No 2024/5 Untangling regional opportunity spaces

The role of narratives and place leadership

Abstract

This paper aims to identify micro-level processes shaping the narratives about regional opportunity spaces. A process perspective is applied to investigate how place leaders engage in shaping narratives to influence the perception of regional opportunity spaces. The empirical research is based on a comparative case study of four peripheral regions in Germany including ninety-two interviews with regional stakeholders complemented by two cross-regional focus groups. Our findings emphasize the central role of place leadership in influencing the perception of regional opportunity spaces, show two pathways of changing dominant narratives (outside-in and inside-out) and provide a multiple-phase framework for their analysis.