'Strategic' enabling? Cardiff City Council and local economic strategy

In this paper I examine the development of Cardiff City Council's local economic strategy. It is argued that the definition of local policy, of what the policy process means in particular instance, derives from the complex of economic, social, and political conditions found within and beyond a given locality. In Cardiff, the interaction of broad processes of restructuring with specific local forms has historically diluted Cardiff City Council's function in local economic policy. In turn the recent experience of strategy making has been predicated upon a more wide-ranging and deeper involvement in associated service provision, and the construction of legitimacy around enhanced City Council activity. In particular ways this questions the interrelationship of strategy making and service provision promulgated in notions of strategic enabling.