Localism: from adaptive to social leadership

‘Social leadership’ refers to the act of orchestrating adaptive change in groups, organisations, communities and nations. This article evaluates the contribution a social leadership approach can make to dealing with complex adaptive issues facing communities experiencing profound social change. It broaches the thorny question of what form of leadership best fits different localisms. The article does this by examining a sample of cases that are indicative of each form of localism and where the adoption of a social leadership approach has deepened the effectiveness of community problem-solving, compared to more centralised, top-down approaches. It distinguishes between localism as a consultative process, for solving technical problems, and localism as a ‘learning dynamic’, which helps communities adapt in an evolutionary sense to new or constantly changing environments. This article concludes that linking localism to a social leadership framework allows the concept to take on more depth as a way of engaging communities around tough realities focusing on underlying dynamics and generating the adaptive behaviours required to address those challenges.