Devolving the heartland: making up a new social policy for the 'South East'

Devolution appears to challenge the traditional regional and national hierarchies of the UK, but in practice the dominance of the South East of England has been maintained through active state intervention. As social welfare has increasingly been redefined through economic success and access to the labour market, the focus of social policy has shifted accordingly. In this context the South East has been re-imagined not as a symbol of inequality and a potential source of redistribution, but rather as driver of economic prosperity and 'national' (UK) well-being

Exploring the regional politics of 'sustainability': making up sustainable communities in the South East of England

This paper sets to explore and clarify the nature of the politics associated with the institutional shift from government to governance, in the context of the rise of sustainability and sustainable communities as governance discourses. After critically considering the extent to which this represents a move to some sort of post-political settlement, it turns to reflect on the notion of assemblage as a means of interpreting emergent forms of politics and governance and exploring the ways in which different priorities may be negotiated in practice. It highlights the processes by which new political realities are assembled around particular concerns without necessarily ever being fully integrated into some overarching unified set of understandings. And it highlights continued tensions and divisions around sustainability and its implications, which undermine attempts to build a governing (or post-political) consensus. These issues are informed by a review of some aspects of the 'sustainable communities plan' and its implementation, with a particular focus on the South-East of England

Managing local labour markets and making up new spaces of welfare

The dissolution of the old mechanisms of state welfare has not yet led to the generation of a new welfare settlement, although the rise of neoliberalism and of what Jessop has called the Schumpeterian Competition State have highlighted some key directions of change. The importance of geographical inequality and unevenness to the process of reshaping welfare has been widely recognised, and the fragmentation and decentralisation of employment and social policies are giving rise to the production of new welfare spaces, which institutionalise the new arrangements, helping to make up neoliberalism in practice. These issues are discussed with the help of case studies of two contrasting areas: Sheffield, a city recently experiencing economic restructuring and high levels of labour-market adjustment and employment deprivation; and Milton Keynes, a city which has been a growth area within the South East since the 1960s and which is earmarked for further employment and the location of planned population and employment growth. The ways in which new welfare spaces are being produced is explored through a consideration of the configuration of partnerships around the governance of workfare, welfare, and competitiveness within these cities

Beyond the Territorial Fix: Regional Assemblages, Politics and Power

Allen J. and Cochrane A. (2007) Beyond the territorial fix: regional assemblages, politics and power, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. The idea of regions as territorially fixed in some vital political sense is a stubborn conception, one that is both mobilized to pursue selective interests and to establish regional identities. To assert that regions are political constructs, however, is not to say that such bounded, territorial entities enclose all the political relations that produce them. This paper puts forward a relational view of the region based upon an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where elements of central and local government are 'lodged' within the region, not acting above or below it. Using examples drawn from governing agencies across and beyond the south-east of England, it is shown how a more diffuse form of governance has given rise to a spatially discontinuous region. This is grounded in an exposition of the political assemblage that is Milton Keynes today, with its provisional, cross-cutting mix of institutional agencies, partnerships, businesses and interest groupings engaged in a 'politics of scale' exercise to fix the region. Allen J. et Cochrane A. (2007) Au-dela de la delimitation territoriale fixe: les regroupements regionaux, la politique et le pouvoir, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. D'un important point de vue politique, l'idee que la region constitue une zone bien delimitee fixe est une notion obstinee, dont on se sert afin de poursuivre des interets particuliers et d'etablir des identites regionales. Cependant, affirmer que la region est une structure politique ne veut pas dire que de telles delimitations territoriales embrassent tous les rapports politiques qui les creent. Cet article cherche a avancer un point de vue relationnel de la region fonde sur un regroupement d'agents regionaux politiques, les uns publics, les autres prives, ou des elements des administrations centrale et locale se sont 'loges' au sein de la region et n'agissent ni au niveau superieur, ni au niveau inferieur. A partir des exemples puises dans des agences publiques a travers et au-dela du Sud-est de l'Angleterre, on montre comment une forme de gouvernance plus diffuse a donne naissance a une region geographiquement discontinue. Cela est fonde sur une presentation d'un regroupement d'aujourd'hui, a savoir Milton Keynes, etant donne son melange provisoire d'agences institutionnelles, de partenariats, de commerces et de groupes d'interet qui se chevauchent et qui s'engagent dans une action de 'politique a l'echelle' afin de bien delimiter la region. Region;Regroupements;Pouvoir;Politique;Gouvernance;Reseaux Allen J. und Cochrane A. (2007) Jenseits der territorialen Festlegung: regionale Versammlungen, Politik und Macht, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. Die Idee der Regionen als in einem wesentlichen politischen Sinn territorial festgelegt ist eine hartnackige Vorstellung, die sowohl zur Durchsetzung selektiver Interessen als auch zur Festlegung regionaler Identitaten mobilisiert wird. Die Feststellung, dass es sich bei Regionen um politische Konstrukte handelt, besagt jedoch nicht, dass in solchen eingegrenzten territorialen Einheiten samtliche politischen Beziehungen angesiedelt sind, die sie hervorbringen. Dieser Beitrag enthalt eine relationale Perspektive der Region aufgrund einer Versammlung politischer Akteure aus dem offentlichen und privaten Bereich, wobei die Elemente der Zentral- und Lokalregierung innerhalb der Region, untergebracht' sind, also nicht ober- oder unterhalb dieser Ebene wirken. Anhand der Beispiele von Regierungsbehorden im Sudosten Englands und daruber hinaus zeigen wir eine diffusere Form der Regierungsfuhrung, die eine raumlich unterbrochene Region hat entstehen lassen. Diese Darstellung beruht auf einer Beschreibung der politischen Versammlung, aus der Milton Keynes heute besteht: einer provisorischen, ungeordneten Mischung aus institutionellen Agenturen, Partnerschaften, Unternehmen und Interessensgruppen, die sich an einer Ubung der, Massstabspolitik' zur Festlegung der Region beteiligen. Region;Versammlungen;Macht;Politik;Regierungsfuhrung;Netzwerke Allen J. y Cochrane A. (2007) Mas alla de una seguridad territorial; reuniones, politica y poder regionales, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. La idea de las regiones como territorios fijos en algun sentido politico vital es un concepto persistente que se usa para apoyar intereses selectivos y establecer identidades regionales. Sin embargo, sostener que las regiones son construcciones politicas no significa decir que estas entidades territoriales y confinadas contienen todas las relaciones politicas que las producen. En este ensayo proponemos una vision relacional de la region en funcion de un conjunto de protagonistas politicos, algunos publicos y otros privados, en el que los elementos del gobierno central y local estan 'alojados' en la misma region sin que actuen ni por encima ni por debajo de este nivel. Con ejemplos extraidos de organizaciones gubernamentales en el sureste de Inglaterra y mas alla de esta region, demostramos que una forma mas difusa de gobernanza ha desembocado en una region espacialmente discontinua. Esta representacion se basa en la descripcion de reunion politica que en Milton Keynes consta de una combinacion provisional e intersectorial de agencias institucionales, sociedades, negocios y grupos de interes que participan en un ejercicio de 'politicas de escala' para asegurar la region. Region;Conjuntos;Poder;Politicas;Gobernanza;RedesRegion, Assemblages, Power, Politics, Governance, Networks,