Place leadership as a mobilisation of assets

The growing interest in leadership in city and regional development, discussed in this chapter under the umbrella of place leadership, reflects a conviction that leadership is one of the determinants in explaining why some cities and regions enjoy greater economic and social prosperity than others. Place leadership is one of the central components in understanding why and how some places can transition towards new development paths, while many others, starting from supposedly similar structural conditions, experience stagnation. Specifically, we focus on what local actors can do for their places without abundant resources or significant power when facing the abrupt decisions of placeless power-holders. In this chapter, we examine how place-based leadership deals with the plant closures of major corporations using the representative case of Salo, studied here in the context of the closures of Nokia&s;s and Microsoft&s;s units. The chapter&s;s main objective is to shed light on place leadership as asset mobilisation.