IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v30y1998i12p2121-2132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Illusions of Power: Interviewing Local Elites

Author

Listed:
  • A Cochrane

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, England)

Abstract

It has always been difficult to explore local power structures, and local politics (or local political economies) have often been reinterpreted in ways in which they are simply seen as the working out of wider national or global processes. The recognition that this is not enough has encouraged a growth in more locally focused research, frequently involving extensive interviewing of members of local business and political elites. Two key sets of questions arise from this sort of research. The first concerns the relationships between researcher and researched which are constructed by the research process itself. Is it possible to maintain an attitude of critical engagement? How is the research agenda constructed through negotiation between the participants? Who has power within the research process? The second involves a more serious issue for this form of research: namely, is it really possible to identify and explore power through interviews, however carefully constructed they are? What about the dimensions of power that are inaccessible to interviewers? This question has bedevilled community-power and pluralist research in the USA and the United Kingdom, and has never been adequately resolved. Do we now have the means to resolve it? The author explores both of these sets of questions with the help of evidence from a range of research projects in which he has been actively involved. The conclusion suggests productive approaches to the researching of local elites, identifying opportunities as well as constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • A Cochrane, 1998. "Illusions of Power: Interviewing Local Elites," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(12), pages 2121-2132, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:30:y:1998:i:12:p:2121-2132
    DOI: 10.1068/a302121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a302121
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a302121?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allan Cochrane & Jamie Peck & Adam Tickell, 1996. "Manchester Plays Games: Exploring the Local Politics of Globalisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1319-1336, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suau-Sanchez, Pere & Pallares-Barbera, Montserrat & Paül, Valerià, 2011. "Incorporating annoyance in airport environmental policy: noise, societal response and community participation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 275-284.
    2. Welch, Catherine & Marschan-Piekkari, Rebecca & Penttinen, Heli & Tahvanainen, Marja, 2002. "Corporate elites as informants in qualitative international business research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 611-628, October.
    3. Ow Yong, Lai Meng & Cameron, Ailsa, 2019. "Learning from elsewhere: Integrated care development in Singapore," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(4), pages 393-402.
    4. Thomas, Rhodri, 2012. "Business elites, universities and knowledge transfer in tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 553-561.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Georgina Blakeley, 2010. "Governing Ourselves: Citizen Participation and Governance in Barcelona and Manchester," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 130-145, March.
    2. Kevin G Ward, 2000. "State Licence, Local Settlements, and the Politics of ‘Branding’ the City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 285-300, June.
    3. John Allen & Allan Cochrane, 2014. "The Urban Unbound: London's Politics and the 2012 Olympic Games," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1609-1624, September.
    4. Mark Davidson & Donald McNeill, 2012. "The Redevelopment of Olympic Sites: Examining the Legacy of Sydney Olympic Park," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1625-1641, June.
    5. Büch, Martin-Peter & Maennig, Wolfgang & Schulke, Hans-Jürgen (ed.), 2012. "Zur Ökonomik von Spitzenleistungen im internationalen Sport," Edition HWWI, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), volume 3, number 3.
    6. Matthias Bernt, 2009. "Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 754-769, September.
    7. Tao Song & Weidong Liu & Zhigao Liu & Yeerken Wuzhati, 2019. "Policy Mobilities and the China Model: Pairing Aid Policy in Xinjiang," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    8. Bayirbag Mustafa K., 2011. "Pro-Business Local Governance and (Local) Business Associations: The Case of Gaziantep," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-39, December.
    9. Shutian Zhou & Guofang Zhai & Yuwen Lu & Yijun Shi, 2021. "The development of urban mega-projects in China: A case study of Nantong’s metro project," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(4), pages 759-774, May.
    10. Gordon Waitt, 1999. "Playing Games with Sydney: Marketing Sydney for the 2000 Olympics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(7), pages 1055-1077, June.
    11. Andrea Collins & Andrew Flynn & Max Munday & Annette Roberts, 2007. "Assessing the Environmental Consequences of Major Sporting Events: The 2003/04 FA Cup Final," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(3), pages 457-476, March.
    12. Paul Lawless, 2004. "Locating and Explaining Area-Based Urban Initiatives: New Deal for Communities in England," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 22(3), pages 383-399, June.
    13. Scott Rodgers & Clive Barnett & Allan Cochrane, 2014. "Where is Urban Politics?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1551-1560, September.
    14. Brian Doucet, 2013. "Variations of the Entrepreneurial City: Goals, roles and visions in Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid and the Glasgow Harbour Megaprojects," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 2035-2051, November.
    15. Stephen Syrett & Marcello Bertotti, 2012. "Reconsidering Private Sector Engagement in Subnational Economic Governance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(10), pages 2310-2326, October.
    16. Eugene J. McCann, 2004. "'Best Places': Interurban Competition, Quality of Life and Popular Media Discourse," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 1909-1929, September.
    17. Brett Christophers, 2008. "The BBC, the Creative Class, and Neoliberal Urbanism in the North of England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(10), pages 2313-2329, October.
    18. Fulong Wu, 2002. "China's Changing Urban Governance in the Transition Towards a More Market-oriented Economy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(7), pages 1071-1093, June.
    19. Alan Harding & Michael Harloe & James Rees, 2010. "Manchester's Bust Regime?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 981-991, December.
    20. Edward Yates & Ian Clark & William Rossiter, 2021. "Local economic governance strategies in the UK’s post-industrial cities and the challenges of improving local work and employment conditions," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(2), pages 115-132, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:30:y:1998:i:12:p:2121-2132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.