Municipal entrepreneurship support policies: convergence or divergence?

ABSTRACT

This paper develops a critical understanding of municipal entrepreneurship support policies (MESPs) by investigating the strength of convergence and divergence trends with respect to neoliberal modes of governance in this policy field. To do so, it draws on a comparison between Milan and Barcelona’s MESPs and investigates the ways local policy actors interpret, invalidate or reproduce a neoliberal approach to entrepreneurship policies. Findings from the analysis of grey literature and interviews with policy actors and practitioners show the role municipal governments and local socio-economic and institutional conditions play in shaping compound and divergent approaches to MESPs. On this basis, the article reflects on the agency of local governments and the way urban policies and governance may deviate from neoliberal trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Agency
• convergence
• entrepreneurship
• local government
• neoliberalism
• urban policies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. TEDx held in Milan, 11 February 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RC1ZWJ1r8s. Accessed: 20 July 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Dodaro

Maria Dodaro is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. She undertakes research on urban governance, local welfare, and social innovation, with a particular interest in institutional changes, agency, policy instruments and the theory of public action.