IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v35y2020i5p440-459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Legitimacy of uncertain policy work: Exploring values in local economic development projects

Author

Listed:
  • Albin Olausson

Abstract

This article takes the standpoint that, due to high levels of uncertainty, local economic development work suffers from both input- and output-based legitimacy. Nevertheless, local governments are active development agents and try to come up with economic development initiatives. In order to better understand the legitimate basis for uncertain economic development work, this article offers an unconventional analysis of economic development projects. Drawing on scholars of organization theory, legitimacy is defined as congruence in values between the studied projects and the stakeholders in the surrounding environment. The article examines what kinds of values pervade local governments’ economic development projects. The empirical material is based on thick interview and observation data derived from a study of eight local development projects in Sweden. The results show that values of professionalization and deliberation pervade the analysed projects. Taking the two sets of values together, the results indicate that local government administration seeks to legitimize its economic development work as being based on professional directed processes of public deliberation. Both these sets of values challenge the local representative democratic system of government as the prime source of the legitimacy of local governments’ interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Albin Olausson, 2020. "Legitimacy of uncertain policy work: Exploring values in local economic development projects," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(5), pages 440-459, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:35:y:2020:i:5:p:440-459
    DOI: 10.1177/0269094220953199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094220953199
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0269094220953199?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. Blake E. Ashforth & Barrie W. Gibbs, 1990. "The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(2), pages 177-194, May.
    2. Andy Pike & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & John Tomaney, 2017. "Shifting horizons in local and regional development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 46-57, January.
    3. Linda G. Morra Imas & Ray C. Rist, . "The Road to Results : Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2699, September.
    4. Andy Pike & Andres Rodriguez-Pose & John Tomaney, 2007. "What Kind of Local and Regional Development and for Whom?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(9), pages 1253-1269.
    5. Neil Bradford & David A. Wolfe, 2013. "Governing regional economic development: innovation challenges and policy learning in Canada," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 6(2), pages 331-347.
    6. Bartels, Cornelis P. A. & Nicol, William R. & van Duijn, Jacob J., 1982. "Estimating the impact of regional policy : A review of applied research methods," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 3-41, February.
    7. Vivien A. Schmidt, 2013. "Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and ‘Throughput’," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 61(1), pages 2-22, March.
    8. Michael Keating, 1998. "The New Regionalism in Western Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1193.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. David Waite & Gillian Bristow, 2019. "Spaces of city-regionalism: Conceptualising pluralism in policymaking," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 689-706, June.
    2. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    3. Simona Iammarino & Andrés Rodriguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2019. "Regional inequality in Europe: evidence, theory and policy implications," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 273-298.
    4. Vieira Tiago & Silva Ângela & Garcia Jorge Esparteiro & Alves Wellington, 2022. "Boosting Regional Socioeconomic Development through Logistics Activities: A Conceptual Model," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 13(3), pages 63-83, October.
    5. Muringani, Jonathan & Dahl Fitjar, Rune & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2019. "Decentralisation, quality of government and economic growth in the regions of the EU," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91023, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Marius Constantin PROFIROIU & Carmen Valentina RADULESCU, 2019. "Local Development Opportunities In The Context Of Sustainable Development By Applying The Concept Of Smart Village In Romania," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 13(1), pages 1059-1067, November.
    7. James Hughes & Gwendolyn Sasse & Claire Gordon, 2002. "Saying `Maybe' to the `Return to Europe'," European Union Politics, , vol. 3(3), pages 327-355, September.
    8. Shahzad Khurram & Sandra Charreire Petit, 2017. "Investigating the Dynamics of Stakeholder Salience: What Happens When the Institutional Change Process Unfolds?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 485-515, July.
    9. Dejan Stjepanović, 2015. "Territoriality and Citizenship: Membership and Sub-State Polities in Post-Yugoslav Space," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(7), pages 1030-1055, August.
    10. Richard Hyman & Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick, 2020. "(How) can international trade union organisations be democratic?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(3), pages 253-272, August.
    11. Michael Longo, 2003. "European Integration: Between Micro‐Regionalism and Globalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 475-494, June.
    12. Zhang, Hongjuan & Young, Michael N. & Tan, Justin & Sun, Weizheng, 2018. "How Chinese companies deal with a legitimacy imbalance when acquiring firms from developed economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 752-767.
    13. Alexander Kentikelenis & Erik Voeten, 2021. "Legitimacy challenges to the liberal world order: Evidence from United Nations speeches, 1970–2018," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 721-754, October.
    14. Rhys Jones & Mark Goodwin & Martin Jones & Glenn Simpson, 2004. "Devolution, State Personnel, and the Production of New Territories of Governance in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(1), pages 89-109, January.
    15. Hossfeld, Heiko, 2018. "Legitimation and institutionalization of managerial practices. The role of organizational rhetoric," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 9-21.
    16. Isuru Koswatte & Chandrika Fernando, 2022. "Policy Development for Crisis Management in the Context of Sri Lanka," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 20(3 (Fall)), pages 295-327.
    17. Riccardo Crescenzi & Carlo Pietrobelli & Roberta Rabellotti, 2012. "Innovation Drivers, Value Chains and the Geography of Multinational Firms in European Regions," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 53, European Institute, LSE.
    18. John R. Moodie & Viktor Salenius & Michael Kull, 2022. "From impact assessments towards proactive citizen engagement in EU cohesion policy," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(5), pages 1113-1132, October.
    19. Marlous Blankesteijn & Bart Bossink, 2020. "Assessing the Legitimacy of Technological Innovation in the Public Sphere: Recovering Raw Materials from Waste Water," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.
    20. Maroun, Warren & Solomon, Jill, 2014. "Whistle-blowing by external auditors: Seeking legitimacy for the South African Audit Profession?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 109-121.

    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:loceco:v:35:y:2020:i:5:p:440-459. 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: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    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.