The invisible work of Transformative Boundary spanning by local change makers in urban regeneration

This paper elucidates the pivotal roles individuals play in fostering positive changes in deprived neighbourhoods. These key actors, including public employees, community activists, social entrepreneurs, and business developers are experts in addressing local challenges and through transformative boundary spanning, creatively bringing people and resources together in innovative ways. Despite the emphasis on the ‘human dimension’ in European urban regeneration programs, the micro-level actions of ‘local change makers’ that drive social innovations in neighbourhoods are often overlooked. This paper argues that local changemakers ‘micro-actions’ are crucial for mobilizing bonding, bridging and linking social capital, ultimately leading to improved conditions for what we term ‘place-people and community making’.
Drawing on the Danish data set of a trans-European study ‘Smart Urban intermediaries – connecting people changing communities’, where we followed 40 ‘local change agents’ in deprived neighbourhoods across four cities - Amsterdam, Birmingham, Copenhagen and Glasgow, we examine their transformative boundary spanning practices. Our key question is: ‘How can we theoretically capture the work of local changemakers understood as transformative boundary spanning, and what empirical actions illustrate these practices in deprived neighbourhoods? Theoretically, we draw on recent trends in the public administration literature on ‘local engagement’; ‘boundary spanning’, as well as perspectives from the urban planning literature that highlight the perspectives of ‘place- and place identity’ as drivers for local action. The paper provides new knowledge on how micro-level practices in the form of transformative boundary spanning succeed in building bridges catalysing change, social innovation, enhancing positive changes in deprived neighbourhoods.