Does Agenda Matter for Network in Urban Governance? Comparative Evidence from Mayors in Europe

In urban governance, complex issues require the collaboration of actors across levels and sectors. This configuration impinges upon mayoral leadership emphasizing agenda-setting and network-broking in an entrepreneurial fashion. Mayors are expected to create a vision for their locality and mobilize stakeholders thereto. Some argue this implies an agenda confined to development. Comparative evidence for Europe shows a more diversified picture with pro-growth perspectives complemented by caretaking or deprivation removal. Meanwhile, networking changes shape towards managing its structuration and process. The literature thereby postulates a relationship between the kind of agenda and the type of networking. Where urban regimes suggest the dominance of business interests and actors, comparative evidence for Europe see these embedded in a broader civic arena with electoral and intergovernmental counterparts (gaining prominence with agendas deviating from growth). These findings rely on (comparative) case studies triangulated by explorative survey data. In the differentiated European context, more robust accounts of that relationship and its contingencies are lacking. The paper therefor aims to address two questions: 1. Is there an empirical relationship between the agenda and networking of the mayor? 2. To what extent does (1) hold when form (electoral and functional), context (local and national) and characteristics (social and political background) of mayoral leadership are considered? To answer these, the paper draws on the data of the comparative project of the European Mayor, probing into leadership by means of a survey conducted in 2015 among mayors in urban localities in about thirty countries (N = 2691). It adds to an earlier description by the proposers of this paper of network activism, dependencies and success using the same data mainly through an aggregated lens and merely prospecting agenda-related differences therein.