Talking Business : An Actor-Centred Analysis of Business Agendas for Local Economic Development

Recent scholarship on local governance in Britain has examined the power of the business elite, while remaining insensitive to the role of businesspeople (the actors) and their representative organizations. The study is focused on how new political knowledge and identities are constructed by the local actors, aiming at developing a more actor-centered approach to the role of business interests in urban management. The empirical materials are drawn from a study of the construction of business identities in three economically disadvantaged English towns: Accrington (Lancashire), Barnsley (South Yorkshire), and Mansfield (Nottinghamshire). In depth interviews were conducted with 34 business people as well as 20 interviews with representatives of local business organizations, public-private partnerships, and local and central government. These areas were chosen in order to move away from dominant concerns with larger metropolitan centers. Both documents and interview transcripts were used, along with concepts from social movement theory, to examine the institutional structure of the three case-study towns. It was found that the central government plays a critical part in the formation of such structures; central government-inspired requirements for business involvement were too weak to inspire active business participation. The results also indicated that in Accrington there was very limited experience of partnership-working, few large local companies, and business organizations that operated at a larger geographical scale. In Barnsley, business developed, while in Mansfield, a rapid-changing organizational context for business representation failed to define a clear business agenda. It is concluded that business participation in local governance has not yet become business leadership; collectively, businesses have not raised the challenge set by the central government, and have favored involvement rather than primacy in partnership structures.(CBS)