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This is a composite paper bringing together six personal reflections on being supervised as doctoral students by Ronan Paddison. It contributes insightful and poignant voices of experience to a special issue commemorating the academic contributions – here with wider implications beyond the immediately 'academic' – of Ronan Paddison (1945–2019), the founder and for many years Editor-in-Chief of this journal, Space and Polity. The six sets of reflections have been authored independently of one another, but their cumulative effect is to demonstrate the depth of 'hidden' academic (and related) contribution made by Ronan to nurturing early career academics formally (through the doctoral supervision process) and more informally (in numerous ways and sometimes continuing well beyond the submission and award of a thesis). (Editorial abstract) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. Devolution has been described as a key 'global trend' over recent decades as governments have decentralised power and responsibilities to subordinate regional institutions. UK devolution is characterised by its asymmetrical nature with different territories granted different institutional arrangements and powers. This paper seeks to examine the role of state personnel in mobilising the new institutional machinery and managing the process of devolution, focusing on transport policy. The research presented shows a clear contrast between London and Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Scotland and Wales, on the other, in terms of the effectiveness of political leaders in creating clear policy priorities and momentum in transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regime theory has become a favoured tool of analysis for students of city politics. It provides a consistent evaluative framework with which to analyse the operation of local politics in contrasting cities. Recent applications have sought to extend the reach of regime analysis beyond the US, and to integrate the theory with other urban political and geographical analyses. This paper reflects both of these concerns by applying the insights into power structures and coalition formation in city politics provided by regime theory, and particularly Stoker and Mossberger's (1994) typology of regime characteristics. This is valuable in informing the (re)emerging debates over the preferred spatial and functional structure of urban local governance in the UK. By comparing the development of policy in a particular field, urban rail transportation, the characteristics of two different local institutional mixes, the 'city-regional' and the 'public choice', are demonstrated to exert profound influences on the composition, operation and aspirations of local regimes. The differences in decision-making strategies and policy outcomes that arise are suggested to have significant implications for the preferred spatial structure of local authorities, and the level of public accountability they achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]