A Place Leadership Role for Universities?

Abstract

This chapter argues that universities’ potential to assume a place leadership role in regional development depends on how we see change itself. The question is not only about finding a proper mode of governance and engagement. If change is understood as transformation, universities are expected to act as disruptors; if framed as transition, their role shifts towards steady guidance and orchestration. Drawing on different theories of change, the article develops a conceptual map that situates universities’ place leadership roles within differing notions of change. In doing so, it shows that any search for university place leadership remains incomplete without scrutinising the very assumptions through which we understand change.