Practitioners' ability to retool the economy: The role of agency in local economic resilience to plant closures in Ontario

Abstract

Economic resilience focuses on how localities react and respond to shocks. A recent conceptual advancement, known as the agency perspective and rooted in evolutionary thinking, highlights that economic actors (e.g., practitioners, firms, and institutions) play an essential role in localities' resilience. However, empirical investigations into the role of economic actors have been scarce. To address this shortcoming, in this study we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 practitioners (economic development officials) from various cities in Ontario, Canada. Through an evolutionary lens, we examine practitioners' perceptions of and responses to endogenous shocks—notably, major industrial plant closures over the past 20 years. We find that practitioners influence localities' resilience through each dimension of the resilience process. Most notably, they support their localities' adaption through various short- and long-term adaptive strategies. Also, we find that economic actors have different capacities and resources at their disposal to respond to shocks depending on the size of their city and its geographical location. Regarding the latter, we reiterate a commonly noted north-south divide in the province. In addition, we find that economic actors are constrained by multi-scalar policies, and thus operate in the confines of existing power and political structures.