Peter Eckersley
Biographic Data
| ID | 1303496 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Eckersley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Eckersley |
| SIGNATURE | ECKERSLEY P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nottingham Trent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9048-8529 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 131 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Building place-based capacity in an asymmetric system: Supporting England’s devolution periphery or fuelling political spatial inequality?
Influence of multilevel and polycentric governance structures on climate change mitigation and adaptation in 209 German municipalities
Studies have identified municipalities as key actors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. However, the level of municipal engagement in these policy areas varies widely, and little is known about how different multilevel and polycentric governance structures affect their performance. To address this gap, we examined the mitigation and adaptation commitments, plans and ambitions of 209 German municipa…
Explaining the adaptation gap through consistency in adaptation planning
Unpacking Polycentric Climate Governance: Tracing the Evolution of Transnational Municipal Networks over Time
All governance systems are polycentric to some extent in that they comprise multiple actors with varying degrees of autonomy. However, there has been limited theorization as to how we might measure polycentricity, even though this could help us unpack networks and understand governance arrangements better. We present three dimensions of governance to conceptualize degrees of polycentricity—governance of networks (internal organization and managem…
Structure, agency and local climate governance: How do individual actors exploit local contexts to shape policymaking in smaller cities and towns
Previous studies stress that structural conditions influence local climate action, but often neglect the role of agency in policymaking. Drawing on fieldwork in 11 German towns, we show how municipal managers frame climate-related policies in different ways to gain local support for action. Although these framings are influenced by each town's socio-economic, demographic and political conditions, as well as its vulnerability to climate threats, t…
Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks
In public governance, power and accountability are inextricably linked. However, although an integrated exploration of these concepts could enhance our understanding of how governance operates, few studies have examined them together. Drawing on resource dependency theory, we suggest that power relationships within networks shape accountability and have a concomitant impact on the prevailing governance paradigm. Specifically, where principals pos…
Fifty years of local government studies: Evolution, Internationalisation, and the Future of the Field
Adapting to climate change: The Ultimate Challenge for the Next Half-Century of Local Government
Climate change will have a disproportionate and asymmetric impact on cities and urban areas, and some of their most vulnerable residents will be at particular risk. Studies have found that some municipalities have done far more to adapt to it than others, but there has been a general lack of funding, implementation and engagement with marginalised groups to help them prepare. We suggest that the unpredictable and evolving nature of climate impact…
Climate Governance and Federalism: A Forum of Federations Comparative Policy Analysis
The majority of the world's largest carbon emitters are either federations or have adopted systems of decentralised governance. The realisation of the world's climate mitigation objectives therefore depends in large part on whether and how governments within federal systems can cooperate to reduce carbon emissions and catalyse the emergence of low-carbon societies. This volume brings together leading experts to explore whether federal or decentra…
Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local government: Implications for autonomy in multi-level systems
Analysis of 60,000 contracts awarded by English councils between 2015–19 reveals that austerity constraints are a key predictor of councils outsourcing services to for-profit suppliers, regardless of their political control. Conservative Party-controlled councils are also more likely to contract with for-profit suppliers, although we found no link between Labour-controlled councils and not-for-profit suppliers, nor evidence that political or budg…
How do local factors shape transformation pathways towards climate-neutral and resilient cities
We examine how local socioeconomic, institutional and political factors shape climate transformation pathways in 23 mid-sized German cities. We group our cities into three types: industrial cities (which may have experienced recent structural change), historic cities (in which a significant proportion of the buildings or landscape is under monument protection) and university cities (in which academic or research institutions play a major role in …
Intentionality and visibility in state- and society-led climate approaches: Towards a more comprehensive understanding of local adaptation initiatives
Research into local climate adaptation has often focused on highly visible, intentional public policies that seek to improve resilience to climate threats or how societal actors have reacted to changing climatic conditions. We argue that these approaches neglect a range of unintentional and/or hidden initiatives, which deliver implicit and/or hitherto under-appreciated adaptation benefits. We present an analytical framework to organise studies of…
Straddling multiple streams: Focusing events, policy entrepreneurs and problem brokers in the governance of English fire and rescue services
Empirical studies that use the multiple streams approach often examine cases of reactive policymaking in response to “focusing events”, rather than proactive policymakers who seek to broker or construct problems that their preferred solution might address. Drawing on publicly-available debates about reforms to fire and rescue services in seven areas of England, we show how individuals within small policy subsystems may construct problems to try a…
Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension
We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015 and 2019 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based within their regions compared with their counterparts in England. We found no discernible trend of English councils increasingly preferring regional suppliers, and no correlation between party-politi…
Will climate mitigation ambitions lead to carbon neutrality? An analysis of the local-level plans of 327 cities in the EU
The ‘Stifling’ of New Climate Politics in Ireland
In 2019, Ireland declared a ‘Climate Emergency,’ receiving plaudits from across the political spectrum for doing so. Some argued the country was experiencing an era of ‘new climate politics’: In 2017, Ireland had established the first Citizens’ Assembly on Climate, and in 2019 its Parliament debated a Climate Emergency Measures Bill, which was ground-breaking in its proposal to ban offshore oil and gas exploration. Yet, despite majority support f…
Rebuilding the Fire and Rescue Services: Policy, Delivery and Assurance
The book examines the new arrangements for organizing policy, delivery and public accountability in Fire and Rescue Services. Contributors of this invaluable text assess the effectiveness of government responses to new legislation that came as a result of inadequacies identified in governmental reviews, namely the Policing and Crime Act of 2017.
Rebuilding the Fire and Rescue Services: Policy Delivery and Assurance
EU environmental policy in times of crisis
The European Union (EU) has been buffeted by a range of crises since 2007, not least the economic and financial crisis. One potential victim of this economic malaise is environmental policy ambition. It is well-established that during economic crises environmental policy slips down the agenda with long term consequences for environmental quality. The EU has sought to cast itself as a global environmental leader but that leadership has in large pa…
Hybridizing the institutional logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship in English and Welsh local government
This article introduces and applies a three-stage process to show how advocates of the conflicting institutional logics of budgetary stewardship and performance improvement in English and Welsh local authorities created a hybrid logic. Drawing on interviews with officers in 25 councils, it demonstrates how cooperative working environments meant that hybridization proceeded largely ‘peacefully’, in contrast to previous studies of more competitive …
The impact of austerity on policy capacity in local government
Scholars have found it difficult to identify the impact of austerity on policy outputs. This difficulty may have arisen because studies tend to focus on the content of national and EU legislation, or budgetary responses to fiscal constraint, rather than taking a holistic view of ‘policy’. Drawing on fieldwork in two English cities, we show how ‘dismantling by arena shifting’ – exemplified by reductions in ‘back-office’ environmental policy capaci…
Who shapes local climate policy? Unpicking governance arrangements in English and German cities
A new framework for analysing subnational policymaking is applied to climate governance in the ‘twin towns’ of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gelsenkirchen. Low levels of resource interdependence between central and local government in England mean that Newcastle Council has to rely heavily on other horizontal actors to achieve its climate objectives. In contrast, Gelsenkirchen Council receives substantial support from higher tiers of government, which …
A new framework for understanding subnational policy-making and local choice
This article presents a new and innovative framework to help analyse policy-making and depoliticisation within subnational governance arrangements. By focusing on the capacity (not the autonomy) of subnational governments to achieve their political objectives, and incorporating external actors along both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, it provides a dynamic tool to understand the extent to which municipal governments influence local polic…
Cities and climate change: How historical legacies shape policy-making in English and German municipalities
This article draws on secondary historical sources and primary interviews to highlight how the legacy of the creation of local governments in England and Germany has significant implications for policy-making in the present day. By employing an institutionalist perspective to analyse how one municipality in each country tries to promote renewable energy and retrofit private housing, it demonstrates how historical factors have resulted in the Germ…
Accountability and transparency: Police forces in England and Wales
Between 2010 and 2015, the UK’s Coalition Government introduced directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to oversee English and Welsh police forces, and also required every force to publish a range of performance and financial information online. Together with the fact that front-line policing services have not been outsourced or privatised, this suggests that strong ‘downwards’ mechanisms exist through which residents can hold their local…
EU environmental policy in times of crisis
The European Union (EU) has been buffeted by a range of crises since 2007, not least the economic and financial crisis. One potential victim of this economic malaise is environmental policy ambition. It is well-established that during economic crises environmental policy slips down the agenda with long term consequences for environmental quality. The EU has sought to cast itself as a global environmental leader but that leadership has in large pa…
The impact of austerity on policy capacity in local government
Scholars have found it difficult to identify the impact of austerity on policy outputs. This difficulty may have arisen because studies tend to focus on the content of national and EU legislation, or budgetary responses to fiscal constraint, rather than taking a holistic view of ‘policy’. Drawing on fieldwork in two English cities, we show how ‘dismantling by arena shifting’ – exemplified by reductions in ‘back-office’ environmental policy capaci…
A new framework for understanding subnational policy-making and local choice
This article presents a new and innovative framework to help analyse policy-making and depoliticisation within subnational governance arrangements. By focusing on the capacity (not the autonomy) of subnational governments to achieve their political objectives, and incorporating external actors along both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, it provides a dynamic tool to understand the extent to which municipal governments influence local polic…
Cities and climate change: How historical legacies shape policy-making in English and German municipalities
This article draws on secondary historical sources and primary interviews to highlight how the legacy of the creation of local governments in England and Germany has significant implications for policy-making in the present day. By employing an institutionalist perspective to analyse how one municipality in each country tries to promote renewable energy and retrofit private housing, it demonstrates how historical factors have resulted in the Germ…
Who shapes local climate policy? Unpicking governance arrangements in English and German cities
A new framework for analysing subnational policymaking is applied to climate governance in the ‘twin towns’ of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gelsenkirchen. Low levels of resource interdependence between central and local government in England mean that Newcastle Council has to rely heavily on other horizontal actors to achieve its climate objectives. In contrast, Gelsenkirchen Council receives substantial support from higher tiers of government, which …
Structure, agency and local climate governance: How do individual actors exploit local contexts to shape policymaking in smaller cities and towns
Previous studies stress that structural conditions influence local climate action, but often neglect the role of agency in policymaking. Drawing on fieldwork in 11 German towns, we show how municipal managers frame climate-related policies in different ways to gain local support for action. Although these framings are influenced by each town's socio-economic, demographic and political conditions, as well as its vulnerability to climate threats, t…
Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks
In public governance, power and accountability are inextricably linked. However, although an integrated exploration of these concepts could enhance our understanding of how governance operates, few studies have examined them together. Drawing on resource dependency theory, we suggest that power relationships within networks shape accountability and have a concomitant impact on the prevailing governance paradigm. Specifically, where principals pos…
Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension
We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015 and 2019 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based within their regions compared with their counterparts in England. We found no discernible trend of English councils increasingly preferring regional suppliers, and no correlation between party-politi…
The ‘Stifling’ of New Climate Politics in Ireland
In 2019, Ireland declared a ‘Climate Emergency,’ receiving plaudits from across the political spectrum for doing so. Some argued the country was experiencing an era of ‘new climate politics’: In 2017, Ireland had established the first Citizens’ Assembly on Climate, and in 2019 its Parliament debated a Climate Emergency Measures Bill, which was ground-breaking in its proposal to ban offshore oil and gas exploration. Yet, despite majority support f…
Straddling multiple streams: Focusing events, policy entrepreneurs and problem brokers in the governance of English fire and rescue services
Empirical studies that use the multiple streams approach often examine cases of reactive policymaking in response to “focusing events”, rather than proactive policymakers who seek to broker or construct problems that their preferred solution might address. Drawing on publicly-available debates about reforms to fire and rescue services in seven areas of England, we show how individuals within small policy subsystems may construct problems to try a…
Local taxation and spending as a share of GDP in large Western European countries
Adapting to climate change: The Ultimate Challenge for the Next Half-Century of Local Government
Climate change will have a disproportionate and asymmetric impact on cities and urban areas, and some of their most vulnerable residents will be at particular risk. Studies have found that some municipalities have done far more to adapt to it than others, but there has been a general lack of funding, implementation and engagement with marginalised groups to help them prepare. We suggest that the unpredictable and evolving nature of climate impact…
Hybridizing the institutional logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship in English and Welsh local government
This article introduces and applies a three-stage process to show how advocates of the conflicting institutional logics of budgetary stewardship and performance improvement in English and Welsh local authorities created a hybrid logic. Drawing on interviews with officers in 25 councils, it demonstrates how cooperative working environments meant that hybridization proceeded largely ‘peacefully’, in contrast to previous studies of more competitive …
Accountability and transparency: Police forces in England and Wales
Between 2010 and 2015, the UK’s Coalition Government introduced directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to oversee English and Welsh police forces, and also required every force to publish a range of performance and financial information online. Together with the fact that front-line policing services have not been outsourced or privatised, this suggests that strong ‘downwards’ mechanisms exist through which residents can hold their local…
How Unique Is Your Web Browser
Directly-elected mayors and the austerity agenda: Lessons from the German experience
This paper identifies the key factors that have affected the ability of elected mayors in some German cities to introduce austerity measures in response to serious financial problems. Drawing on a detailed study of six municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia, it highlights how the mayor’s managerial and/or legal experience, as well as the party-political make-up of the council, played a vital role in determining the success of savings initiative…
Accountability and Transparency: A Nuanced Response to Etzioni
Transparency and accountability are key issues of our times, especially in the way that they relate to good governance and anticorruption. However, in the November/December 2014 issue of this journal, Amitai Etzioni, in “The Limits of Transparency,” criticized the U.S. government's reliance on transparency as a substitute for regulation. He argued that most citizens do not have the skills, time, or energy to evaluate data pertaining to public ins…
Local taxation and spending as a share of GDP in large Western European countries
A new framework for understanding subnational policy-making and local choice
This article presents a new and innovative framework to help analyse policy-making and depoliticisation within subnational governance arrangements. By focusing on the capacity (not the autonomy) of subnational governments to achieve their political objectives, and incorporating external actors along both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, it provides a dynamic tool to understand the extent to which municipal governments influence local polic…
Cities and climate change: How historical legacies shape policy-making in English and German municipalities
This article draws on secondary historical sources and primary interviews to highlight how the legacy of the creation of local governments in England and Germany has significant implications for policy-making in the present day. By employing an institutionalist perspective to analyse how one municipality in each country tries to promote renewable energy and retrofit private housing, it demonstrates how historical factors have resulted in the Germ…
Accountability and transparency: Police forces in England and Wales
Between 2010 and 2015, the UK’s Coalition Government introduced directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to oversee English and Welsh police forces, and also required every force to publish a range of performance and financial information online. Together with the fact that front-line policing services have not been outsourced or privatised, this suggests that strong ‘downwards’ mechanisms exist through which residents can hold their local…
Who shapes local climate policy? Unpicking governance arrangements in English and German cities
A new framework for analysing subnational policymaking is applied to climate governance in the ‘twin towns’ of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gelsenkirchen. Low levels of resource interdependence between central and local government in England mean that Newcastle Council has to rely heavily on other horizontal actors to achieve its climate objectives. In contrast, Gelsenkirchen Council receives substantial support from higher tiers of government, which …
The impact of austerity on policy capacity in local government
Scholars have found it difficult to identify the impact of austerity on policy outputs. This difficulty may have arisen because studies tend to focus on the content of national and EU legislation, or budgetary responses to fiscal constraint, rather than taking a holistic view of ‘policy’. Drawing on fieldwork in two English cities, we show how ‘dismantling by arena shifting’ – exemplified by reductions in ‘back-office’ environmental policy capaci…
Rebuilding the Fire and Rescue Services: Policy, Delivery and Assurance
The book examines the new arrangements for organizing policy, delivery and public accountability in Fire and Rescue Services. Contributors of this invaluable text assess the effectiveness of government responses to new legislation that came as a result of inadequacies identified in governmental reviews, namely the Policing and Crime Act of 2017.
Rebuilding the Fire and Rescue Services: Policy Delivery and Assurance
EU environmental policy in times of crisis
The European Union (EU) has been buffeted by a range of crises since 2007, not least the economic and financial crisis. One potential victim of this economic malaise is environmental policy ambition. It is well-established that during economic crises environmental policy slips down the agenda with long term consequences for environmental quality. The EU has sought to cast itself as a global environmental leader but that leadership has in large pa…
Hybridizing the institutional logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship in English and Welsh local government
This article introduces and applies a three-stage process to show how advocates of the conflicting institutional logics of budgetary stewardship and performance improvement in English and Welsh local authorities created a hybrid logic. Drawing on interviews with officers in 25 councils, it demonstrates how cooperative working environments meant that hybridization proceeded largely ‘peacefully’, in contrast to previous studies of more competitive …
Will climate mitigation ambitions lead to carbon neutrality? An analysis of the local-level plans of 327 cities in the EU
The ‘Stifling’ of New Climate Politics in Ireland
In 2019, Ireland declared a ‘Climate Emergency,’ receiving plaudits from across the political spectrum for doing so. Some argued the country was experiencing an era of ‘new climate politics’: In 2017, Ireland had established the first Citizens’ Assembly on Climate, and in 2019 its Parliament debated a Climate Emergency Measures Bill, which was ground-breaking in its proposal to ban offshore oil and gas exploration. Yet, despite majority support f…
Straddling multiple streams: Focusing events, policy entrepreneurs and problem brokers in the governance of English fire and rescue services
Empirical studies that use the multiple streams approach often examine cases of reactive policymaking in response to “focusing events”, rather than proactive policymakers who seek to broker or construct problems that their preferred solution might address. Drawing on publicly-available debates about reforms to fire and rescue services in seven areas of England, we show how individuals within small policy subsystems may construct problems to try a…
Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension
We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015 and 2019 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based within their regions compared with their counterparts in England. We found no discernible trend of English councils increasingly preferring regional suppliers, and no correlation between party-politi…
Climate Governance and Federalism: A Forum of Federations Comparative Policy Analysis
The majority of the world's largest carbon emitters are either federations or have adopted systems of decentralised governance. The realisation of the world's climate mitigation objectives therefore depends in large part on whether and how governments within federal systems can cooperate to reduce carbon emissions and catalyse the emergence of low-carbon societies. This volume brings together leading experts to explore whether federal or decentra…
Austerity, political control and supplier selection in English local government: Implications for autonomy in multi-level systems
Analysis of 60,000 contracts awarded by English councils between 2015–19 reveals that austerity constraints are a key predictor of councils outsourcing services to for-profit suppliers, regardless of their political control. Conservative Party-controlled councils are also more likely to contract with for-profit suppliers, although we found no link between Labour-controlled councils and not-for-profit suppliers, nor evidence that political or budg…
How do local factors shape transformation pathways towards climate-neutral and resilient cities
We examine how local socioeconomic, institutional and political factors shape climate transformation pathways in 23 mid-sized German cities. We group our cities into three types: industrial cities (which may have experienced recent structural change), historic cities (in which a significant proportion of the buildings or landscape is under monument protection) and university cities (in which academic or research institutions play a major role in …
Intentionality and visibility in state- and society-led climate approaches: Towards a more comprehensive understanding of local adaptation initiatives
Research into local climate adaptation has often focused on highly visible, intentional public policies that seek to improve resilience to climate threats or how societal actors have reacted to changing climatic conditions. We argue that these approaches neglect a range of unintentional and/or hidden initiatives, which deliver implicit and/or hitherto under-appreciated adaptation benefits. We present an analytical framework to organise studies of…
Unpacking Polycentric Climate Governance: Tracing the Evolution of Transnational Municipal Networks over Time
All governance systems are polycentric to some extent in that they comprise multiple actors with varying degrees of autonomy. However, there has been limited theorization as to how we might measure polycentricity, even though this could help us unpack networks and understand governance arrangements better. We present three dimensions of governance to conceptualize degrees of polycentricity—governance of networks (internal organization and managem…
Structure, agency and local climate governance: How do individual actors exploit local contexts to shape policymaking in smaller cities and towns
Previous studies stress that structural conditions influence local climate action, but often neglect the role of agency in policymaking. Drawing on fieldwork in 11 German towns, we show how municipal managers frame climate-related policies in different ways to gain local support for action. Although these framings are influenced by each town's socio-economic, demographic and political conditions, as well as its vulnerability to climate threats, t…
Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks
In public governance, power and accountability are inextricably linked. However, although an integrated exploration of these concepts could enhance our understanding of how governance operates, few studies have examined them together. Drawing on resource dependency theory, we suggest that power relationships within networks shape accountability and have a concomitant impact on the prevailing governance paradigm. Specifically, where principals pos…
Fifty years of local government studies: Evolution, Internationalisation, and the Future of the Field
Political science (22 works) · Economics (17 works) · Business (14 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Geography (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Corporate governance (10 works) · Public Administration (10 works) · Climate change (9 works)