Limits of Devolution: Localism, Economics and Post-democracy

This article challenges the narrowly founded but untroubled consensus about the alleged benefits of the Conservative government's devolution programme. It suggests that too much attention has been paid to purported benefits and too little regard to the potential risks, and draws attention to international evidence that suggests that the distribution of the benefits of devolution is crucially dependent on its design. It critically examines the case for the currently offered model of devolution and finds the underpinning economic model and limited forms of democratic accountability are likely to produce regressive social outcomes and the reinforcement of existing local elites. It calls for a wider public debate and fuller democratic scrutiny of the model of devolution on offer

Region and place III: Well-being

This report surveys the growing interest in understanding local and regional development in terms of its contribution to human well-being. It highlights the limits of traditional measures of development, notably GDP and its variants, and charts the search for alternative measures of development. It examines attempts to introduce a concern with well-being in local and regional development policy and the political barriers to achieving this

Territorial politics, devolution and spatial planning in the UK: results, prospects, lessons

© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.This article critically analyses the debates which have unfolded in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum of 18 September 2014 concerning the constitutional arrangements of the UK as a plurinational state and the internal governmental structure of England. The debates unfolding in the UK reflect and illustrate two central themes in planning, territorial development and public policy. First, they highlight the contested distribution of power across multiple layers of government in states with an inherited centralized pattern of governance that are now facing strengthening regionalist and nationalist claims. Second, they illustrate the linked growth in the demand for new governance and strategic planning arrangements in large metropolitan areas with fragmented administrative and institutional boundaries. The article first discusses what the outcome of the Scottish referendum (and its aftermath) means for planning in Scotland. It then turns to the debates on devolution in the rest of UK which were stoked in the wake of the referendum, looking at the planning implications of further devolution in Northern Ireland and Wales, and at the possible consequences of the various options currently being aired to solve the ‘English question’. Finally, ongoing debates on decentralization to regions and city-regions in England are briefly considered

Decentralisation and European Identity

The European Commission aims to understand the extent of which European citizens feel that they belong to the EU, assume their European identity and think of themselves not only as national citizens but also as citizens of Europe. Using data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer Surveys to proxy European identity and multinomial logistic regressions, this paper examines whether the transfer of resources to subnational tiers of government (i.e. fiscal decentralisation) and/or the transfer of powers to subnational tiers of government (i.e. political decentralisation) influence a European sense of belonging in comparison with national belonging. The results show that fiscal decentralisation is a powerful promoter of European identity, while there is no strong evidence that political decentralisation has reinforced it. Moreover, men, middle-aged people, highly-educated people, single and people who are very satisfied with their life feel more European than others

Spatial planning, nationalism and territorial politics in Europe

The paper explores whether spatial planning, infrastructure, and territorial management issues and policies are an important field of mobilization for nationalist actors in European substate contexts characterized by demands for more autonomy or independence: Scotland, Catalonia and Flanders. It is shown that such issues are sometimes mobilized to support the autonomist or separatist political agendas of substate nationalist parties, but that this varies significantly in the three cases, because of the different political ideologies of each nationalist party vis-à-vis the role of the state and the legitimacy of public policy interventions in private property, land development and market processes

Land-use planning, inequality and the problem of 'left-behind places' - A 'provocation' for the UK2070 Commission

The problems of so-called 'left-behind' places - typically former industrial regions have figured prominently in voting patterns over the last five years in the UK, and also the USA and Europe. This paper examines the following issues: the political economy of 'left-behind' regions; the new policy prescriptions for 'left-behind' regions; and the kinds of institutions that are required to create a new economic future in such disadvantaged places

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

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