Directing the Show? Business Leaders, Local Partnership, and Economic Regeneration in Sheffield

The processes of urban economic restructuring in Britain, and the political responses to it, have entailed not only a drive but also a need for greater cooperation between government and nongovernment actors. The process of economic restructuring, together with a raft of centrally determined urban policy measures which have transformed the modus operandi of the local state, have made governing at the local level a more complex and more fragmented task. In this context of shifting relations between business, state, and urban policy, I examine the role of business in the regeneration of Sheffield and assess whether local business leaders have been able to establish a distinctive business-oriented agenda for regeneration. In the analysis I trace the evolution of business participation in the city's regeneration network, and reveal the struggles faced by the business community in the process of coalition building. A further aim in the paper is to examine the relevance of growth-coalition and urban-regime theories in interpreting the role of local business leaders in the changing landscape of urban governance.