Framing the future: On local planning cultures and legacies

This paper considers the influence of established local planning cultures and legacies on the trajectory of contemporary local development policies. Local and sub-regional planning cultures are interpreted as overall 'developmental frames' which set the context for local planning approaches both through more concrete territorial, developmental and policy forms and through cognitive structures, assumptions and values. These frames then exert significant influence on how planning policy is conceived and enacted, with potentially major implications for local development outcomes. Three illustrative case studies are presented from sub-regional growth areas in the South East of England

Socio-spatial relations and the governance of city-regional growth : a comparative analysis of two European high-tech regions

Oxford-Oxfordshire, UK, and the Verband Region Stuttgart or the Metro Region in Germany are two of Europe’s high-tech powerhouses, facing similar challenges concerning housing and infrastructure provision and accommodating regional as well as local economic growth. Based on desktop studies and semi-structured expert interviews, this paper examines the respective institutional, political and cultural contexts for strategic planning in the two distinct settings, aiming to identify the evolving balance of socio-spatial dimensions influencing each case. While the interplay of territory, place, scale and network is different across the two cases, both face ongoing dilemmas. In the Stuttgart region, an established and smoothly running economic and spatial growth-machine has stuttered as growth has reached capacity and localities have asserted their constitutional controls on urban expansion. In Oxford (and the wider county of Oxfordshire), there has been a contrasting dislocation between an emerging growth agenda and a fractured governance context that is historically less oriented towards growth. Additionally, Oxfordshire has operated since 2010 against the background of localism in English planning and an increasing reliance on city and housing/growth ‘deals’ negotiated with central government to access planning flexibilities and infrastructure funding. Conclusions are drawn with the aim of mutual learning from the different international experiences and of informing approaches to strategic and inter-municipal planning

Singapore as Science ’Scape and Ethnoscape

As a state project to locate the nation within the global knowledge economy, Singapore’s Technology Corridor has acted as a testbed for experimenting with different models of an international scientific community. Its landscape, from garden-style science parks modelled after Silicon Valley to monuments for multidisciplinary research such as One North, reflects the dynamic interaction among various political and ideological aspirations—ideoscapes—driving the built environment. Through both documentary research and semi-structured interviews of scientists and entrepreneurs, we examine how mostly foreign expat and some Singaporean researchers have experienced Singapore’s unique science ‘scape and adapted to a hybrid work and living environment. Testimony of the scientific sojourners of Singapore’s diverse ethnoscape—from China and India to Europe and the United States—reveal the blending of different styles of scientific work and the interconnected flows of intellectual labour

The impact of the new homes bonus on attitudes and behaviours

An evaluation of the impact of the New Homes Bonus on attitudes towards new house building, carried out for the Department of Communities and Local Government

Science spaces as 'ethnoscapes’: Identity, perception and the production of locality

Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological and symbolic forms, key elements of economic strategy, and sites of international labour movements and knowledge transfer. They are thus the product of multiple imaginations, with multiple, potentially divergent, objectives. In this paper, we compare three international science spaces as ‘ethnoscapes’, emphasising the distinctive perceptions, cultures and identities amongst international science and technology migrants and visitors at these sites. This, we contend, sharpens a sense of the ‘international-ness’ of science spaces in various dimensions, given the particular experiences of scientific migrants and visitors moving into different nations, locations and facilities, their roles in constructing international communities, and their navigation of alternative spaces. It also offers insight into the production of contextual (rather than spatial or physical) localities, as international scientists and technologists experience and constitute larger formations, building on their perceptions of varied and interacting science ’scapes

Conceptualizing Local and Regional Economic Development in the USA

Valler D. and Wood A. Conceptualizing local and regional economic development in the USA, Regional Studies. Contemporary literature on local and regional economic development (LRED) in the USA is predominantly empirical and pragmatic, focusing on the conduct and efficacy of economic development policy. While this work is valuable in evaluating the detailed operation of local and regional economic development activity, the broader conceptual foundations that underlay economic development practice have been underplayed. The paper reflects on research and writing around local and regional economic development in the USA and it addresses some key conceptual and theoretical limitations. The paper calls for a stronger focus on contextualization and sets out a theoretical approach grounded in regulationist insights which offers significant advances in theorizing US local and regional economic development. [image omitted] Valler D. et Wood A. Conceptualiser le developpement local et regional economique aux Etats-Unis, Regional Studies. La documentation contemporaine sur le developpement local et regional economique (DLRE) aux Etats-Unis est dans une large mesure empirique et pragmatique, portant sur la conduite et l'efficacite de la politique de developpement economique. Alors que ce travail s'avere precieux dans l'evaluation du fonctionnement de l'activite de developpement local et regional economique, les fondements conceptuels plus larges qui etayent le developpement economique en pratique ont ete minimises. On considere la recherche et la documentation a propos du le developpement local et regional economique aux Etats-Unis et aborde quelques-unes des limites conceptuelles et theoriques. On reclame que l'on mette l'accent plutot sur le contexte et on etablit une facon theorique fondee sur des apercus reglementaires qui fournit des progres non-negligeables quant a la theorisation du le developpement local et regional economique aux E-U. Developpement local et regional economique (DLRE) Theorie de reglementation Etats-Unis Valler D. und Wood A. Konzeptualisierung der lokalen und regionalen Wirtschaftsentwicklung in den USA, Regional Studies. Die aktuelle Literatur uber lokale und regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung in den USA ist vorherrschend empirischer und pragmatischer Natur, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Fuhrung und Wirksamkeit der Wirtschaftsentwicklungspolitik liegt. Diese Arbeit ist zwar eine wichtige Hilfe bei der Bewertung der detaillierten Funktionsweise der Aktivitaten im Bereich der lokalen und regionalen Wirtschaftsentwicklung, doch die breiteren konzeptuellen Grundlagen fur die Praxis der Wirtschaftsentwicklung werden dabei vernachlassigt. Wir untersuchen die Forschung und Literatur uber lokale und regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung in den USA und befassen uns mit einigen wichtigen konzeptuellen und theoretischen Beschrankungen. Wir argumentieren fur eine starkere Betonung der Kontextualisierung und entwickeln einen theoretischen Ansatz, der auf regulationistischen Erkenntnissen aufbaut und bei der Theoretisierung der lokalen und regionalen Wirtschaftsentwicklung in den USA signifikante Fortschritte ermoglicht. Lokale und regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung Regulationstheorie USA Valler D. y Wood A. Conceptualizar el desarrollo economico local y regional de los Estados Unidos, Regional Studies. La literatura contemporanea sobre el desarrollo economico local y regional (DELR) en los Estados Unidos es predominantemente empirica y pragmatica y se centra en la conducta y la eficacia de la politica de desarrollo economico. Si bien este trabajo es valioso a la hora de evaluar la operacion detallada de las actividades del desarrollo economico local y regional, los cimientos conceptuales mas amplios que subyacen en las practicas del desarrollo economico estan mal representados. Analizamos los estudios y la literatura sobre el desarrollo economico local y regional en los EE.UU. y exponemos algunas limitaciones conceptuales y teoreticas principales. Es necesario prestar mas atencion a la contextualizacion y establecer un enfoque teorico basado en las perspectivas regulatorias que ofrecen ventajas significativas en la teorizacion del desarrollo economico local y regional de los EE.UU. Desarrollo economico local y regional (DELR) Teoria regulatoria Estados UnidosLocal and regional economic development (LRED), Regulation theory, USA,

‘Dealing’ with governance and planning? The limits of urban intrapreneurialism

This paper examines ‘deal-based’ policy responses to local and sub-regional governance dilemmas, drawing on issues around strategic planning policy in Oxfordshire, UK. Deal-based policy is conceptualised as a form of urban intrapreneurialism, explicitly designed to cultivate change within local state operations and to promote associated organisational innovation, institutional proactivity, and policy reorientation. A general evaluative frame for urban intrapreneurialism is derived and then deployed for the Oxfordshire case, assessing the extent to which deal-based policy is able to respond to the distinctive and challenging set of governance dilemmas which pertain. Finally, broader conceptual and policy implications are discussed

Evaluating regional spatial imaginaries: the Oxford–Cambridge Arc

© 2020 Regional Studies Association. The process of imagination is central to region formation, underpinning the spatial definition and territorial bounding of areas, the development of spatial identity and institutional capacity, and the cultivation of social relations and networks. While recent academic contributions have crystallized certain theoretical dimensions, attempts to evaluate the nature and efficacy of regional spatial imaginaries remain ad hoc. In this paper we derive a general evaluative frame and six associated criteria against which particular regional spatial imaginaries can be appraised. These are then deployed to evaluate two major episodes in the construction of the putative ‘Oxford–Cambridge Arc’ in southern England