ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades, a wide body of research literature across a number of academic disciplines, including geography, economics, business and organizational studies as well as in education and public policy, has emphasized that knowledge is an important explanatory feature in the story of social and economic progress – and has been so since our deep history. At the same time, there is a renewed and growing interest in the role that leadership plays in the continuing shaping and re-shaping of competitive and yet fair and sustainable places. In attempting to better conceptualize and explain the contribution of (formal) leadership in the transformation of cities and regions – and particularly in the context of the contemporary circumstances of cities and regions experiencing complex social, economic and technological transition – this chapter contributes to the discussion around the so-called leadership of place by incorporating an account of the dynamics of knowledge.
