Presentation to the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference
Oxford Brookes University, 9-11 September 2014
Inclusive place-based leadership:
moving beyond neo-liberalism
Robin Hambleton
Professor of City Leadership, Centre for Sustainable Planning and
Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol and Director of
Urban Answers
www.urbananswers.co.uk
Inclusive place-based leadership: moving
beyond neo-liberalism
A presentation in five parts:
• Prelude: Leading the Inclusive City
• Place-less power and place-based power
• Framing the power of place
• The New Civic Leadership
• Implications for planning research
Part 1:
Prelude: Leading the inclusive city
Leading the inclusive city
A new book to be published by
Policy Press (University of
Bristol) in November 2014
Tackling injustice – the central challenge
for public leadership
Leading the Inclusive City is a values-driven book
The definition of the inclusive city used in the book is as follows:
‘The inclusive city is governed by powerful, place-based
democratic institutions. All residents are able to participate fully in
the society and the economy, and civic leaders strive for just
results while caring for the natural environment on which we all
depend’
Utopian, yes. But it is ‘realistic utopianism’ to use Susan
Fainstein’s phrase (The Just City Fainstein 2010 p 20)
Innovation Stories in Leading the
Inclusive City
There are seventeen Innovation Stories in Leading the Inclusive City:
1) New York City
2) Bristol
3) Chicago
4) Swindon
5) Enschede
6) Langrug
7) Auckland
8) Malmo
9) Curitiba
10) Guangzhou
11) Freiburg
12) Copenhagen
13) Melbourne
14) Hamamatsu
15) Toronto
16) Portland
17) Ahmedabad
Part 2:
Place-less power and place
based power
Place-less power in a global era
Globalisation has resulted in a spectacular growth in place-less power in
the last thirty years…
Place-less decision makers disregard the consequences of their
decisions for particular places. This has devastating consequences for
people living in particular places
Neo-liberalism involves granting place-less decision makers
unprecedented power
Place-based decision makers have a commitment to improving the
quality of life of communities living in ‘their’ place
This highlights a distinction between different kinds of private sector
organisations: the predators and the producers
Where are the feelings?
Urban and regional development has neglected how people feel about
‘their place’ – the dominance of economic perspectives has obscured the
importance of a key dimension in public policy
Michael Sandel (2012) has argued that we have drifted ‘from having a
market economy to being a market society’
Sandel argues, correctly, that there are moral limits to markets
Emotions, feelings, identity, attachment, solidarity – these are key
elements in urban experience and they are centre-stage in place-based
leadership
They should receive more attention in planning research if injustice in the
modern city is to be addressed
Part 3:
Framing the power of place
Framing the power of place
Part 4:
The New Civic Leadership
Defining leadership in new ways
•
The origins of leadership theory are military
•
Early dominance of ‘command and control’ thinking – the ‘city boss’
•
Moves towards ‘facilitative’ leadership have grown
•
Understanding how to lead when you are not in control is now critical for
civic leadership and for urban planning
•
My definition of leadership:
Shaping emotions and behaviour to achieve common goals
Source: Hambleton R. (2007) in Governing Cities in a Global Era Palgrave. p174
Realms of place-based leadership and
Innovation Zones
Place-based leadership in context
A process model of civic leadership
Part 5:
Implications for planning
research
Issues for consideration/discussion
• Place-based power – is it a useful idea? And do the four forces
framing place-based agency make sense?
• There are five realms of place-based leadership – plausible?
• Innovation Zones connecting the realms – from improvement to
co-creation of alternatives. Planners as orchestrators of
innovation?
• Planning theory and education – leadership (both theory and
practice) has been seriously neglected (read ignored) by
planning scholars. Why is this?
• Can public leadership be given more attention in future planning
research? I hope so
Some sources…
Balducci A. and Mantysalo R. (eds) (2013) Urban Planning as a Trading Zone.
New York: Springer
Hambleton R. (2015) Leading the Inclusive City. Place-based innovation for a
bounded planet. Bristol: The Policy Press
Keohane N. O. (2010) Thinking about leadership. Princeton NJ: Princeton
University Press
Sandel M. (2012) What Money Can’t Buy. London: Allen Lane
Thank you for your attention!
More international examples and further analysis of leadership themes:
www.urbananswers.co.uk