Institute of Place Management at the Regional Studies Association Conference 2026
The Institute of Place Management (IPM) is delighted to be represented at the Regional Studies Association Conference, taking place in Gothenburg this June, where we will be convening a Special Session titled “Contemporary Issues in Place Management and Leadership.”
The session responds to a growing tension in policy and practice. While there has been a clear “place-based turn” in regional and local governance, serious questions remain about how effectively place management is understood, operationalised, and supported. In many contexts, traditional governance institutions are being retrofitted into “place-facing” roles without addressing deeper structural challenges around power, resources, skills, and accountability.
Too often, strategies for local and regional revitalisation continue to be shaped through centralised or top-down systems that struggle to respond to lived experience, local identity, and entrenched economic, social, and environmental inequalities. The ecosystem required to support effective place-based delivery - including leadership capacity, professional capability, collaborative structures, and shared knowledge - remains uneven and underdeveloped across places.
At the same time, there are strong reasons for optimism. Across towns, cities, and regions, new research and practice is emerging that offers alternative pathways forward. Innovative partnership models, governance experiments, and richer understandings of place experience are helping to redefine what viable, inclusive, and resilient place-based development can look like in practice.
This Special Session therefore welcomes papers that critically examine any aspect of place management and leadership, including (but not limited to):
Repositioning Places
– Spatial visions and strategies
– Aligning regional ambition with local change
– Post-retail futures for high streets and town centres
– Measuring place experience, identity, and civic pride
– New tools, data, and methods for place-based research
Reinventing Places
– Embedding placemaking within governance structures
– Place resilience and adaptability
– Inclusive placemaking and activation
– Heritage, culture, events, sport, and markets as place assets
– Social infrastructure and place-based anchors
Rebranding Places
– Navigating local, regional, and national branding agendas
– Critical perspectives on place marketing
– Participatory and co-produced place branding
– Destination marketing and identity formation
Restructuring Places
– Place leadership across local–regional boundaries
– Governance innovation and partnership working
– Devolution and place-based delivery
– Integrating place into planning, development, and investment systems
The session aligns closely with IPM’s mission to bridge research, policy, and practice, and to strengthen the professional foundations of place management and leadership. We look forward to welcoming contributions that advance both critical understanding and practical insight - and to continuing the conversation on how places can be better led, managed, and supported in the years ahead.
For more information, please contact Dr Nikos Ntounis via ipm@mmu.ac.uk
About the author
Formed in 2006, the Institute of Place Management is the international professional body that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.