IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v36y2004i12p2119-2139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competitive City-Regionalism as a Politics of Space: A Critical Reinterpretation of the New Regionalism

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Ward

    (School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, England)

  • Andrew E G Jonas

    (Department of Geography, Hull University, Hull HU6 7RX, England)

Abstract

This paper sets out a sympathetic critique of a series of writings that we refer to as new regionalist approaches to the city. We review the recent work on state restructuring/rescaling and the associated work on the new regionalism, on the one hand, and that on ‘global’ city-regions, on the other. We identify key points of overlap and divergence between these two literatures and suggest that each understates the role of class interests, political alliance formation, and conflicts around the management of collective consumption and social reproduction. We proceed to outline the framework of an alternative and complementary approach in which causal emphasis is placed on the shaping of subnational state geographies by actually existing struggles and strategies developed around particular geographies of public and private investment and collective consumption, and their associated state fiscal, electoral, and regulatory arrangements. We argue that working from this position we are better able to understand why the city-region continues to constitute a strategically vital arena for managing conflict and struggle in contemporary capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Ward & Andrew E G Jonas, 2004. "Competitive City-Regionalism as a Politics of Space: A Critical Reinterpretation of the New Regionalism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(12), pages 2119-2139, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:12:p:2119-2139
    DOI: 10.1068/a36223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a36223
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a36223?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bob Jessop & Ngai-Ling Sum, 2000. "An Entrepreneurial City in Action: Hong Kong's Emerging Strategies in and for (Inter)Urban Competition," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(12), pages 2287-2313, November.
    2. Ann Markusen, 2003. "Fuzzy Concepts, Scanty Evidence, Policy Distance: The Case for Rigour and Policy Relevance in Critical Regional Studies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 701-717.
    3. Michael Keating, 1998. "The New Regionalism in Western Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1193.
    4. Andrew Jonas, 1996. "Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 323-338.
    5. Cynthia Horan & Andrew E. G. Jonas, 1998. "Governing Massachusetts: Uneven Development and Politics in Metropolitan Boston," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(0), pages 83-95, March.
    6. Rhys Jones & Mark Goodwin & Martin Jones & Glenn Simpson, 2004. "Devolution, State Personnel, and the Production of New Territories of Governance in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(1), pages 89-109, January.
    7. Aidan While & Andrew E G Jonas & David C Gibbs, 2004. "Unblocking the City? Growth Pressures, Collective Provision, and the Search for New Spaces of Governance in Greater Cambridge, England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(2), pages 279-304, February.
    8. Jamie Peck, 2002. "Political Economies of Scale: Fast Policy, Interscalar Relations, and Neoliberal Workfare," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(3), pages 331-360, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. lain Deas & Alex Lord, 2006. "From a New Regionalism to an Unusual Regionalism? The Emergence of Non-standard Regional Spaces and Lessons for the Territorial Reorganisation of the State," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1847-1877, September.
    2. Steven Musson & Adam Tickell & Peter John, 2005. "A Decade of Decentralisation? Assessing the Role of the Government Offices for the English Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(8), pages 1395-1412, August.
    3. Catherine Laidin & Marielle Berriet-Solliec, 2023. "Understanding rural development policies: a proposal for a typology of the seven main policy repertoires in Europe and locally, based on French case studies," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 71(1), pages 121-144, August.
    4. Steffen Wetzstein, 2008. "Relaunching Regional Economic-Development Policy and Planning for Auckland: Remaking the State and Contingent Governance under Neoliberalism," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(6), pages 1093-1112, December.
    5. Martin Jones & Mark Goodwin & Rhys Jones, 2005. "State modernization, devolution and economic governance: An introduction and guide to debate," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 397-403.
    6. Aidan While & Andrew E G Jonas & David C Gibbs, 2004. "Unblocking the City? Growth Pressures, Collective Provision, and the Search for New Spaces of Governance in Greater Cambridge, England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(2), pages 279-304, February.
    7. Aidan While & David Gibbs & Andrew E G Jonas, 2013. "The Competition State, City-Regions, and the Territorial Politics of Growth Facilitation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(10), pages 2379-2398, October.
    8. Alberta Andreotti & Enzo Mingione & Emanuele Polizzi, 2012. "Local Welfare Systems: A Challenge for Social Cohesion," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(9), pages 1925-1940, July.
    9. Steffen Wetzstein & Richard Le Heron, 2010. "Regional Economic Policy ‘In-the-Making’: Imaginaries, Political Projects and Institutions for Auckland's Economic Transformation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(8), pages 1902-1924, August.
    10. Shiuh‐Shen Chien, 2008. "Local Responses To Globalization In China: A Territorial Restructuring Process Perspective," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 492-517, October.
    11. Dejan Stjepanović, 2015. "Territoriality and Citizenship: Membership and Sub-State Polities in Post-Yugoslav Space," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(7), pages 1030-1055, August.
    12. Michael Longo, 2003. "European Integration: Between Micro‐Regionalism and Globalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 475-494, June.
    13. Zhiwei Zhao & David Walters & Desai Shan, 2020. "Impediments to free movement of Chinese seafarers in the maritime labour market," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 425-443, September.
    14. Simone Carmine & Valentina De Marchi, 2023. "Reviewing Paradox Theory in Corporate Sustainability Toward a Systems Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 139-158, April.
    15. Doloreux, David & Parto, Saeed, 2005. "Regional innovation systems: Current discourse and unresolved issues," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 133-153.
    16. Elena Baglioni, 2022. "The Making of Cheap Labour across Production and Reproduction: Control and Resistance in the Senegalese Horticultural Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 445-464, June.
    17. Ryan Anders Whitney & David López-García, 2023. "Fast-track institutionalization: The opening of urban planning best practice agencies in Mexico City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(3), pages 600-616, May.
    18. John Lovering, 2001. "The Coming Regional Crisis (And How To Avoid It)," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 349-354.
    19. Katie J Wells & Kafui Attoh & Declan Cullen, 2021. "“Just-in-Place†labor: Driver organizing in the Uber workplace," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 315-331, March.
    20. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:12:p:2119-2139. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.