Configurations of Localism: does the new localism create the conditions for sustainable growth?

Dr Graham Symon, Business School, University of Greenwich, UK James Kennell Economic Development Resource Centre, University of Greenwich, UK Three years after the financial crisis of 2008, it is clear that the impacts of the crash are being felt in spatial contexts well below those of the globalised economic institutions and finance elites. This paper examines the crisis in governance and economic development at the level of the neighbourhood and the community and suggests ways in which a radical localism can support a resurgence in local economies and sustainable community development. Glocalised retail and services industries have shaped cities and towns in the UK over the past two decades, influencing their architecture, urban configurations and economic profiles. The rapid growth of the skilled and unskilled knowledge economy has created institutions, businesses and communities characterised by precarious employment, weakened social ties and neoliberal approaches to governance1 Following the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing slump in Western economies, these precariously balanced places have suffered multiple crises. Funding for key elements of civil society and public welfare has been drastically cut. In key areas of employment, the private sector has pursued aggressive cost cutting measures leading to job losses and deepening economic insecurity. Crucially, the mechanisms and institutions (of the state and civil society) through which the negative impacts of economic crises have been managed in the past have been broken up and are being reconfigured in ways that are not yet clear. The scale of these changes are such that their effects will be generational in nature and provoke sustained debates about the future of the relationship between the public, private and third sectors as lives and livelihoods are adapted to meet the new economic reality.2 In this paper, we examine this reconfiguration within the framework of the new localism that is being promoted by the UKs coalition government. Taking the Thames Gateway as an example of a spatial context that has been subject to successive regimes of regeneration and economic development since 1995, we explore whether the new mechanisms and institutions of regeneration and economic development, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, are capable of promoting and supporting sustainable growth at the local level? We draw conclusions based on a review of key policy documents and interviews with public, private and third sector stakeholders across the Thames Gateway region.

Harvey, D (2007) Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development, London: Verso 2 Florida, R. (2010) The Great Reset: how new ways of living and working drive post-crash prosperity, New York: Harper Collins