Local agency for the public purpose? Dissecting and evaluating the emerging discourses of municipal entrepreneurship in the UK

Barnett, Neil; Griggs, Steven; Hall, Stephen; Howarth, David

Abstract

This article explores the contested politics and interpretations of the new practices of municipal entrepreneurship across local government in the UK. Drawing on empirical evidence from six case studies of entrepreneurship in local councils, descriptions of income-generating projects by officers in thirty authorities, and a series of semi-structured interviews, we identify, name and characterise an emergent discourse of municipal entrepreneurship for the public purpose. We argue that this novel strand of discourse within the wider field of urban entrepreneurialism confers a degree of political agency to local authorities under austerity, while redescribing and attaching commercialism and entrepreneurship to the public good. In so doing, we challenge overly reductionist accounts of local state agency under austerity, and articulate and evaluate the potentials and obstacles for a progressive interventionism in this discursive space.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 7, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Deposit Date: Nov 5, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2023
• Journal: Local Government Studies
• Print ISSN: 0300-3930
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-9388
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 907-928
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2021.1988935
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science; Development; Municipalism; entrepreneurship; commercialisation; austerity; discourselocal agency
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8046269
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=flgs20; Published: 2021-10-31