Friction, failure and futures: The localised politics of mobile policies in two English market towns

This paper examines the ‘local’ politics of mobile public policies through a comparative analysis of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in two left behind English market towns: Tamworth and Wellingborough. The representing of BIDs as a successful and transformative public policy elsewhere does not guarantee their smooth reproduction everywhere, of course. This paper argues that ‘local’ public policymaking is inherently contingent and indeterminate. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, the paper makes three key contributions to the wider academic literature. First, it underscores the importance of explaining – rather than assuming – the means through which places ‘arrive at’ mobile policies and how they become embedded (or not), foregrounding the processual, power-laden and situated nature of public policymaking. Second, in revisiting the concept of institutional thickness/thinness, the paper calls for greater attention to meso-level analysis to unpack the conjunctural ‘local’ politics shaping the uneven making-up of mobile public policy. Third, the paper examines the afterlives of policy failure, arguing that ‘failure’ does not always constitute an absolute but rather might also be understood as merely a pause, a precursor to the emergence of a related policy. In doing so, the paper highlights the continued importance of the relational and territorial nature of the politics of public policymaking.