Relational local action: Welsh community groups’ engagement within networks of public service provision

Havers, Rosie and Durrant, Hannah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0143-8931 2026. Relational local action: Welsh community groups’ engagement within networks of public service provision. Geoforum 175 , 104752. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104752

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Abstract

There has been a long debate in the literature on whether local community action can work with public service provision without becoming ‘co-opted’ or ‘filling gaps’. Research shows messier possibilities, where community action can complement, challenge or demand state responsibilities, while sometimes also assuming and fulfilling them. This article contributes by highlighting how such possibilities are influenced by community action’s spatial dynamics – how it interacts within wider networks of public service provision to meet wellbeing needs locally. We examine these using storytelling interviews carried out with 53 Welsh community groups during the Coronavirus pandemic. This highlights possibilities for local community action ‘on the ground’ being materially supported by digital engagement within wider networks of public service provision (complicating ‘gap filling’), while strengthening these networks by retaining local specificity (complicating ‘co-option’). We draw on geographical spatial theory to make sense of where and how this ‘relational local action’ emerged, in turn contributing to limited research on how theoretical concepts of ‘relational space’ might look in practice. This helps to articulate possibilities for community-state interactions beyond co-opting local action or filling gaps in public sector provision.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0016-7185
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 July 2026
Date of Acceptance:	25 June 2026
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2026 11:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/188235

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