allan cochrane the open university presentation to ceedr, university of middlesex, october 23 rd,...
TRANSCRIPT
Allan Cochrane The Open University
Presentation to CEEDR, University of Middlesex, October 23rd, 2013
The State, the Market and Regional Inequality:
Critical Reflections on the South East
South East as the norm, against which others are judged
Capital city – seat of government Home Counties Englishness (maybe even
Britishness) The rest is peripheral – defined as
‘provinces’…. ‘distressed areas’…. ‘the regions’
South East as core
So…not a ‘real’ region – more of an accidental region in administrative terms
BUT needs to be regionalised – to be understood as part of set of socio-spatial relations
Within and beyond England and the UK
And in the end also mobilised as part of explicit and implicit national regional policy
Regionalising the South East
‘Rethinking the Region’ Defined as ‘growth region’ and
specifically region of neo-liberal growth
But a particular version of neo-liberalism which involved a continual process of state privileging for the South East
What’s in and what’s out, not just an academic debate – feeds into policy debates
Defining the South East
Activity space stretches across a huge area of England (Gordon)
Over half the population of England included in some versions (Dorling)
Polycentric city region (Hall and Pain)
Edge city (Garreau) Worrying about city regions –
mega region, super-region – but…beyond the metropolis (8m)
London city region
South East as national champion – England’s ‘world region’ - England’s (and so the UK’s) economic success relies on the success of the South east
The SE as (more than a) suburban heartland
SEEDA says it’s ‘England’s World Class region’
Diamonds and clusters London as ‘world city’ The South East as (explicitly
regionalised) economic driver under new Labour
Making up a region
Subject of explicit and active state strategy in first decade of 21st century focused on housing growth to underpin economic growth (housing as driver)
‘Sustainable communities’ Squaring the circle Economic growth Social sustainability Environmental sustainability
Growth regions identified (our research focused on one of these)
Inventing a regional policy
Carefully targeted nudges to the housing market, working with developers and house builders
A neo liberal belief in the power of the market (and house builders in particular)
Combined with active state support through planning and infrastructural development
Paid for through rising property values
Market utopianism
Strategy seems predicated on inequality and its reinforcement
Sustainable communities in the SE; Pathfinders in the North
Maybe making different claims – spreading out over the rest of England (Hall)
BUT based on ‘growth’: what happens when growth stops and the ‘growth region’ stops growing?
Sustaining growth
Still at the imaginative core of public policy – housing growth on the edge of the South East
Centre for Cities – focuses on growth in growth areas (and still housing)
City Deals – the case of Milton Keynes
From sustainability to viability (removing perceived constraints of the planning system)
No escape…