John Tomaney

England and the 'New Regionalism'

It could be argued that there are currently two parallel developments in Europe: the increasing political importance of the regional level and the proliferation of regionally-based initiatives in economic promotion and development (DANSON et al., 2000). Both have important consequences for the distribution of the institutionalized capacity which has been established to take and in ̄ uence decisions with regard to the long term future and development of a particular locality: in short, for the patterns of regional governance. It is widely recognized and stressed in the publications of the European Commission and of the UNIDO that institutions and governance are the critical factors in the determination of the potential and success of Europe’s regions. Within the UK in particular, the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies, and the creation of regional development agencies on the already crowded economic development landscape of England highlight the need to put these initiatives into some context and, given the primary role of the EU in shaping that landscape, to draw on experience from across Europe. Two aspects are central to many such discussions: the question of governance ± how does the ongoing process of institution-building aVect the ways in which the regions and localities are governed, including questions of democracy, participation, regional self-determination, public± private partnerships and accountability; and the consequences of new modes of governance and institutional change for regional development strategies and policies, particularly in the context of large-scale industrial restructuring and city-region and urban regeneration. Yet, in many cases there has been an underdeveloped debate about the role of the institutions of the new r̀egions’ and about the processes of r̀egionalism’ . This article by John Tomaney and Neil Ward presents a critical analysis of the underpinnings to such themes and contributes to the evolving literature.

Towards the Resilient Region

Discussions of local and regional development have recently broadened from a preoccupation with growth to one which captures the notion of resilience. This article makes two main contributions to these debates. First, it critiques static equilibrium-based notions of resilience and instead advances a more dynamic evolutionary approach to explain local and regional resilience. Secondly, it seeks to address the widening gap between resilience thinking and its transfer to practical policy prescription. To do this, we explore the notions of adaptability, adaptive capacity and new path creation in developing local and regional resilience. We then focus upon what this might mean for local and regional strategies, and draw on the case study of the renewable energy sector in north-east England to demonstrate the enduring role of policy intervention in stimulating change and building resilience in peripheral regions.

In search of the ‘economic dividend’ of devolution: spatial disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation in the UK

After a decade of devolution and amid uncertainties about its effects, it is timely to assess and reflect upon the evidence and enduring meaning of any ‘economic dividend’ of devolution in the UK. Taking an institutionalist and quantitative approach, we seek to discern the nature and extent of any economic dividend through a conceptual and empirical analysis of the relationships between spatial disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation. Situating the UK experience within its evolving historical context, we find: (i) a varied and uneven nature of the relationships between regional disparities, spatial economic policy, and decentralisation that change direction during specific time periods; (ii) the role of national economic growth is pivotal in explaining spatial disparities and the nature and extent of their relationship with the particular forms of spatial economic policy and decentralisation deployed; and, (iii) there is limited evidence that any economic dividend of devolution has emerged, but this remains difficult to discern because its likely effects are overridden by the role of national economic growth in decisively shaping the pattern of spatial disparities and in determining the scope and effects of spatial economic policy and decentralisation.

Behind the myth of European union : prospects for cohesion

The vision of the original arhitects of the European Community was to create a Europe of economic prosperity and social harmony. Economic integration has come ever closer, but sustained growth and a reduction in social disparities seen as far away as ever. This book examines the prospects for the real cohesion in Europe and find that, far from promroting it, many of the Communitys current policies are divisive. The neo-liberal philosophy at the moment is producing policies which favour relatively wealthy regions and major corporations at the expense of less favoured regions and peoples.

Income inequality, decentralisation and regional development in Western Europe

This paper deals with the relationship between decentralisation, regional economic development, and income inequality within regions. Using multiplicative interaction models and regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100 000 individuals in the European Union (EU), it addresses two main questions. First, whether fiscal and political decentralisation in Western Europe has an effect on within-regional interpersonal inequality. Second, whether this potential relationship is mediated by the level of economic development of the region. The results of the analysis show that greater fiscal decentralisation is associated with lower interpersonal income inequality, but, as regional income rises, further decentralisation is connected to a lower decrease in inequality. This finding is robust to the measurement and definition of income inequality, as well as to the weighting of the spatial units by their population size.

Region and place I: Institutions

The role of institutions in the promotion (or hindrance) of regional development has attracted increasing attention from scholars and policy-makers. This paper reviews recent contributions to this debate before sketching elements of a research agenda which addresses some key conjectural, methodological and political issues.

Local empowerment through economic restructuring in Brazil: the case of the greater ABC region

Abstract Regional and local capacity building in Brazil, as in other Latin American countries, has traditionally been linked with democracy. Whereas periods of dictatorship usually saw the establishment of a tight grip by the centre over state and local governments, democracy has been linked to greater autonomy at the regional and local levels. The revival of regional and local governments in Brazil over the last decade and a half seems to fall into this latter category. In this paper we will argue that the advent of democracy is however not the only factor behind the recent dynamism at the sub-national level, but that economic restructuring is becoming a major force behind the adoption of more pro-active attitudes and policies by local and regional governments. We will illustrate this theory with the example of the greater ABC region, in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, where economic crisis and restructuring has led to inter-municipal co-operation and the creation of a local economic development council.

Parochialism – a defence

I present a defence of parochialism against the claims of cosmopolitanism and in the context of debates about the relational accounts of place. Against normative claims that local attachments and territorial sense of belonging lead to exclusion and cultural atrophy, the paper suggests that the local, its cultures and its solidarities are a moral starting point and a locus of ecological concern in all human societies and at all moments of history. I explore this idea by reference to art and literature, especially poetry. This analysis suggests that local identities should be understood contextually; there is no necessary relation between local forms of identity and practices of exclusion. The paper shows how the virtue of parochialism is expressed in art with a universal appeal. I conclude, therefore, that we need more detailed studies of real local identities, which avoid a presumption of disdain.

Local and Regional Development in Times of Crisis

Neoliberalism and its legacies Neoliberalism has shaped the international ideology of economic development and, consequently, the pattern of local and regional development across the world for the last thirty years. By recasting the relationship of the state to facilitate the market, neoliberalism contributed simultaneously to a period of relatively rapid, but geographically uneven, economic growth, while sowing the seeds of the severe economic crisis of the late 2000s. Globalisation has been the partner of neoliberalism in the transformation of the world economy during this period. The growing integration of international marketsö while often presented as an inexorable processöhas been a politically constructed settlement, which has favoured some social groups and places more than others (Hirst and Thompson, 1999). The expansion and restructuring of international trade which epitomise globalisation have been accompanied by rising living standards, but also by increasing interpersonal inequalities (Milanovic, 2005) and intranationalöalthough, curiously, not internationalödisparities (Rodr|̈guez-Pose and Crescenzi, 2008). Greater integration of financial, capital, and trade markets, though, has also became the mechanism for the rapid transmission and worldwide expansion of economic shocks and the recent crisis, whose initial trigger was the collapse of the American subprime housing market. It was rooted, however, in the debt-fuelled forms of economic growth, visible from Europe to the Middle East to North America (Harvey, 2005). The current crisis has thus dispossessed national, regional, and local governments of the compass which guided development intervention over the last three decades and has placed the hegemonic local and regional development discourse at a cross-road. Global neoliberalism has had a profoundly uneven geographical impact and its crisis has left territories looking for answers that reflect their particular circumstances. Here, we argue that the current crisis has magnified existing and created new concerns for local and regional development in the global North and South. We reflect on the main trends shaping the present and future of local and regional development; explore the principles and values that underpin local and regional development; and examine the potential conditions for successful local and regional development strategies in a world in crisis. We conclude by reflecting on the politics of local and regional development.(1)

Keeping a Beat in the Dark: Narratives of Regional Identity in Basil Bunting's Briggflatts

This paper is about narratives of regional identity. In it I look at how they are formed and at the complex (and at times contradictory) cultural and political uses to which they are put. I examine the poetry of Basil Bunting, in particular his sonata Briggflatts as an example of a narrative of regional identity. Buntings life and poetry are used to cast light on many of the important themes that can be identified in the literature on regionalism including the uses of history in identity formation, issues of landscape and language, and issues of universalism versus particularism in social–political practice. I draw on Buntings subtle, complex, and pluralistic sense of his Northumbrian home-world to challenge those advocates of the ‘relational region’ who see places as simply the local articulation of global flows and who present any concern with local culture and identity as atavistic and archaic. I suggest that, by focusing on the enduring importance of dwelling, Buntings poetry demonstrates the progressive potential of regional narratives while avoiding recourse to a crude metaphysics of scale. I show how poetry is a means of developing narratives of local and regional identity in ways which transcend the dichotomies with which social scientists in general—and geographers in particular—perennially struggle.