LEGITIMACY AND PLACE LEADERSHIP: RESPONDING TO AND RECOVERING FROM DISRUPTION IN REGIONAL SOFT SPACES

This article explores through interviews the influence of legitimacy on place leadership within regional soft spaces in England during COVID-19. 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.