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Life after Regions? The Evolution of City-regionalism in England

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  • John Harrison

Abstract

Harrison J. Life after regions? The evolution of city-regionalism in England, Regional Studies . This paper examines the evolving pattern of city-regional governance in England. Following the demise of English regional policy in 2004, city-regions have come to represent the in vogue spatial scale amongst policy elites. The result has been a proliferation of actual and proposed policies and institutions designed to operate at a, variously defined, city-regional scale in England. Nevertheless, attempts to build a city-regional tier of governance have been tentative and lacking coherence. Alongside this, city-regions are to be found emerging alongside existing tiers of economic governance and spatial planning. Arguing that what is being witnessed is not 'life after regions' but life with, or alongside, regions, the analysis presented argues that to understand why contemporary state reorganization results in a multiplication of the scales of economic governance and spatial planning, it must be recognized how the state shapes policies in such a way as to protect its legitimacy in maintaining regulatory control and management of the economy. The final section relates these findings to wider debates on state rescaling and speculates on the future role of transition models in sociospatial theory.

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  • John Harrison, 2012. "Life after Regions? The Evolution of City-regionalism in England," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 1243-1259, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:46:y:2012:i:9:p:1243-1259
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2010.521148
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Robert Hazell, 0. "The English Question," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 37-56.
    2. Scott, Allen J. (ed.), 2001. "Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297994.
    3. Kieran Larkin & Adam Marshall, 2008. "City-Regions : Emerging Lessons from England," World Bank Publications - Reports 10269, The World Bank Group.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Crawley & Max Munday & Annette Roberts, 2018. "How serious is a devolved data deficit? A Welsh perspective," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(8), pages 862-876, December.
    2. Charlotte Hoole & Stephen Hincks, 2020. "Performing the city-region: Imagineering, devolution and the search for legitimacy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1583-1601, November.
    3. Nikos Kapitsinis, 2019. "A review of the current business rates scheme in Wales and the effects of a potential local retention," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(1), pages 10-32, February.
    4. Kristian Olesen & Carsten J Hansen, 2020. "Introducing business regions in Denmark: The ‘businessification’ of strategic spatial planning?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(2), pages 366-383, March.
    5. Jouni Häkli & Kirsi Pauliina Kallio & Olli Ruokolainen, 2020. "A Missing Citizen? Issue Based Citizenship in City‐Regional Planning," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 876-893, September.
    6. Jie Yu & Wei Zhao & Junjun Zhu, 2023. "The Construction of Chinese Metropolitan Area from the Perspective of Politics of Scale: A Case Study of Nanjing Metropolitan Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Harrison, John, 2012. "Towards the new "regional world"?," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Growe, Anna & Heider, Katharina & Lamker, Christian & Paßlick, Sandra & Terfrüchte, Thomas (ed.), Polyzentrale Stadtregionen - Die Region als planerischer Handlungsraum, volume 3, pages 10-21, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    8. Zhaowen Liu & Martin de Jong & Fen Li & Nikki Brand & Marcel Hertogh & Liang Dong, 2020. "Towards Developing a New Model for Inclusive Cities in China—The Case of Xiong’an New Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-24, July.
    9. John Harrison & Jesse Heley, 2015. "Governing beyond the metropolis: Placing the rural in city-region development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(6), pages 1113-1133, May.
    10. Graham Haughton & Philip Allmendinger, 2015. "Fluid Spatial Imaginaries: Evolving Estuarial City-regional Spaces," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 857-873, September.
    11. Neil Lee, 2019. "Inclusive Growth in cities: a sympathetic critique," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 424-434, March.
    12. Neil Lee, 2017. "Powerhouse of cards? Understanding the ‘Northern Powerhouse’," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 478-489, March.
    13. Michael Buser, 2014. "Democratic Accountability and Metropolitan Governance: The Case of South Hampshire, UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2336-2353, August.
    14. John Harrison, 2014. "The rise of the non-state ‘place-based’ economic development strategy," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 29(4-5), pages 453-468, June.
    15. David Waite & Gillian Bristow, 2019. "Spaces of city-regionalism: Conceptualising pluralism in policymaking," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 689-706, June.
    16. Philip Catney & John M Henneberry, 2016. "Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(7), pages 1324-1343, November.
    17. Mike Hodson & Andrew McMeekin & Julie Froud & Michael Moran, 2020. "State-rescaling and re-designing the material city-region: Tensions of disruption and continuity in articulating the future of Greater Manchester," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 198-217, January.
    18. Chris Mulhearn & Michael Franco, 2018. "If you build it will they come? The boom in purpose-built student accommodation in central Liverpool: Destudentification, studentification and the future of the city," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(5), pages 477-495, August.
    19. Iain Deas, 2014. "The search for territorial fixes in subnational governance: City-regions and the disputed emergence of post-political consensus in Manchester, England," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2285-2314, August.
    20. Sebastian Dembski, 2015. "Structure and imagination of changing cities: Manchester, Liverpool and the spatial in-between," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(9), pages 1647-1664, July.
    21. David Clelland, 2020. "Beyond the city region? Uneven governance and the evolution of regional economic development in Scotland," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(1), pages 7-26, February.
    22. Iain Deas & Stephen Hincks & Nicola Headlam, 2013. "Explicitly permissive? Understanding actor interrelationships in the governance of economic development: The experience of England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(7-8), pages 718-737, November.
    23. Mike Coombes, 2014. "From City-region Concept to Boundaries for Governance: The English Case," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2426-2443, August.
    24. John Harrison, 2014. "Rethinking City-regionalism as the Production of New Non-State Spatial Strategies: The Case of Peel Holdings Atlantic Gateway Strategy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(11), pages 2315-2335, August.
    25. Rhys Jones & Bryonny Goodwin‐Hawkins & Michael Woods, 2020. "From Territorial Cohesion to Regional Spatial Justice: The Well‐Being of Future Generations Act in Wales," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 894-912, September.

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