Sport as a complex adaptive system for place-based leadership: Comparing five European cities with different administrative and socio-cultural traditions

Abstract

This paper compares place-based leadership patterns of five European cities that have different administrative and socio-cultural traditions in order to understand the role that context plays in shaping city leadership patterns in the policy domain of sport. This paper uses an exploratory approach to analyse the city as a complex adaptive system. In pursuing this research, we investigate the main actors, structures, processes and followership patterns across different forms of city leadership (political, managerial, business and civic). Our findings show the similarities and the differences across the five cities that lead us to a two-part conclusion. First, context may or may not influence city leadership patterns but it remains an essential parameter in comparative analysis. Second, the main challenges for place-based leadership in the policy domain of sport appear generalisable and specifically we observe that civic leadership as praxis can reinforce the transformative nature of place-based leadership in developing and sustaining socio-economic resilience.