Politics of Place: Regional and Local Development

Abstract

In this research theme we approach the dynamic and paradoxical field of regional and local development with the aim to contribute theoretically and empirically with studies of the politics of place. We focus our analytical attention to the role of imaginaries, problematizations, rationalities, discourses, technologies, and processes of subjectification in spatial planning and governing. We engage critically with contemporary processes of (re)production and transformation connected to spatial ‘development and progress’. We scrutinize regional and local development policy and governing regimes from perspectives of democratic legitimacy and equality. We map, articulate, and give voice to the lived effects of the conditions, challenges and solutions that structure the field of regional and local development. 

The policy field of regional and local development finds itself in a nexus of dire political tensions, but it is at the same time characterized by relatively low degrees of politicization and ideological contestation. As the state is restructuring and transforming in reaction to the perceptions of a globalizing economy and the emergence of transnational political institutions, the challenges for regional and local development are mounting. Increasing disparities in living conditions between and within regions, increasing inequality between and within the urban and the rural, the struggle to maintain equal welfare and services, growing geographies of discontent and marginalization, the increasing responsibilization of places and transformations into sustainable social, economic, and ecologic systems.

These already messy challenges are caught in complex dynamics between the local and the global, the public and the private, industrialization and deindustrialization, equality and competition, innovation and tradition. And yet, the policy field is marked by a notable lack of attention in political debates and a notable ideological consensus culture. This makes regional and local development a critical field to explore aspects of space, scale, depoliticization, equality and marketization related to power, politics and governing. Within this theme we are currently working with four research topics:

The neoliberalization of space. We  study how neoliberal rationalities and imaginaries of globalized competitive space shape practices and policy work. We study the legitimization, deployment and effects of governing technologies connected to competitiveness, attractiveness and innovation.

Left behind places. We study spatial inequality and disparities as conceptualized through social and relational perspectives with the purpose to better understand the rationalities and lived effects of spatial exclusion and marginalization.

Policy mobility. We study how policy on regional and local development moves and  the premises of  knowledge creation and deployment of policy programs and strategies in the field. What actors are given legitimacy to introduce, install and mobilize knowledge?

Societal transformation We study how regional and local planning is activated in large scale transformation efforts. Particularly, we focus on how power relations are reproduced and contested in planning practices.