Speaker
Description
Urban regeneration has become a leading spatial development direction due to the social, political and economic changes brought about by transforming the post-socialist system in Central and Eastern Europe (Hlaváček et al., 2016). It was characterised by rapidly changing management and planning contexts in line with the Western solutions model (Scott, Kühn 2012). A long-term and comprehensive view of urban development processes was adopted, opening up new possibilities for managing complex change and addressing many problems associated with urban decline. The basis for action in Poland was the regeneration programmes implemented by local authorities. These documents were to be developed by local officials in line with the idea of community-led regeneration. This approach was supported by a training system offered by national and regional authorities. Despite this, regeneration programmes were mainly developed by consultants, leading to the emergence of a consultocracy. A clear decoupling between state intentions and real action is therefore evident. Craig and Brooks (2006) define consultocracy as a process in which unelected consultants replace policy debate by publicly accountable politicians". Gunter et al. (2015) identify consultants as external knowledge actors who trade in knowledge, expertise and experience and, through consulting as a relational transfer process, influence organisational structures, systems and goals. As Ylönen & Kuusela (2018) note, consultocracy has had a significant qualitative impact on the ways in which public administration is run and managed in various areas, such as auditing, organisational restructuring, human resources and information and communication technology.
The paper aims to identify the causes of consultocracy in regeneration programming in Poland, referring to the decoupling phenomenon. The work draws on in-depth interviews with key actors (officials, planners and consultants) in the process. Results of the research indicate that consultocracy and decoupling are determined by 1) the shortage of municipality employees and a deficit of suitably educated personnel 2) the objective benefits associated with the involvement of consultants, such as their neutrality, their different and high-level skills and their ability to transfer good practices and 3) fear among local officials of taking responsibility for preparing the regeneration programme.
References
Craig, D., & Brooks, R. (2006). Plundering the public sector. London, UK: Constable and Robinson
Gunter, H., Hall, D., & Mills, C. (2014). Educational administration and consultocracy. In Political Studies Association Conference, Manchester, UK.
Hlaváček, P., Raška, P., & Balej, M. (2016). Regeneration projects in Central and Eastern European post-communist cities: Current trends and community needs. Habitat International, 56, pp. 31-41.
Scott, J. W., & Kühn, M. (2012). Urban change and urban development strategies in Central East Europe: A selective assessment of events since 1989. European Planning Studies, 20(7), pp. 1093-1109.
Ylönen, M., & Kuusela, H. (2019). Consultocracy and its discontents: A critical typology and a call for a research agenda. Governance, 32(2), pp. 241-258.
| Keywords | consultocracy; urban regeneration planning; Central and Eastern Europe |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
