Leading Through Image Making? On the Limits of Emphasising Agency in Structurally Disadvantaged Rural Places

Abstract

As one response to peripheralisation, agency-based concepts like place leadership and image making have received increasing attention in research on regional polarisation. Based on fieldwork in Estonian rural areas between 2015 and 2017, this chapter sheds light on unexpected challenges faced by local leaders applying these solutions and researchers trying to make sense of them. While place leadership and image making can play a crucial role in fighting regional polarisation, it is shown that they also create new problems of idealisation and responsibilisation in structurally disadvantaged rural areas. Through a discussion of the limits of these response strategies, the chapter reflects upon the complexity that practitioners and researchers experience when acting in these places, which also questions the recent focus on agency prevalent in research on regional polarisation.