Contested governance: European exposure in the english regions

Abstract

The paper attempts to locate issues surrounding local and regional economic development and governance in the European context in broader theoretical debates which identify shifts in national government towards the adoption of neo‐Liberal agendas and the related pressures faced by local government to relinquish policies of urban managerialism for those of urban entrepreneurialism. It is argued that local and regional governance, at least in the UK context, is becoming an increasingly contested terrain in which fundamental tensions are being revealed between local, national and European tiers of government as local and regional governance is increasingly exposed to European‐level development programmes. The paper explores these tensions using the experience of six recently negotiated regional conversion plans (or ‘Single Planning Documents') drawn up to secure assistance from the European Union's Structural Funds.