Translational place leadership in a polycrisis: bridging regional identity and inclusive just transitions

Regional development strategies increasingly deploy mission-oriented policies to address the intertwined climate, geopolitical, technological and social disruptions associated with a contemporary polycrisis. Yet, a persistent disconnect remains between the technocratic logic of macro-level transition programmes and the historically grounded identities of communities in ‘left-behind’ places. This conceptual article develops Translational Place Leadership (TPL) as an analytical framework for examining how place leaders can mediate this disconnect. Drawing on scholarship on regional identity, place leadership, institutional change, and just transitions, it argues that transition governance must address not only material adjustment but also the contested meanings, status, and attachments through which communities interpret structural change. TPL conceptualises leadership as translating between external transition mandates and locally situated identities while enabling institutional unlearning without cultural erasure. Its core mechanisms are identity-based sense-making, boundary spanning, institutional unlearning, and inclusive capability building. Existing empirical studies are used illustratively to identify recurrent transition-governance tensions, not as original evidence testing the framework. The article identifies narrative co-optation, weak local institutional capacity, and uneven power relations as conditions limiting translational leadership. TPL thus analyses how transitions may become more locally legitimate, socially inclusive, and regionally resilient.