Linking the 'meta-governance' imperative to regional governance in resource communities

Critics of 'the governance turn' suggest that, in self-governing networks and hybrid governance arrangements, there remains an imperative for coordination and steering of governance institutions and processes. This is termed 'meta-governance'. The dominant view in the meta-governance literature rejects the claim that states have been hollowed-out and maintains that governance still largely occurs through or by government. From this perspective it would appear that meta-governance, almost necessarily, is akin to central steering by the state. We support the small but growing body of scholarship that challenges this notion by claiming that meta-governance may in fact be exercised by any resourceful actor: public or private. We do so by interrogating the specific literature on regional policy and governance and the increasingly complex governance tasks that resource companies have taken on through their participation in an expanded scope of social policy issues. We show that, in the context of rural and remote communities, extractive resource companies have the potential to play a meta-governance role, and conclude by arguing that meta-governance is a significant, but under-explored topic in both rural governance and regional scholarship. We suggest that further research be undertaken to explore this private actor and their role in meta-governance.