Municipal managers’ engagement in multi-level governance arrangements: An empirical analysis grounded in relational economic geography

Abstract

Diverse empirical evidence regarding Local Agenda 21 (LA21) seems to indicate that, in territories where multi-level governance arrangements (networks) have emerged, LA21 dissemination tends to be higher. However, it is not entirely clear how and why these networks work. We take a step towards covering this gap by adopting a relational economic geography perspective and focusing on the benefits that emerge from the interactions and relationships between actors within networks. We focus on two crucial network actors: the initiator or promoter of the network (a provincial government agency) and the purposive participants (the municipalities). Our research is intended to explain why the promoter is successful in attracting participants and engaging them in intra-network interactions. Our findings suggest that specific network-driven benefits have varying outcomes which could be used to guide implementation approaches based upon the desired effect. We use data collected from 163 municipal managers who are members of an LA21 network in Girona, Catalonia.