Directing the Show? Business Leaders, Local Partnership, and Economic Regeneration in Sheffield

Abstract

The processes of urban economic restructuring in Britain, and the political responses to it, have entailed not only a drive but also a need for greater cooperation between government and nongovernment actors. The process of economic restructuring, together with a raft of centrally determined urban policy measures which have transformed the modus operandi of the local state, have made governing at the local level a more complex and more fragmented task. In this context of shifting relations between business, state, and urban policy, I examine the role of business in the regeneration of Sheffield and assess whether local business leaders have been able to establish a distinctive business-oriented agenda for regeneration. In the analysis I trace the evolution of business participation in the city's regeneration network, and reveal the struggles faced by the business community in the process of coalition building. A further aim in the paper is to examine the relevance of growth-coalition and urban-regime theories in interpreting the role of local business leaders in the changing landscape of urban governance.