Capability and Capacity Building in Place Leadership: Identity, Inclusion and Change

We invite you to a seminar at the University of Birmingham on 10th April 2025 on the theme of ‘Capability and capacity building in place leadership: identity, inclusion and change’.

As Europe and the wider world struggle to cope with the ‘polycrisis’ of climate, instability and conflict, the importance of progressive and developmental place-based leadership comes into sharper focus. This seminar sets out to draw together knowledge and understanding about place-based identities and to discuss how place leadership can build capacity and develop capability to support opportunities for political stability and inclusive and sustainable economic growth locally and regionally, particularly through partnership working.

The seminar provides an opportunity for participants to present and discuss evidence-based examples of leadership at local, regional and national levels that cross and transcend borders. Key questions for discussion include:

• What do place-based identities mean?
• How have they changed in relation to local, regional and national dynamics?
• Where are the connections and contradictions between place-based identity and place-leadership?
• How can people be engaged in collective action to create change at a range of geographical levels?
• How is it possible to build confidence, capability and capacity in place?
• How can national and sub-national leadership best combine to support policy innovation in place?
• What skills are key for place leaders to navigate the political and emotional challenges of place-based partnership working?

Agenda

09:30-10:00 - Registration and coffee

10:00-10:10 - Opening remarks

• Professor Rebecca Riley, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Regional Engagement and Co-Director City-REDI, University of Birmingham
  

10:10– 10:40 - Using the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as a springboard to build capability, capacity and confidence in the West Midlands

• Katie Trout, Director of Policy and Partnerships West Midlands Growth Company and former Chief Executive of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership
  

10:40-11:10 - Challenges and opportunities for local government 

• Kersten England CBE, Chair of Trustees The Young Foundation, Chair Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and former Chief Executive York and Bradford Councils.

• Lukas Kammerer, OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions, and Cities

11:10-11:15 Break

11:15-12:45 - Session 1

12:45-13:30 - Lunch

13:30-15:00 - Session 2

15:00-15:15 - Coffee

15:15-16:30 - Session 3

16:30-17:00 - Next steps and concluding remarks

Download the full agenda

There are no registration fees for this workshop. Venue, lunch, and coffee breaks will be covered by the University of Birmingham. 

Call for abstracts

We would like to invite abstracts for a seminar we are organising at the University of Birmingham on 10th April 2025 on the theme of ‘Capability and capacity building in place leadership: identity, inclusion and change’. The deadline to submit abstracts is Friday 14th February 2025. Find out more about the call for abstracts. 

More info

Organised by Dr Abigail Taylor (City-REDI, University of Birmingham) and Professor Joanne Murphy (Department of Management, University of Birmingham, this event is the final seminar in an RSA international research and seminar series (Regional Studies Association; 2023-2025). The series aims to gather and disseminate examples of good practice and learning of leaders (and their teams) in a number of cities and regions around the world. The seminars are designed to bring together both leadership researchers and leader practitioners.

Convened by John Gibney (University of Birmingham), Joyce Liddle and John Shutt (Northumbria University), Ignazio Cabras and Thomas Hoerber (ESSCA EU*Asia Institute), and Markku Sotarauta (Tampere University) and Martin Pelucha (Prague University of Economics and Business), previous seminars have focused on the following themes:

• Seminar 1: Northumbria University (UK), spring 2023: ‘Leadership of/in transnational city & regional development’.

• Seminar 2: the University of Angers (France), autumn 2023, ‘Leadership & Sustainability in Europe: Where Now, What Next’.

• Seminar 3: Prague University of Economics and Business (Czech Republic), spring 2024: ‘Leadership, Politics, & Governance in Turbulent Times: Global and Geopolitical Challenges in a Changing Europe’.

Many of the contributors to the seminar series are also contributing to a special issue of the international journal Regional Studies to be published in 2025/6 and edited by John Gibney, Joyce Liddle, John Shutt and Markku Sotarauta, entitled: Leadership in city and regional development: new perspectives from within and beyond borders. To follow this new collection as it develops through 2025, go to: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/cres20/collections/Leadership-in-city

The University of Birmingham event is funded through the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub. The Hub seeks to address nationwide issues through local partnership and place. By working with four local LPIPs, the Hub aims to understand and solve local challenges around the UK through innovative and effective service-driven approaches to place-based policy-making and public service delivery. Designed to lead to a step-change in the quality and impact of the evidence created by universities and their local place partners, the Hub is a £3.6 million investment from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and Innovate UK. It is a national consortium, led by the University of Birmingham, convening stakeholders across the research and policy ecosystem. The project will run until the end of 2026.