Abstract
This paper provides new conceptual and empirical insights into the role city-regions play as part of a geopolitical strategy deployed by the nation state to enact its own interests, in conversation with local considerations. Emphasis falls on the performative roles of economic models and spatial-economic imaginaries in consolidating and legitimising region-building efforts and the strategies and tactics employed by advocates to gain credibility and traction for their chosen imaginaries. We focus on the Sheffield City Region and Doncaster within it (South Yorkshire, England) drawing on 56 in-depth interviews with local policymakers, civic institutions and private sector stakeholders conducted between 2015 and 2018. In doing so, we identify three overlapping phases in the building of the Sheffield City Region: a period of initial case-making to build momentum behind the Sheffield City Region imaginary; a second of concerted challenge from alternative imaginaries; and a third where the Sheffield City Region was co-constituted alongside the dominant alternative One Yorkshire imaginary. Our work suggests that the city-region imaginary has gained traction and sustained momentum as national interests have closed down local resistance to the Sheffield City Region. This has momentarily locked local authorities into a preferred model of city-regional devolution but, in playing its hand, central government has exposed city-region building as a precarious fix where alternative imaginaries simply constitute a ‘deferred problem’ for central government going forward.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1583-1601 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Environment and Planning A |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 8 |
Early online date | 28 Apr 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding the research on which this paper draws. Thank you also to the interview participants who gave up their time to take part in the study. The paper also benefited from wider discussions with Graham Haughton and Iain Deas and feedback from participants at the 2019 Regional Studies Association Annual Conference where the paper was initially presented. Finally, thank you to Ryan Powell for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper and to the three anonymous referees and the Editor for their helpful comments in improving the article. The usual disclaimers apply.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Keywords
- city-regions
- devolution
- spatial imaginaries
- governance
- agglomeration