The triumph of the placeless

Although three centuries of industrialisation and growth have led to unimaginably better lives for most people, economic, well-being and health outcomes differ widely across places, both between and within polities. We suggest that policy to reduce such differences and ameliorate their impacts requires a consideration of the role of ‘placeless’ agents in shaping places – here, subnational regions. Prior economic development at macro-scales has rewarded and empowered placeless agents: firms, people and institutions which rely for well-being, identity and profits not on a specific place, but rather on a type or types of place. Their choosy mobility and lack of embeddedness means interactions with specific places are functionally narrow, voluntary, self-interested and potentially problematic for embedded actors, and for the health and viability of the places within which they operate. We operationalise this concept by developing notions of economic, socio-cultural and civic placelessness, make some suggestions for measurement, and assess a number of government policies developed in the region of Wales that are in part reactions to the incursion and impacts of the placeless.