The role of agency in turning regional economies green: the pursuit of sustainable regional development in Greater Manchester

Abstract

Building on the recent contributions suggesting that regional economies change through various forms of agency, this PhD thesis examines the specific actions and interventions local state actors take to deliver transformative outcomes as well as how the existing conditions of action enable or constrain the achievement of regional sustainability objectives. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews and 210 documentary sources, the research applies two complementary concepts of agency—place-based leadership and system-level agency—to analyse how Greater Manchester’s clean growth vision was formulated and implemented. The place-based leadership highlights how the city-regional authority mobilised and coordinated diverse local stakeholders to develop shared understandings of, and solutions to, Greater Manchester’s economic, environmental, and social challenges. The findings indicate that local climate action requires linking both the consequences and the opportunities arising from grand challenges—such as climate change—to pathways that address pressing local problems. While this approach underscores the critical local dynamics of vision-development, the concept of system-level agency is employed to explore how that vision is translated into practice within the retrofit industry—an emerging sector focused on improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings. Findings reveal the importance of interventions that create or modify local resources, such as market and skilled labour, to support industry growth. They also show how, for spatially embedded industries like retrofit, these interventions must address local conditions against which green industries emerge. The thesis contributes to the literature on green regional development in two ways. First, the investigation of place-based leadership demonstrates that this form of agency involves a process of framing that integrates economic, social, and environmental goals into a coherent agenda for regional sustainability. Moreover, it reveals the multi-scalar complexity of this process, as Greater Manchester’s clean growth mission initially aligned with, but later had to be defended from, shifting national policies. Second, the analysis of system-level agency emphasizes the dynamic interplay between an industry’s evolving needs and the existing resources within a region, shedding light on how local governments can effectively nurture new green industries. Finally, the insights from the two empirical papers informed a proposed reconceptualisation of structure for regional studies presented in this thesis. This new framework suggests that structure should be considered as a configuration of human-made materiality, natural materiality and the social fabric that agency acts within and upon. The relations between those three elements enable or constrain agency, thereby influencing what courses of action are likely to be selected and succeed in the pursuit of regional development. In doing so, the proposed reconceptualisation offers a more nuanced understanding of structure; one that is sensitive both to the social as well as the material conditions shaping human action.  

Date of Award	22 Oct 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Elvira Uyarra (Supervisor) & Jonatan Pinkse (Supervisor)