Presentation to the AESOP Annual Conference
Utrecht, 9-12 July 2014
Place-based leadership – a new
approach to justice in planning?
Robin Hambleton
Professor of City Leadership, University of the West of England,
Bristol and Director of Urban Answers
www.urbananswers.co.uk
Place-based leadership – a new approach
to justice in planning?
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
• Reflections on the New Civic Leadership
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
A story about chocolate bars… if there is time
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 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 urban studies 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:
Reflections on the New Civic
Leadership
Issues for consideration/discussion
• Place-based power – is it a useful idea?
• Framing placed-power – do the four forces work?
• Realms of place-based leadership – five realms?
• Innovation Zones – from improvement to co-creation of
alternatives
• Planning theory and education – leadership (both theory and
practice) has been seriously neglected by planning scholars and
this weakens the contributions they are able to make
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