Do voluntary civic engagement and non-profit leadership challenge local political leadership in urban development?

EU policies support a place-based approach with the increasing role of local partners in political decision-making. The current crisis of formal political leadership raises the question of whether or not formal leadership is becoming dispersed and informal place leadership can succeed in filling the vacuum. Based on data from the implementation of 58 EU-funded Integrated Urban Development Plans in Czechia, we found that informal leadership is challenging formal local political leadership. Nevertheless, its success has been limited in obtaining political legitimacy due to missing dialogue between the local movements and nonprofit leaders when searching for solutions to local problems.