The Northern Way: a pan‐regional associational network

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine a pan‐regional initiative, The Northern Way. The argument is framed within the on‐going city‐region debate to demonstrate some of the challenges and difficulties of working in collaboration and partnership across associational networks. It seeks to highlight the importance of institutional and local legacies and politics for understanding the nature of this particular form of pan‐regional arrangement.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on existing literature and other secondary source material from policy and guidance documents, participant observation in regional and sub‐regional meetings, and supplemented with primary interview data.

Findings

The Northern Way, promoted by central government to manage decline in the Greater North of England, demonstrated a continued legacy of regional disparities and an attempt to move city actors from inter and intra regional rivalry towards collaboration and partnership. As an associational network, the fluidity of scales and wide ranging social forces impacted on coordination and integration of processes, institutions, plans and strategies. This emergent governance form exemplified institutional turbulence, as powers were re‐configured continuously across scales and, across policy sectors and policy actors. The Northern Way was a very complicated arrangement of networks across regional and sub‐regional territories, and its lack of autonomy from central government hampered its overall effectiveness and strategic approach.

Originality/value

The paper provides a valuable insight for academics, practitioners and policy makers into some of the challenges and difficulties of managing across a pan‐regional associational network. It is original because most of the earlier literature focuses solely on city‐regions rather than a specific pan‐regional initiative such as the one under enquiry here.

Citation

Liddle, J. (2009), "The Northern Way: a pan‐regional associational network", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 192-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550910949172