadership shapes economic development within sub-national economies. Through a case study of the Sheffield City Region, UK, the paper considers the role of civic leadership in enabling Local Enterprise Partnerships to work collaboratively to foster resilience. The paper finds that while civic leadership is emergent in the Sheffield City Region, it holds potential to foster economic resilience by bringing together the public, private and third sectors to develop locally-informed strategies. The paper concludes with implications for governance issues in City Regions and how the challenges and impacts of civic leadership may be assessed over time.

Facilitating spaces for place-based leadership in centralized governance systems: the case of Newcastle City Futures

“…In turn, the complexity of these multi-partner governance arrangements requires mobilization and coordination through PBL (Beer & Clower, 2014). The reciprocal quality of this relationship is such that some have explicitly defined concepts of place leadership as a capacity for collective governance (Bentley et al, 2017;Brooks et al, 2016).…”

“…Most pressingly, cities outside of London and the Greater South East of England face development challenges that have only deepened since the 2008 financial crisis (Hall, 2014;McCann, 2016). Recent studies have emphasized that for these places to adapt to an environment of heightened global competition, there is a need for effective leadership that can articulate a clear vision for economic restructuring and social renewal (Bailey, Bellandi, Caloffi, & De Propris, 2010;Brooks, Vorley, & Williams, 2016;Rossiter & Smith, 2017). However, a comparative weakness of regional and local government in the highly centralized UK state (particularly in England), compounded over the past decade by substantial austerity measures, means that this need for strong sub-national leadership is often not met by conventional actors (Bentley, Pugalis, & Shutt, 2017).…”

Regional Economic and Social Resilience: An Exploratory In-Depth Study in the Nordic Countries

“…To study resilience, governance bodies and their roles can be of further interest, as they function as connectors between the different actors and as facilitators of communication between, for example, firms, labour force, consumers and interest groups (Bristow & Healy, 2014;Brooks et al, 2015).…”

“…In studying resilience, it is not sufficient to study traditional economic factors, and there is a need for studies in governance and leadership to understand what makes certain regions resilient (Brooks et al, 2015). According to the OECD, which identifies governance as one of the four areas that drive resilience, resilience is promoted by clear leadership and management, strategic and integrated approaches, public sector skills, and open and transparent governments (OECD, 2016).…”

The Acceleration of Urban Sustainability Transitions: A Comparison of Brighton, Budapest, Dresden, Genk, and Stockholm

“…Partnering is the pooling and/or complementing of resources, competences, and capacities of local TIs to exploit synergies to support and ensure the continuity of the new ways of doing, organizing, and thinking. Partnering describes the ways TIs seek synergies and leverage resources [2,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] that also allows collective learning [26][27][28][29].…”