Legitimacy and place leadership: responding to and recovering from disruption in regional soft spaces

Abstract

This article explores through interviews the influence of legitimacy on place leadership within regional soft spaces in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. Legitimacy is an important yet underexamined facet of place leadership. Employing a tripartite legitimacy framework–input, throughput and output legitimacy–we illuminate novel insights on the nature of legitimacy relationships at different boundaries of regional soft spaces and how they shape place leadership over time in a changing context. We further argue that political astuteness is vital for multi-hatting leaders within regional soft spaces to enable cross-boundary mobilisation for collective action in response and recovery from disruption.