Regeneration: how should the problem be addressed? A discussion paper commissioned from the Regeneration and Economic Development Analysis Expert Panel for the Regeneration Futures Roundtable.

What is the ‘problem’? The problem to be addressed is rooted in the uneven spatial distribution of economic activity and how this is constantly shifting over time.1 Historically different phases of economic development produce particular spatial and temporal fixes with their own geographic patterns of growth and deprivation. Evolving patterns of uneven economic development result from the constant interaction between wider processes of economic change (e.g. globalisation, sectoral change, technological change etc) and the existing geographically differentiated landscape. This process is particularly apparent at the current time, as the severe economic downturn produces the conditions for a new round of investment/disinvestment and an associated reconfigured geographical landscape. The process of uneven development creates and maintains regional imbalances and produces different regional and local dynamics of growth and decline. The most acute problems for regeneration occur where area decline is dramatic, and/or involves a fundamental restructuring of the industrial base, and/or extends over a long period of time. The nature and types of the impacts rooted within wider processes of economic restructuring upon localities/cities/regions are mediated through their interaction with a range of interrelated processes (e.g. within housing markets; local labour markets; private investment flows; and public investment strategies)

Review of economic assessment and strategy activity at the local and sub-regional level.

The Review of Sub National Economic Development and Regeneration includes a proposal that a statutory duty is imposed upon all local authorities to assess their local economies. This report reviews the range of types of economic assessments currently being produced at the local and sub regional level. It also examines the changing forms of sub regional structures and identifies tensions that need to be addressed in the development of future economic assessments and strategies

Diasporas, agency and enterprise in settlement and homeland contexts: politicised entrepreneurship in the Kurdish diaspora

Through its focus on state-diaspora relations, existing research has given limited consideration to the role of nonstate entrepreneurial actors in understanding diaspora politicisation. This paper addresses this research gap by examining the contextually embedded relationship between diaspora politicisation and entrepreneurial activity within diaspora settlement and homeland spaces. Findings are presented of original qualitative research with Kurdish diaspora entrepreneurs based in Europe operating in the media and publishing industries. Results demonstrate how the intersection between diaspora identity, opportunity frameworks and available resources generates forms of politicised diaspora entrepreneurship, and how these venture activities contribute to the transnational (re)production of diaspora identity and the mobilisation of locally rooted diaspora populations. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to enhancing current understanding of diaspora entrepreneurship and the significance of non-state actors within the diaspora politicisation process, and their relevance to policy thinking across homeland and settlement contexts

A contextual understanding of diaspora entrepreneurship: identity, opportunity and resources in the Sri Lankan Tamil and Kurdish diaspora

Purpose - Within the growing study of transnational entrepreneurial practice, existing conceptualisation of diaspora entrepreneurship has often lacked engagement with the particularities of the diaspora condition. This paper seeks to advance theoretical understanding and empirical study of diaspora entrepreneurship through identifying the processes that generate diaspora entrepreneurship across economic, social and political spheres. Design/Methodology - To analyse the relationship between the development of venture activity and diaspora (re)production, in depth, qualitative biographical analysis was undertaken with UK based diaspora entrepreneurs embedded within the particular contexts of the Sri Lankan Tamil and Kurdish diasporas. Skilled and active diaspora entrepreneurs were purposively selected from these extreme case contexts to explore their entrepreneurial agency within and across the business, social and political realms. Findings – Results identified key dimensions shaping the development of diaspora entrepreneurship. These comprised the role of diaspora context in shaping opportunity frameworks and the mobilisation of available resources, and how venture activity served to sustain collective diaspora identity and address diaspora interests. These findings are used to produce an analytical model of the generation of diaspora entrepreneurship to serve as a basis for discussing how heterogeneous and hybrid entrepreneurial strategies emerge from and shape the evolving diaspora context. Originality - By placing the reproduction of social collectivity centre-stage, this paper identifies the particularities of diaspora entrepreneurship as a form of transnational entrepreneurship. This recognizes the significance of a contextualised understanding of entrepreneurial diversity within wider processes of diaspora development, which has important implications for policy and practice development in homeland and settlement areas

Spatially-concentrated worklessness and neighbourhood policies: experiences from New Labour in England

The persistence and entrenchment of spatial concentrations of worklessness is a key characteristic of labour markets in advanced industrial economies. Understanding the causes of worklessness concentrated within particular neighbourhoods requires linking together an understanding of wider processes of labour market restructuring with the operation of various negative cycles that reinforce patterns of persistent worklessness. Such cycles are particularly rooted within person and household factors and the overall population mix, and are compounded by the operation of housing markets and neighbourhood effects. This chapter considers the precise role of neighbourhood effects in relation to the wider causes of concentrated worklessness and then considers the development and effectiveness of work-related neighbourhood policies. Through an examination of the extensive set of employment related initiatives developed under successive New Labour governments in relation to deprived neighbourhoods, this chapter considers the aims, outcomes and effectiveness of these initiatives and identifies the factors that constrained the ability of this policy agenda to transform the employment fortunes of England‟s most deprived neighbourhoods

An institutional analysis of 'power within' local governance: a Bazaari tale from Pakistan

Power dynamics in local governance have profound implications for the outcomes of processes of political decentralisation within developing countries. Attempts to improve participation and service delivery through strengthened local and regional governance have been frustrated by the inability to understand and transform the relationship between power and formal and informal institutions. Through a theoretically informed empirical study of the relationship between power and institutions within local governance, this paper addresses this challenge through developing the notion of ‘power within’. Analysis of Batkhela Bazaar in the Malakand district in Pakistan reveals distinct fields of power relating to the market, political representation and local administration, and the evolving interactions between institutions within and across these fields. Results demonstrate how these fields of power, and the agents operating within them, actively shape the interaction between formal and informal institutions of local governance in a process of contiguous evolution. Understanding of ‘power within’ prompts revised thinking on how best to harness emergent institutional forms to promote progressive and inclusionary local governance and develop more effective state decentralization programmes

Between economic competitiveness and social inclusion: New Labour and the economic revival of deprived neighbourhoods.

Following the election of the first New Labour government in 1997 the revitalisation of deprived neighbourhoods quickly became a central feature of the policy landscape. Motivated by the desire to tackle processes of social exclusion and find a new economic basis for these areas, an array of policy experiments and interventions emerged. An increasing focus of these was to improve the economic conditions of deprived neighbourhoods with a particular emphasis upon tackling worklessness and promoting entrepreneurial activity. Yet despite this sustained activity, 13 years later the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest persisted. This paper reflects critically upon the development of this policy agenda, its aims, outcomes and effectiveness, and identifies the factors that constrained its ability to transform the economic fortunes of England’s most deprived neighbourhoods

Realising the diversity dividend: population diversity and urban economic development.

This paper critically examines the increasing use of population diversity as a source of competitive advantage and distinctiveness within policies promoting urban economic development. Rising levels of population diversity are a characteristic feature of many urban areas and this has led to increased policy attempts to realise a so-called ‘diversity dividend’. Yet much of this policy thinking demonstrates a restricted understanding of the nature of the relationships between diverse populations and urban economic change. Through a comprehensive review of existing theoretical and policy practice in relation to population diversity, this paper identifies an often narrow focus upon higher skilled and income populations and their needs within much urban economic policy thinking. It is argued that a more critical and wide-ranging approach to the complex relationship between population diversity and city development is required if a more just form of urban economic development is to be achieved

Urban governance and economic development in the diverse city

This paper examines the discourses and practices surrounding urban governance and cultural diversity in relation to issues of economic development and labour market inclusion. The paper sets out the conceptual and political importance of an approach to the governance of cultural diversity in relation to the urban economy that is embedded within specific historic-spatial settings, and draws together wider institutional contexts with the specificities of urban spaces and places. Through examination of recent changes in the economic governance of London, a global city characterized by a rapidly growing and highly diverse population, the paper demonstrates the conflicts and contradictory tendencies evident in contemporary governance discourses and practice towards diverse populations. The analysis presented demonstrates how governance in London has developed in face of the tensions that exist between the spatially rooted costs and benefits of diversity within the urban economic development process, and the contradictions apparent within a discourse that seeks to combine notions of community cohesion and economic inclusion with neoliberal economic practice and widening levels of inequality

Low level remote sensing: The Doppler Radar wind profiler

Mesoscale phenomena such as thunderstorm and sea breeze frontal circulations are being investigated using a 50 MHz Doppler wind profiler at the Kennedy Space Center. The profiler installation will begin October 1, 1988 and will be completed by February 17, 1989. The focus of current research and plans for next year include: examination of vertical velocities associated with local thunderstorm activity and sea breeze frontal circulations and compare the vertical velocities to conceptual mesoscale models; implementation of space-time conversion analysis techniques to blend profiler data with National Meteorological Center's model output and other wind data such as jimsphere, windsonde and rawinsonde for mesoscale analysis; development of suggestions for use of wind profiler data in mesoscale analysis and forecasting at Kennedy Space Center; and problems detection in the quality of the profiler data during this research project. Researchers will work closely with MSFC to identify and solve the data quality problems