Place, power and leadership: Insights from mayoral governance and leadership innovation in Bristol, UK

This article aims to enhance understanding of the role of place in urban leadership by examining the way leadership changed significantly following the introduction of mayoral governance into a UK city. In 2012, 10 cities in England held referendums to decide whether to introduce a directly elected mayor model of leadership. Bristol was the only city to vote in favour of this radical change, and the Bristol Civic Leadership Project, set up before the first mayor was elected in November 2012, was designed to discover what differences the directly elected mayor model might make to the leadership and governance of a city. This article addresses two important questions: (1) Does the institutional design of local governance in a place influence leadership effectiveness? (2) How, if at all, do the leadership styles of the individual elected as mayor affect the quality of place-based governance? The article identifies three main reasons why place is important in public policy – expression of identity, strengthening democracy and enhancing governmental effectiveness – and considers how the leadership innovations in Bristol engage with these three dimensions of place. As well as presenting evidence documenting how bold civic leadership has transformed the governance of a particular British city, the article contributes to leadership studies by exploring the relationships between place, power and leadership.

Conceptualising ‘generative power’: Evidence from the city-regions of England

Literature on sub-national governance and leadership has frequently suggested that elected leaders can use influence and facilitation skills alongside coercive power, legal responsibilities and resources to achieve policy outcomes. This article investigates the degree to which influence, networking and leadership – or ‘generative power’ – can themselves extend a sub-national body’s ‘capacity to govern’. It uses empirical data from the activities of the six ‘metro-mayors’ elected in England in 2017 to explore whether new institutions, faced with tight limits on policy divergence and institutional and financial resources, seek to transcend these via generative power, and whether the types of generative power used are in line with the previous literature. Findings indicate that many of the previous patterns of generative power are followed in the English case, but also that generative power has not dominated the metro-mayors’ early priorities. Their focus on the distribution of funds suggests that they may develop into ‘grant coalitions’, maximising funds from central government in place of developing a distinct local strategy. The article contributes to the literatures on urban leadership and sub-national governance, and also has implications for jurisdictional design.

The Urban Sustainability Index in Urban Aglomeration

The regional autonomy positively impacts regional development in terms of competitiveness. Each area tries to have advantage from other areas. One of the parameters of city competitiveness is the concept of sustainable cities. This study aims to identify cities based on sustainable urban development indices in six urban agglomeration area of Semarang: Semarang city, Semarang regency, Kendal regency, Grobogan regency, Demak regency and Salatiga city. Methods of data collection with questionnaires, interviews and documentation. Respondents in this study were the general public, policy makers, and academics. The results showed, based on the sustainable urban development index of the Sustainable Urban Development Indonesia Forum, six districts in urban agglomeration area of Semarang are categorized as less sustainable in 2016. The regencies in the urban agglomeration areas of Semarang indicate the index result of 103,00 - 127,83. The average contribution of the urban leadership, the urban governance, the urbanization and population, the housing and settlements variables are high, while the disaster risk and the climate change, the waterfront areas, the mass transportation, the local economy and informal sector, the preservation of cultural Heritage, the natural heritage and the local Wisdom, the green Open Spaces, the emissions and energy variable are still low.

Epilogue: Echoes of a Civil War

The war in Yemen that began in 2014 between northern tribes and the exiled republic is the bookend to six decades of conflict that began in 1962. The Houthi northern tribal alliance is a modern reincarnation of the royalists who had supported Imam al-Badr during the 1960s. The Houthis see themselves as rectifying the unjust political settlements left over from the Yemen Civil War. The current conflict reached a turning point with a tribal conquest of Sana’a, reminiscent of 1968, aimed at overthrowing the post-revolutionary generation of urban leadership and its republican government in decline. In a demonstration of history repeating itself, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the ICRC, the UN, and large groups of mercenaries returned to Yemen for another round of unwinnable interventions that closely resemble the original conflict.

Directly elected mayors: a route to progressive urban leadership?

Directly elected mayors are on the rise internationally. Enthusiasts for this form of local political leadership claim that it can provide visible, strategic, accountable leadership for cities. Opponents argue that the model concentrates too much power in the hands of one individual, and that it can result in local government decision-making being skewed to serve powerful economic interests. This chapter offers a contribution to this debate. An opening section outlines a way of conceptualising the political space available to place-based leaders. It is then suggested that, in any given locality, there are likely to be different realms of leadership, with players from inside and outside the state making a significant contribution to urban policy making. Three examples of bold and progressive mayoral leadership are then presented in the form of three short cameos: Greater London, UK (in the period 2000-08), Portland, Oregon, USA; and Freiburg, Germany. The comparative discussion of mayoral leadership that follows is structured around three themes: the role of directly elected mayors in expanding place-based power; connecting the realms of place-based leadership and bringing progressive values back into city politics.