David Stevenson - ORCID: 0000-0002-8977-1818 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8977-1818Engaging with both place and ‘the local’ has become an important part of
cultural policy rhetoric in many countries, from the resurgence of city-regional
governance models to calls for new forms of ‘localism’ involving participatory
governance approaches intended to engender more active citizenship and to
help people feel more empowered regarding the decisions that affect them.
Depending on their approach, national interventions can exacerbate existing
socio-economic inequities between places and risk investing in infrastructure
without due consideration to sustainability within locations or the movement
of cultural workers and audiences across locations. This introduction makes
the case that views of the ‘local’ have been limited in the fields of cultural
policymaking and study. It summarises some of the ways both place and ‘the
local’ have been conceptualised. It argues how conceptions of ‘the local’
in policy can vary significantly requiring an examination of the process of
situating ‘the local’ as it occurs in policymaking as well as what happens in
‘the local’ as a result or even despite that positioning.aheadofprintaheadofprin
