Where is agency in the context of urban transformation? Exploring the narratives of institutional stakeholders and community activists in Birmingham

How do institutional stakeholders and community activists differ in their perception of their agency to affect change? We explore this question by synthesising Archer’s theory of structure–agency dynamics’ and Easterly’s development models as it is now, and debates on the ‘just city’ to explore narratives around urban transformation in data from two projects in England’s second city, Birmingham. Our results show that, whereas institutional stakeholders affiliated with local government feel rather disempowered and defer to signals from national government or investors, community activists are focused on opportunities to use their agency and create change in their local areas. The implications of this divergence for the aims of achieving empowerment and social justice are discussed. Also, the benefits of a co-production model used in one of the research projects are reflected upon. Building on this model through policies of collaboration, forming social connections and active civic engagement could use the social energy and potential we identify to reinvigorate agency and the motivation of institutional stakeholders and generate change that is more bottom-up than top-down. To this end, we encourage greater reflection on notions of agency and participation in discussions on the ‘just city’. However, in view of prevailing structural forces, we acknowledge that such efforts ultimately remain aspirational and difficult to achieve.