Suchergebnisse

This book explores the ways in which local governments in England reacted to the UK government's austerity measures after the 2008 crash. Andy Pike examines how local statecrafters act in a variety of realms, and questions the sustainability and resilience of the local state in the longer term.

"Andy Pike has given us a deeply researched and much needed analysis of the ways in which brands and branding are intertwined with space and place. Through a series of revelatory case studies of products and their places of origin, we learn how spatial context matters in the production of branded meaning and value. Origination will be an essential resource for scholars of branding, geography, cultural studies, and the contemporary global economy."--Miriam Greenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California Santa Cruz, USA 'The symbolic landscape of late capitalism is cl

Despite overstated claims of their 'global' homogeneity, ubiquity and contribution to 'flattening' spatial differences, the geographies of brands and branding actually do matter. This vibrant collection provides a comprehensive reference point for the emergent area of brand and branding geographies in a multi-disciplinary and international context. -- The eminent contributors, leaders in their respective fields, present critical reflections and synthesis of a range of conceptual and theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, incorporating market research, oral history, discourse and visual analyses. They reflect upon the politics and limits of brand and branding geographies and map out future research directions. -- 'An incomparably rich trove of work on the multifarious and contradictory "entanglements" between space, place, and brand. The volume helps us understand how and why "places of origin" play an ever greater role in the marketing of commodities, even while corporations continue to seek "placelessness" in pursuit of the bottom line. And it illuminates how and why entrepreneurial governments seeking to enhance global competitiveness increasingly turn to place branding – at the neighborhood, urban, and national scale – even while launching rounds of restructuring that undercut the authenticity and viability of local identities. A valuable and accessible contribution to the urban studies and cultural studies literature.' (Miriam Greenberg, University of California, Santa Cruz, US).

Introduction: whither regional studies? / Andy Pike -- Regions and regional uneven development forever? Some reflective comments upon theory and practice / Ray Hudson -- Beyond the territorial fix: regional assemblages, politics and power / John Allen and Allan Cochrane -- Territorial, scalar, networked, connected: in what sense a 'regional world'?, Gordon MacLeod and Martin Jones. Accident of the region: a strategic relational perspective on the construction of the region's significance / Arnoud Lagendijk -- Observational equivalence? Regional studies and regional science / Philip McCann -- Power in firm networks: what it means for regional innovation systems / Susan Christopherson and Jennifer Clark -- Polycentric state: new spaces of empowerment and engagement? / Kevin Morgan -- What kind of local and regional development and for whom? / Andy Pike, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and John Tomaney

International audience ; Regional studies are at a vibrant conjuncture. 'Regions' continue to provide a conceptual and analytical focus for often overlapping concerns with economic, social, political, cultural and ecological change. In the context of increased interest in inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches, 'regions' remain an arena in which synthesis across disciplines – economics, geography, planning, politics and sociology – can take place. Indeed, this cross-disciplinary ethos has long been integral to the Regional Studies Association and its journal Regional Studies (Pike et al. 2007).

Regional studies are at a vibrant conjuncture. 'Regions' continue to provide a conceptual and analytical focus for often overlapping concerns with economic, social, political, cultural and ecological change. In the context of increased interest in inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches, 'regions' remain an arena in which synthesis across disciplines – economics, geography, planning, politics and sociology – can take place. Indeed, this cross-disciplinary ethos has long been integral to the Regional Studies Association and its journal Regional Studies (Pike et al. 2007).

The task force has emerged as a mechanism for coordinating economic development activity in the context of the current New Labour government's emphasis upon including 'stakeholders' in 'joined-up' approaches to 'crosscutting' issues. In this paper I examine the use of task forces to organise economic development at employer, sectoral, and territorial levels at the local and regional scales in the North East region of England. It is argued that New Labour's experimental use of task forces reflects a particular mediation of more general tendencies in the historical evolution of state modernisation, which varies in particular and contingent ways at the local and regional levels. The research reveals the continued importance of the existing public-sector and public—private-sector institutions, the less significant and contingent role of the private sector, and the contribution of the task force to the 'quasi-governance' of the United Kingdom, with its problems of coordination, transparency, and accountability. A renewed politics of economic development governance is required to establish the accountability and legitimacy of such bodies in the context of the emergent multilayered governance system of the UK political economy.