Guest editors' introduction: the power of now. Reimagining the future of local government through studies of 'actually existing' practice
Date
2020
Authors
Barnett, Neil
Griggs, Steven
Sullivan, Helen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frank Cass Publishers
Abstract
This introduction contends that the study of UK local government, its institutions and actors is an increasingly ‘niche’ pursuit. We argue that the field is
caught in a commonsense narrative that plays off local government institutional decline against a widespread belief in the future democratic and progressive value of the ‘council-to-come’. Identifying persistent appeals to such
deficiency narratives, we suggest that ‘actually existing’ local government is
reduced to the site of critical shortcomings in the present, while its agency is
deferred to a future when the council has become what it is not. Such logics, we
conclude, reach their height in recent studies of local austerity governance. In
response, we call for a change of direction towards an ethos of municipal
pragmatism that grounds inquiry in ‘real world’ problems, while developing
richer or thicker understandings of the agency of local government that can
generate alternative visions grounded in its everyday work
Description
Keywords
Municipal pragmatism, austerity, progressive local government, agency, local government studies
Citation
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Source
Local Government Studies
Type
Journal article
Book Title
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Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
2099-12-31