Everyday Fixers as Local Heroes: A Case Study of Vital Interaction in Urban Governance FRANK HENDRIKS & PIETER TOPS Tilburg School of Politics and Public Administration, Tilburg University, the Netherlands ABSTRACT This article exemplifies the importance of viable coalitions in processes of neighbourhood development and local governance. Elaborating on the notion of the ‘everyday maker’, discovered in Danish local politics by Bang and So ¨rensen, this article further explores the characteristics and conditions of organising capacity, using the case of the Neighbourhood Development Corporation in the Dutch city of The Hague as a paradigmatic case. This case shows that individual actors, ‘everyday fixers’ or ‘local heroes’, can make a real difference in local politics if they are well connected to a supportive structure and if they are sensitive to the logic of the situation at hand. Context matters, sometimes impedes, but smart individuals can also make it work. Built on a case study of a Dutch neighbourhood development corporation, this article contributes to the debate on horizontalisation and interactive governance in the urban realm. After thick description of a relatively successful case of interactive governance in the Netherlands, the focus of attention shifts to the essence of the ‘everyday fixer’ in processes of interactive governance. The article elaborates on the concept, and specifies under which conditions the ‘everyday fixer’ can be expected to flourish, namely: the presence of pressure from below, the presence of room for manoeuvre on the part of public entrepreneurs, the presence of backing from essential counterparts at the city’s administration, and in general the existence of interpersonal co-productive relations. Correspondence Address: Frank Hendriks and Pieter Tops, Tilburg School of Politics and Public Administration, Tilburg University. PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands. E-mail: f.hendriks@uvt.nl, tops@uvt.nl Local Government Studies, Vol. 31, No. 4, 475 – 490, August 2005 ISSN 0300-3930 Print/1743-9388 Online ª 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd DOI: 10.1080/03003930500136899 Downloaded by [Tilburg University] at 03:14 06 November 2013