ABSTRACT
Leadership is stressed in this book but it is important to keep in mind that no study has revealed a causal relationship between leaders and changes in local/regional development (Leach and Wilson, 2002). Indeed, knowledge cities cannot be created overnight linearily with one “super leader” who solves all problems and satisfies all interests (Termeer and Nooteboom, 2012) – at its best leadership is a shared effort that is developed over long periods and embedded both in governance structures and informal, often “invisible”, factors that facilitate trusting relationships and collaboration between leaders and other local players (Karlsen and Larrea, 2012). Generative leadership is a systemic but not a personal quality, and as such it is more about a process and network relationships than individuals only. This again reminds that leadership is embedded in the social fabric of the place and the wider governance systems. Drawing upon on a series of case studies Sotarauta et al. (2012) conclude that leadership is a process, in which socially embedded indirect influence is the core, and hence the need to understand what individuals do in their specific places to induce development ought to be of interest also in local and regional economic development.
