Leslie Budd

Globalisation, Territory and Strategic Alliances in Different Financial Centres

The debates about globalisation, global finance and global cities appear to confuse global and international changes and seem a-historical. This paper begins with a sceptical assessment of globalisation and asks whether a globalised economy is really an internationalised one. The paper then addresses an aspect of global finance—the national impetus given to alliances between markets in major cities. The financial derivatives markets, particularly in Europe, are used to exemplify this trend and to question the degree to which electronic trading poses a threat to the economic welfare of the urban territories in which they are located. In conclusion, the prospect of major players in large financial centres becoming incorporated into the governance of urban policy is raised.

Financial services and the urban system: an exploration

Financial services have come to represent an increasingly important sector in the economies of developed nations. Although a substantial literature has accumulated on this topic, relatively little attention has been given to the locational aspects of financial services. An attempt is made here to examine the spatial structure of this sector in terms of the urban system, drawing on the principles of central-place theory, the limitations and applicability of which are considered. This is followed by a discussion of the salient features of financial services within the overall urban system. After describing the differentiation of financial services in frequency terms, the hierarchical structure of the UK urban system is outlined. These two aspects are then related, in order to demonstrate the ordered nature of the spatial structure of financial services. There follows a brief discussion of the findings and their implications for future work.

Post‐bureaucracy and reanimating public governance: A discourse and practice of continuity?

Purpose – Seeks to examine changes in the environment in which public policy and public management operate and the claim that bureaucracy has been replaced by post‐bureaucracy as a result of these changes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes reanimated public governance as a concept that occupies the space between public administration and transformed public governance (including reinvented government and new public management (NPM)). Rather than accepting the existence of post‐bureaucracy, per se, the paper argues that there has been a process of extending bureaucracy that cuts across public and non‐public boundaries rather than the development of post‐bureaucracy per se.Findings – In examining the claims for post‐bureaucracy, The paper is witnessing a discourse and practice of continuity rather than difference. The need for economies of scale and scope, standardisation and the existence of indivisibilities in public services suggest that public sector reforms and proposals for new governance...

A Framework for city leadership in multilevel governance settings: the comparative contexts of Italy and the UK

This paper discusses the role of city leadership in the current multilevel governance settings and provides a conceptual framework for understanding the main elements of city leadership. Forms of political, managerial and civic leadership have been distinguished within city leadership and the main actors, structures, processes and followership patterns are examined using Italy and the UK as starting points of comparison. This comparative framework sheds a light on some common and different features in the city leadership patterns in Italy and the UK, such as the cross-cutting and multilayered administrative context for public service delivery; the common trend towards strengthening the executive side of political leadership rather than the representative one; the growing relevance of forms of civic leadership as a trigger for creating public and social value and for enhancing the resilience of the territories. Main differences deal instead with the role of central government in defining the role of city leaders, where Italy seems to experience a return towards greater centralization and controls, and the UK is experiencing an opposite trend towards the empowerment of local communities. Finally, the paper sets out some future directions for the research agenda on city leadership we are seeking to pursue.

e-Economy: rhetoric or business reality?

As dot.com became dot.bomb, the hype that surrounded the meteoric growth of the network economy has given way to realism, or even scepticism, about the potential of ICT as a source of new business models. It is now appropriate to reflect critically on the e-economy hype, and to use this as a way of looking forward to new, more realistic possibilities. Using a business and socio-economic framework, this book investigates a range of challenges for restructuring the e-economy. This framework includes operations management, human resource management, e-learning, e-retailing, e-marketing, e-government, enterprise culture and digital divide. Divided into four themes (the changing business environment, knowledge management, learning in the public domain and e-business practices within and between organizations), each chapter considers the international context and critically explores a key aspect of the e-economy. Rigorous yet still retaining the accessible format which distinguishes all the volumes in this series, this book provides a thorough critique of the prospects facing businesses in the new economy and will be of interest to anyone studying e-business/commerce.

A COHESION PACT FOR THE REGIONS

The Lisbon Agenda of 2000 and the supporting Sapir and Kok Reports have set the parameters of economic policy in the European Union (EU) in the medium term. The asymmetric regime of economic governance locks manifold regions and industries into an inflexible and unbalanced policy environment so that the objectives of Lisbon may be difficult to achieve. The monetary straitjacket of the euro, buttressed by the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) fiscal conditions, limits the degree to which competitiveness and cohesion may be delivered, particularly in an expanded Union. This article explores these issues of economic governance in the EU in order to investigate the possibility of a ‘cohesion pact for the regions’ which places a more comprehensive industrial policy as the fulcrum for achieving a better balance between growth and cohesion. Operating within an Open Method of Coordination (OMC) framework and by linking industrial policy instruments to a system of fiscal federalism, a more flexible and balanced regime of economic governance may ensue, one in which the ambitious objectives of the Lisbon Agenda may start to be achieved or at least moved towards more efficaciously.

Global Finance and Urban Living: A Study of Metropolitan Change.

This incisive inter-disciplinary text provides a major contribution to the study of finance capital and the metropolis. It is the first authoritative account of the momentous changes in the organisation of finance capital that occurred in the 1980s. But it never contents itself with a mere record of events. Changes in finance are scrupulously and consistently related to changes in urban forms, notably metropolitan lifestyles and aesthetics.

EUROPE 2020: a strategy in search of a regional policy rationale?

This article critically examines the European Unions (EU) 10-year strategy Europe 2020; A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, in the context of the financial and fiscal crisis and the fifth Cohesion Report produced by the European Commission in 2010. It does so in order to develop the argument that without a regional policy rationale that rests on the application of industrial policy as a fulcrum for integrating the different components of the domain governance of Europe 2020, its objectives may not be realised. The article concludes with a speculation on how fuzzy set analysis could be used as an evaluation methodology in order to contribute to policy analysis of how these components may be better integrated in developing the EUs key strategy for the rest of the decade.

Into the void: A realist evaluation of the eGovernment for You (EGOV4U) project

‘e-government for You’ (EGOV4U) was a European Commission (EC) funded project developed to pilot models of multi-channel, public and community e-services designed to tackle social exclusion and disadvantage through a range of initiatives delivered by five project partners from a variety of European countries. The project evaluation employed a theory-driven approach and the use of mixed methods for data capture and analysis. In this article we combine this with a form of mechanistic explanation that has been specifically developed for realist evaluation: namely the context + mechanism = outcome (CMO) approach. Our contention is that by so doing we further enhance the analytical focus and granularity of the evaluation process and thus the material we present here. This article aims to make use of previously unused material from the EGOV4U evaluation, and provide a realist insight into what works, for whom, in what circumstances and why.

Re-regulating the financial system: the return of state or societal corporatism?

The aftermath of the global credit crunch and financial crisis which began in late 2007 has led to a focus on the reform of the financial system and a rebalancing in the affected economies. Financial crises are endemic to capitalist societies and although there tends to be a common cause to them all, timing, place, and scale and scope may differ. There is a charge that the social sciences, and economists in particular, were either ill-equipped or unable to anticipate and fully examine the most recent crisis and to propose forms of enquiry in order to understand better its causes and consequences (Collander et al. 2009. The financial crisis and the systemic failure of academic economics, Working Paper No. 1489. Kiel, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IFW)). Consequently, there is a perceived need and call for new or revived research agendas to address this relative paucity of knowledge. This paper attempts to respond to this need and call by re-introducing concepts drawn from political economy and political science in order to assess the challenge of reform and recovery of the financial system. It does so in the context of an analysis of the causes of the crisis. The paper also examines the degree to which variants of the concept of corporatism may be used to understand how institutional and policy-building blocks of a reformed and restructured financial system should develop.