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Lee Pugalis

University of Technology Sydney, Centre for Local Government, Faculty Member

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Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Theory and Practice in the School of the Built and Natural Environment at Northumbria University. His current research pursuits include monitoring the effects of economic restructuring and neoliberal respatialisations, investigating evolving systems of sub-national governance, analysing novel urban policy experiments and evaluating urban regeneration programmes. Lee has published over 30 papers in the past 3 years on these and other topics, across academic and practitioner-oriented outlets. Preceding academia, Lee had a distinguished career in practice. Until March 2011, he was Economic Strategy Manager at Durham County Council where he directed the County Durham Economic Partnership; engaged in Local Enterprise Partnership development and City-Region collaboration. Prior to this, Lee was the Regeneration Specialist Advisor to One North East Regional Development Agency and has also worked for central and regional government in various strategy-making capacities, including participation in the 2004 planning reforms. He has won several awards for his research and secured a prestigious ESRC PhD Scholarship through competition. Lee is currently a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University’s Global Urban Research Unit.
Phone: 00 44 (0)191 227 4566
Address: Room A203
School of the Built and Natural Environment
Northumbria University
Ellison Building
Newcastle
NE1 8ST

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Leeds Metropolitan University

The University of Manchester

Peter Lubosi Simasiku

Vincent Puhakka

Paul Greenhalgh

Northumbria University

Alistair Bowden

Northumbria University

Peter James Morton

Educons University

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Papers by Lee Pugalis

APPG on Local Growth, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Enterprise Zones

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

Innovative Practice: We see evidence of innovative practice. LEPs say that they are supported in ... more

LEPs: entrepreneurial governance and innovative practices

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

LEPs: Entrepreneurial governance, soft state spaces and innovative practices

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

AFTER REGIONS: WHAT NEXT FOR LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2012

Team Academy Northumbria - Learn to Surprise Yourself

by Programme Leader Lucy and Lee Pugalis

in Compendium of Effective Practice in directed independent learning Case Study

After Regions: What Next for Local Enterprise Partnerships?

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2012

Standing out as an oddity in comparison to the convergence of policy across EU nations whereby th... more Standing out as an oddity in comparison to the convergence of policy across EU nations whereby the merits of regional apparatus – however defined – for administering development support appear to be accepted, the UK Government has abandoned England’s experiment with regionalism. Under the banner of localism, providing the thinnest of masks for swingeing public expenditure cuts, sub-national development activity (encompassing planning, regeneration, infrastructure development, enterprise support and spatial leadership) is in the throes of considerable economic shifts, policy flux and institutional upheaval (Ward & Hardy, 2012).
This article attempts to address some of the questions posed in The regional lacuna: a preliminary map of the transition from Regional Development Agencies to Local Economic Partnerships (Pugalis, 2011) and helps to advance some of the points relating to the emerging sub-national development landscape published in recent issues of Regions (e.g. Bailey, 2011). The purpose is to take stock of policy developments underway by means of a post-regional sub-national review in order to outline the future development trajectory of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Rebalancing England: sub-national development (once again) at the crossroads

Urban Research & Practice, 2012

Over the last two decades there has been continuous tinkering and wholesale review of the remit, ... more Over the last two decades there has been continuous tinkering and wholesale review of the remit, governance and territorial focus of sub-national development in England. There has also been mounting agreement that subsidiarity will produce optimum material outcomes. It is against this background that we provide a critical reading of the UK Coalition government’s 2010 ‘White Paper’ on Local Growth. Revealing the peculiarities of an economic transition plan which dismantled a regional (strategic) framework, we explore the opportunities that cross-boundary Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) may provide. After abandoning regions, LEPs have been promoted as the only possible ‘replacements’ for Regional Development Agencies and, thus, a prime example of new ‘techniques of government’. We probe the potentials and pitfalls from the dash to establish new sub-national techniques of government, and crystallise some key implications that apply beyond the shores of England. Our key contention is that LEPs have designed-in just as many issues as they have designed-out.

Key words: sub-national development; economic governance; Local Enterprise Partnerships; Regional Development Agencies

Rescaling of Planning and Its Interface with Economic Development

Planning Practice and Research, 2012

Following the installation of a UK Coalition Government in 2010, ways of governing the spatial or... more Following the installation of a UK Coalition Government in 2010, ways of governing the spatial organisation of development have undergone far-reaching change in England. Within a context of austerity following the abolition of regional policy machinery, and an onerous national target framework, localities are entering a new phase of incentivised development. Consequently, Local Planning Authorities are having to transfer part of their focus from government’s ‘top-down’ requirements, as they come to embrace more adequately ‘bottom-up’ neighbourhood scale plans. Analysing the path of change, especially at the interface between planning and economic development, the paper draws attention to the dilemmas arising from these crucial scale shifts, and explores the potential of sub-national governance entities – Local Enterprise Partnerships – to help resolve the strategic co-ordination of planning.

The regional lacuna: a preliminary map of the transition from RDAs to LEPs

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2011

Sub-national development in England is once again at a decisive crossroads in its persistent jour... more Sub-national development in England is once again at a decisive crossroads in its persistent journey of state-led restructuring. Whereas the territories of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland achieved significant devolutionary packages under the UK’s Labour Government (1997-2010), decentralisation in England was rather more constrained and could be more aptly described as a regionalisation of central government functions. Since the election of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat (Con-Lib) UK Government in May, 2010, the demise of England’s regional framework has featured prominently in political discourse. It is a case of ‘out with the old’, including Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices for the Regions and Regional Leaders’ Boards, and ‘in with the new’, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, as the Coalition Government embark on their quest of economic rebalancing and recovery at the same time as state spending retrenches.

Regional governance and place-shaping: An evolving tripartite relationship - Pugalis 2009

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2009

The emergence of choice places-Lee Pugalis looks at'choice place'policy and its impact on the use of regeneration resources and the design of city …

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2010

English regions disbanded: European funding and economic regeneration implications

Local Economy, Jan 1, 2011

The investiture of a UK Coalition Government in 2010 heralded the (ongoing) production of new sub... more The investiture of a UK Coalition Government in 2010 heralded the (ongoing) production of new sub-national geographies of governance in England. Of primary concern is the disbanding of the English regions, outside of London, which were New Labour’s preferred scale for ‘managing’ economic regeneration during the 2000s. In a bid to rollback the role of the state as part of their deficit reduction plan, the Coalition embarked on a political rescaling strategy resulting in various institutional reconfigurations. This rescaling of state power has significant policy implications in the context of European funding, which is the focus of this paper. By analysing a field of policy activity during a period of significant motion, the intent is to highlight some notable dilemmas, aided by posing some practical questions; in order to prompt some much needed policy discussion and academic deliberation.

Key words: European funding, economic regeneration, sub-national development, state rescaling, governance, Regional Development Agencies, Local Enterprise Partnerships

The Production of Choice Places: The Case of Sunniside, Sunderland

A cost in planning for prosperous economies? The new draft PPS4 appears to invite short-term fixes rather than long-term sustainable growth, argue Lee …

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2010

Look before you LEP

Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Jan 1, 2011

State-led restructuring of sub-national economic governance and regeneration has been rapidly evo... more State-led restructuring of sub-national economic governance and regeneration has been rapidly evolving over the past year or so across England. With several waves of cross-boundary Local Enterprise Partnerships approved by the UK Government, it is opportune to take stock of some of the more notable shifts. Building on a preliminary analytical mapping of the rocky road from regionalism to sub-regional localism, the paper pays particular attention to the politicised process underpinning the alliances, and crafting, development and subsequent submission of LEP proposals, as well as the eventual assessment and state sanctioning of LEP bids. Examining the process from a variety of perspectives, the paper highlights unequal power relations and extracts a number of powerful policy considerations. The paper propounds the argument that the rhetoric of permissive policy masks centralist controlling tendencies and unwritten rules.

Keywords: Public-private partnerships, sub-national governance, regeneration, economic policy, regional development, business engagement, leadership and local enterprise partnerships

A Conceptual and Analytical Framework for Interpreting the Spatiality of Social Life

FORUM Ejournal, Jan 1, 2009

This paper provides a framework for understanding the phenomenon of the discursive-material produ... more This paper provides a framework for understanding the phenomenon of the discursive-material production of space, and also, for considering how unknowns may be organised. Language is instrumental to the production of place but has been overshadowed by investigations of material transformations. This is partly being redressed by the ‘linguistic turn’ in urban policy analysis over recent decades which recognise the performative aspects of language. However, the methodological ‘gap’ between discursivities and materialities remains as too often analysis of urban policy discourse has taken an aspatial analytic approach. Representations of space cannot be divorced from spatial practices and vice versa. Based on my premise that many visions, plans and strategies never materialise, and even some that do materialise have little bearing on what is produced, a mixed-method approach is required that considers the recursive interactions between spatial practices and representations of space. Grounded in the theories of Henri Lefebvre and Michel Foucault, which conceptualis space as a social process and broaden discourse to embrace spatial practice respectively, I devise a conceptual and operational analytics which I refer to as interpretive-spatial analysis with the goal of helping to bridge the problematic ontological, epistemological and methodological divide between discursivities and materialities.

The culture and economics of urban public space design: Public and professional perceptions

Urban Design International, Jan 1, 2009

Urban public space is once again a &amp;#x27;hot&amp;#x27; topic and figures strongly in ... more Urban public space is once again a &amp;#x27;hot&amp;#x27; topic and figures strongly in place quality discourse. City spaces are being recycled, reinterpreted and reinvented in a drive for a competitive quality of place. This article illustrates the changing face of contemporary UK public space ...

It's all about place shaping

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on …, Jan 1, 2010

The evolutionary 'waves' of place-shaping: Pre-, during and post-recession

Journal of Town and City Management, Jan 1, 2011

This paper is concerned with the evolution of place-shaping over the past decade or so and its po... more

Cultural animation and economic vitality: Identifying the links and regeneration potential through the lens of the urban street scene

Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Jan 1, 2009

&#x27;There&#x27;s a quiet revolution taking place in our leading cities. Places that wer... more &#x27;There&#x27;s a quiet revolution taking place in our leading cities. Places that were once the engine room of the industrial revolution, employing millions in mills, factories, ports and shipyards, are learning new ways to create wealth in a global economy where brain has replaced brawn.&#x27;1

APPG on Local Growth, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Enterprise Zones

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

Innovative Practice: We see evidence of innovative practice. LEPs say that they are supported in ... more

LEPs: entrepreneurial governance and innovative practices

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

LEPs: Entrepreneurial governance, soft state spaces and innovative practices

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

AFTER REGIONS: WHAT NEXT FOR LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS

by John Shutt and Lee Pugalis

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2012

Team Academy Northumbria - Learn to Surprise Yourself

by Programme Leader Lucy and Lee Pugalis

in Compendium of Effective Practice in directed independent learning Case Study

After Regions: What Next for Local Enterprise Partnerships?

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2012

Standing out as an oddity in comparison to the convergence of policy across EU nations whereby th... more Standing out as an oddity in comparison to the convergence of policy across EU nations whereby the merits of regional apparatus – however defined – for administering development support appear to be accepted, the UK Government has abandoned England’s experiment with regionalism. Under the banner of localism, providing the thinnest of masks for swingeing public expenditure cuts, sub-national development activity (encompassing planning, regeneration, infrastructure development, enterprise support and spatial leadership) is in the throes of considerable economic shifts, policy flux and institutional upheaval (Ward & Hardy, 2012).
This article attempts to address some of the questions posed in The regional lacuna: a preliminary map of the transition from Regional Development Agencies to Local Economic Partnerships (Pugalis, 2011) and helps to advance some of the points relating to the emerging sub-national development landscape published in recent issues of Regions (e.g. Bailey, 2011). The purpose is to take stock of policy developments underway by means of a post-regional sub-national review in order to outline the future development trajectory of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Rebalancing England: sub-national development (once again) at the crossroads

Urban Research & Practice, 2012

Over the last two decades there has been continuous tinkering and wholesale review of the remit, ... more Over the last two decades there has been continuous tinkering and wholesale review of the remit, governance and territorial focus of sub-national development in England. There has also been mounting agreement that subsidiarity will produce optimum material outcomes. It is against this background that we provide a critical reading of the UK Coalition government’s 2010 ‘White Paper’ on Local Growth. Revealing the peculiarities of an economic transition plan which dismantled a regional (strategic) framework, we explore the opportunities that cross-boundary Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) may provide. After abandoning regions, LEPs have been promoted as the only possible ‘replacements’ for Regional Development Agencies and, thus, a prime example of new ‘techniques of government’. We probe the potentials and pitfalls from the dash to establish new sub-national techniques of government, and crystallise some key implications that apply beyond the shores of England. Our key contention is that LEPs have designed-in just as many issues as they have designed-out.

Key words: sub-national development; economic governance; Local Enterprise Partnerships; Regional Development Agencies

Rescaling of Planning and Its Interface with Economic Development

Planning Practice and Research, 2012

Following the installation of a UK Coalition Government in 2010, ways of governing the spatial or... more Following the installation of a UK Coalition Government in 2010, ways of governing the spatial organisation of development have undergone far-reaching change in England. Within a context of austerity following the abolition of regional policy machinery, and an onerous national target framework, localities are entering a new phase of incentivised development. Consequently, Local Planning Authorities are having to transfer part of their focus from government’s ‘top-down’ requirements, as they come to embrace more adequately ‘bottom-up’ neighbourhood scale plans. Analysing the path of change, especially at the interface between planning and economic development, the paper draws attention to the dilemmas arising from these crucial scale shifts, and explores the potential of sub-national governance entities – Local Enterprise Partnerships – to help resolve the strategic co-ordination of planning.

The regional lacuna: a preliminary map of the transition from RDAs to LEPs

Regions: The Newsletter of The Regional Studies Association, 2011

Sub-national development in England is once again at a decisive crossroads in its persistent jour... more Sub-national development in England is once again at a decisive crossroads in its persistent journey of state-led restructuring. Whereas the territories of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland achieved significant devolutionary packages under the UK’s Labour Government (1997-2010), decentralisation in England was rather more constrained and could be more aptly described as a regionalisation of central government functions. Since the election of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat (Con-Lib) UK Government in May, 2010, the demise of England’s regional framework has featured prominently in political discourse. It is a case of ‘out with the old’, including Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices for the Regions and Regional Leaders’ Boards, and ‘in with the new’, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, as the Coalition Government embark on their quest of economic rebalancing and recovery at the same time as state spending retrenches.

Regional governance and place-shaping: An evolving tripartite relationship - Pugalis 2009

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2009

The emergence of choice places-Lee Pugalis looks at'choice place'policy and its impact on the use of regeneration resources and the design of city …

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2010

English regions disbanded: European funding and economic regeneration implications

Local Economy, Jan 1, 2011

The investiture of a UK Coalition Government in 2010 heralded the (ongoing) production of new sub... more The investiture of a UK Coalition Government in 2010 heralded the (ongoing) production of new sub-national geographies of governance in England. Of primary concern is the disbanding of the English regions, outside of London, which were New Labour’s preferred scale for ‘managing’ economic regeneration during the 2000s. In a bid to rollback the role of the state as part of their deficit reduction plan, the Coalition embarked on a political rescaling strategy resulting in various institutional reconfigurations. This rescaling of state power has significant policy implications in the context of European funding, which is the focus of this paper. By analysing a field of policy activity during a period of significant motion, the intent is to highlight some notable dilemmas, aided by posing some practical questions; in order to prompt some much needed policy discussion and academic deliberation.

Key words: European funding, economic regeneration, sub-national development, state rescaling, governance, Regional Development Agencies, Local Enterprise Partnerships

The Production of Choice Places: The Case of Sunniside, Sunderland

A cost in planning for prosperous economies? The new draft PPS4 appears to invite short-term fixes rather than long-term sustainable growth, argue Lee …

Town and Country Planning, Jan 1, 2010

Look before you LEP

Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Jan 1, 2011

State-led restructuring of sub-national economic governance and regeneration has been rapidly evo... more State-led restructuring of sub-national economic governance and regeneration has been rapidly evolving over the past year or so across England. With several waves of cross-boundary Local Enterprise Partnerships approved by the UK Government, it is opportune to take stock of some of the more notable shifts. Building on a preliminary analytical mapping of the rocky road from regionalism to sub-regional localism, the paper pays particular attention to the politicised process underpinning the alliances, and crafting, development and subsequent submission of LEP proposals, as well as the eventual assessment and state sanctioning of LEP bids. Examining the process from a variety of perspectives, the paper highlights unequal power relations and extracts a number of powerful policy considerations. The paper propounds the argument that the rhetoric of permissive policy masks centralist controlling tendencies and unwritten rules.

Keywords: Public-private partnerships, sub-national governance, regeneration, economic policy, regional development, business engagement, leadership and local enterprise partnerships

A Conceptual and Analytical Framework for Interpreting the Spatiality of Social Life

FORUM Ejournal, Jan 1, 2009

This paper provides a framework for understanding the phenomenon of the discursive-material produ... more This paper provides a framework for understanding the phenomenon of the discursive-material production of space, and also, for considering how unknowns may be organised. Language is instrumental to the production of place but has been overshadowed by investigations of material transformations. This is partly being redressed by the ‘linguistic turn’ in urban policy analysis over recent decades which recognise the performative aspects of language. However, the methodological ‘gap’ between discursivities and materialities remains as too often analysis of urban policy discourse has taken an aspatial analytic approach. Representations of space cannot be divorced from spatial practices and vice versa. Based on my premise that many visions, plans and strategies never materialise, and even some that do materialise have little bearing on what is produced, a mixed-method approach is required that considers the recursive interactions between spatial practices and representations of space. Grounded in the theories of Henri Lefebvre and Michel Foucault, which conceptualis space as a social process and broaden discourse to embrace spatial practice respectively, I devise a conceptual and operational analytics which I refer to as interpretive-spatial analysis with the goal of helping to bridge the problematic ontological, epistemological and methodological divide between discursivities and materialities.

The culture and economics of urban public space design: Public and professional perceptions

Urban Design International, Jan 1, 2009

Urban public space is once again a &amp;#x27;hot&amp;#x27; topic and figures strongly in ... more Urban public space is once again a &amp;#x27;hot&amp;#x27; topic and figures strongly in place quality discourse. City spaces are being recycled, reinterpreted and reinvented in a drive for a competitive quality of place. This article illustrates the changing face of contemporary UK public space ...

It's all about place shaping

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on …, Jan 1, 2010

The evolutionary 'waves' of place-shaping: Pre-, during and post-recession

Journal of Town and City Management, Jan 1, 2011

This paper is concerned with the evolution of place-shaping over the past decade or so and its po... more

Cultural animation and economic vitality: Identifying the links and regeneration potential through the lens of the urban street scene

Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Jan 1, 2009

&#x27;There&#x27;s a quiet revolution taking place in our leading cities. Places that wer... more &#x27;There&#x27;s a quiet revolution taking place in our leading cities. Places that were once the engine room of the industrial revolution, employing millions in mills, factories, ports and shipyards, are learning new ways to create wealth in a global economy where brain has replaced brawn.&#x27;1