Subnational leadership in response to environment and climate change

Abstract

This paper explores subnational leadership in collective action, responding to environment and climate change. The research was conducted in the county of Cornwall in the UK to explore why and how people take up local leadership roles, and how personal and shared values influence their activities. The results show four dimensions of place-based leadership: (1) willingness (the individual or I-dimension), (2) mobilisation and framing (the collective or WE-dimension), (3) place-shaping practices and leadership roles (the practical or IT-dimension) and (4) collaboration and responsiveness (the political or THEY-dimension). Our findings illustrate the relevance of (inter)subjective aspects of local leadership and how leaders support different scaling processes.