Resilience, institutions and local leadership: lessons from three European case studies

The role of agency and local leadership is gaining attention as a key driver of regional economic resilience. This paper addresses two underexplored questions in this growing body of literature: (1) How do institutional factors shape the emergence of local leadership? and (2) What forms does local leadership take? To address these questions, we examine three cases: Lille (France), Dortmund (Germany) and the Basque Country (Spain), which all experienced severe socio-economic decline due to structural shifts in the global economy, compounded by a series of interrelated global shocks. However, each of the cases managed to carve out new development paths and are now frequently cited as models of regional economic resilience. Despite differing approaches to renewal, a common thread across the cases is the central role of local leadership in driving long-term transformation, making them ideal case studies to explore our two research questions.Our findings show that, although the Basque Country, Lille and Dortmund operated within distinct institutional settings, local public sector institutions were key initiators of renewal strategies. However, success depended on their ability to create a shared vision and foster collaboration among a range of actors. Personal leadership emerged as a critical enabling factor, especially during the early phases of transition, providing the essential backbone from which both multi-actor, place-based leadership and institutional leadership could emerge and consolidate. The institutional framework also served as a key facilitator: the interaction between crisis conditions and the decentralisation of competences and funding created an opportunity space for local leadership.