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A previous paper on RIS3 assessed its potential to influence growth strategies and their delivery. It held that significant further investment work was needed in tools and techniques, data and intelligence, and innovation in leadership capacity and capabilities. It further asserted that such investment was needed to be part of a commitment to a long-run learning and evaluation process. This paper considers synergies and dissonances between these national approaches to development in England. In particular, it explores how far RIS represents a step change from previous approaches to innovation-led growth. Alternatively, is it more accurately an incremental facelift and rebranding of previous orthodoxies? Does it add value to or detract from national policy for England? What roles might the approach play in the so-called ‘devolution revolution’? Can the (small scale, ‘light touch’) Advisory Hub approach support and promote those roles? What, if anything, might the England experience have for other nations and regions of Europe? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between public houses or pubs, and crime rates in England and Wales. The impact of pubs on local communities is generally studied and investigated within the context of third places, thus physical places that facilitate the accumulation of social capital within communities. We estimate Poisson Fixed-Effects (PFE) and a frontier Spatial Autoregressive (SAR) model on a unique panel dataset for 375 local authorities in England and Wales between 2003 and 2018. Results from the analysis indicate that the presence of pubs progressively relates to a higher incidence of major crimes when transitioning from rural to urban areas, mainly due to weaker level of community cohesion and a lack of resources to support formal policing in more urbanized centres. These findings highlight the importance of place-based strategies in tackling rising incidences of crimes, indicating that recent pub closures may have contributed to severing community ties that act as a deterrent to crime in certain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, several European countries have undergone reforms that modified the distribution of allocated powers and/or the geographical area of intervention of local authorities. This paper focuses on the institution of metropolitan governments. National legislative and executive powers usually claim that they want to provide densely urbanized areas with a more integrative level of action. As a result, the public authorities in large cities would get a greater capacity to deal with issues such as economic growth, increased soil sealing, socio-spatial inequalities, etc. This paper explores the motivations and forms of such metropolitan reforms in three European countries within the last decade, with the creation of Combined Authorities in England, of métropoles in France and of citta metropolitane in Italy. We argue that the forms of metropolitan government that have emerged in the three countries are embedded in very different institutional systems (Section 2). Considering the strategies of key protagonists, we show that the new modes of governance differ across and sometimes within countries (Section 3). In particular, the spatiality and the autonomy of the new metropolitan governments vary in the three countries (Section 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a households-in-place perspective to understanding socio-spatial disadvantage in energy-carbon restructuring. This reflects evidence that the costs and benefits of low carbon restructuring will not be distributed evenly or fairly between people and places. Some households and localities will benefit from decarbonization but others will be disproportionately affected by rising energy costs and job loss. In this paper we use the example of England to explore different dimensions of advantage and disadvantage in low carbon restructuring and how they might be reinforced or mediated by intervention by governments, NGOs and citizens. The paper makes a distinctive contribution by linking different sites and policy areas in the distributional politics of decarbonization from the perspective of individuals and households. Emphasis is placed on understanding just energy-carbon transitions from a households-in-place perspective. The analytical framework is exemplified through case studies of the coming to ground of different strands of energy-carbon restructuring in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite intermittent recognition of the input of private planning consultants in the UK planning system, there remains a paucity of empirical studies into their roles and influence in contemporary practice. Drawing on interviews with both public and private planners in England, this paper explores the nature of the public-private entanglements that increasingly define local planning practice. These include the heterogeneity of the consultant market, the rationales employed to justify consultant use, the nature of the expertise being deployed, and the asymmetrical nature of public/private relationships. The paper argues that the demands made on the public planning system and the planners that operate it are driving teleological explanations of the use of private expertise, displaying an ambivalence to the fact that Local Planning Authorities are in a position of critical dependency with private sector consultants. In concluding, it is argued that the knowledges that underpin planning practices are increasingly shaped by the market, with the potential to undermine planning's public interest purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a common perception that infrastructure megaprojects are difficult to implement, as they face many obstacles (cost overruns, political barriers and time delays). This was particularly the case in the UK where many projects were difficult to develop given a complex, centralized and turbulent financial context (e.g. the jubilee Line extension, the Eurostar project). Despite this complex British system, London is developing the Crossrail mega infrastructure project which is recognized to be on time and built within a planned budget. The paper aims to analyse the reasons for the development of this project in a turbulent political and financial British system. The main argument I defend is that Crossrail benefited from the constitution of a specific and localized growth coalition. Revisiting the notion developed by Logan and Molotch, I show how the aggregation of different interests (political and economic) has been essential in the concretization of this project. Actors motivated by the will to promote the growth of London and to sustain the growth of population and jobs have been at the forefront to defend Crossrail. These elements have put Crossrail on a route of success. The paper concludes by characterizing and analysing such a success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention to the city regional scale has fluctuated over time as governments in different countries have sought new 'territorial fixes' to respond to changing systems of production, flows of goods, capital and information, environmental challenges, and demands for renewed political legitimacy of collective action. In England, there have been successive cycles of rescaling, particularly since the 1970s when metropolitan governance structures were created only to be abolished the following decade. Larger regional territories were favoured in the 1990s and 2000s, however, from the mid-2000s onwards the city-regional scale again rose to prominence. The 2010s saw attention shift back to sub-regional territories with the creation of 'Combined Authorities' for 'larger than local' but 'smaller than regional' areas, including for many city-regions. This paper considers the new city regionalism in England and the experience of the Liverpool City Region (LCR). It concludes that whilst exogenous political economic factors and state strategies may stimulate rescaling of territorial governance, it is important to recognize that it is also shaped by distinctive local contexts and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic spatial planning (SSP) has been a key planning practice supporting spatial transformation globally. However, designing and implementing strategic spatial plans is a complex task. The process involves prioritizing planning intentions, establishing funding mechanisms and structuring governance settings, which take shape within power configurations. It is within this complexity that a participatory and integrative planning approach assumes increasing importance when addressing, strategically, societal challenges such as spatial injustice. Furthermore, a consolidated planning practice – that is the experiences in dealing with SSP are thought to influence how strategic plans are prepared and executed. Bearing in mind the influential role of preceding experiences in SSP processes as well as of participation, project promotion and policy integration, this paper synthesizes the results of a literature review reflecting three decades of SSP (1990–2020) in England. England has a well-defined history of engagements with SSP. The purpose is to discuss lessons learned from looking back 30 years and debate suggestions for how to design future SSP that account for public and private interests and align cross-sectoral policies. To overcome democratic accountability constraints and steering resource management effectively, this review pleas for more cooperative central–local relationships in shaping future SSP processes in England and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning in England1 represents an important arena for the development and contestation of environmental discourses. Over the last century the changing assumptions about human-nature relationship have led to numerous meanings of “the environment” in planning. These have in turn influenced the choices made between: preserving, enhancing, protecting, compromising, trading, exploiting or guarding against, the environment. While recognizing the nuances of the environmental discourses, this paper identifies eight distinct meanings of the environment in contemporary plans including the environment: as local amenity, as heritage landscape, as nature reserve, as storehouse of resources, as tradable commodity, as problem, as sustainability and as risk. The latter has emerged as a result of growing climate change awareness. The paper argues that, while the emphasis on climate change mitigation has reinforced some aspects of the sustainability discourse, the adaptation agenda has introduced a new meaning of the environment as risk. This portrays the environment not so much in terms of assets to be sustained for human benefit, but in terms of threats against which human well-being should be safeguarded. Framed in the language of risk and security, this new discourse is bringing to the fore some of the outmoded approaches to planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing economic focus on knowledge has spurred the growth and development of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). This paper seeks to further understand the evolution and growth of KIBS firms and the nature of their networks and markets. It is argued that changing competitiveness conditions are heightening the requirement for firms in most sectors to innovate and take advantage of their core competences and knowledge. This is resulting in a growing trend by firms to outsource KIBS. The paper draws on interview data from a sample of KIBS firms in London and Helsinki. It is concluded that the growth of KIBS is stretching the limits of globalization through the creation of new spaces of knowledge flow. However, regions continue to be key knowledge bases and remain the primary spatial architecture underlying the systems of innovation within which KIBS are positioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable debate has taken place in England around the concept of the city-region. While there is contestation over the terminologies and interpretations of city-regionalism, this paper considers the extent to which it can offer a more integrative set of arrangements for community planning practices in England. Community planning is concerned with securing institutional efficiencies and sustainable development gains in the context of local service provision and integration. Attention is drawn to the extent to which the convergence of these two parallel processes may either exacerbate or ameliorate the institutional barriers to securing efficient and effective community planning. The paper argues that the effective translation of city-regionalism into practice is influenced by (i) variance in the territorial imaginaries/operational boundaries of local institutions and the impact on city-regional governance structures; (ii) the consistency of approach to city-regionalism that is evident within central government and the impact of national policy guidance on the establishment of functional city-regions and (iii) a lack of vertical integration between community planning and city-regional working. These impinge on the extent to which an effective 'spatial fix' can be secured locally and the ability of community planning to act as a 'decongestant' within an increasingly congested state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses upon the practice of conservation applied through the planning systems of three European countries, Ireland, the Netherlands and England, here termed conservation-planning. The values and validated practice of conservation-planning are considered in terms of the concept of Authorised Heritage Discourses (AHDs) that are internationally-shaped but nationally articulated in each country, and by a distinct conservation-planning social entity that may be described as an 'assemblage'. The post-2008 period has seen over-arching economic similarities in economic and political forces affecting conservation-planning practice in each country. In each case public-sector austerity measures have been accompanied by ideological re-positionings over the role of the state and a greater emphasis upon 'selling the historic city' has been accompanied by a declining public-sector capacity to manage change within the frame of traditionally established AHDs. The partial withdrawal of the state has in each case resulted in adjustments in the construction of the assemblage and thus in the 'ownership' of the AHDs with a greater involvement of the private sector in these processes. Despite similarities in conservation discourse, shaped by an international AHD, differences exist between the countries considered, which we can better understand by reference to the conservation-planning assemblage in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work in regional development has stressed the role of key economic actors in less favoured regions, particularly in high-technology sectors, in making those regions more attractive to outside investors. Of course, in less favoured regions (LFRs), there are rarely strong high-technology sectors able to reconfigure their local environment and provide the necessary local "buzz" to attract the attention of outside investors. In this paper, this issue is addressed by looking at how universities can play this role and have a broader systemic effect on the regional economic environment, by plugging gaps in the local regional innovation system. In this paper, a case study from Newcastle in the north-east of England is taken to consider recent developments which have begun to rebuild the regional innovation system. Focusing on the commercialization community around the university, it is looked at how this community of geographically proximate but initially organizationally and cognately remote actors built a common understanding to solve the problems involved in exploiting intellectual property in the impoverished regional innovation system (RIS) of the north-east of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successive attempts to reform planning practice in England have given rise to an impression that planning is “under attack”. Various academic commentaries have performed the valuable service of cataloguing aspects of this reform agenda, often within the context of the analytical framework offered by neoliberalization. In this paper, we seek to chronicle the cumulative effects of the sustained programme of neoliberalization to which urban and environmental planning has been subjected in England over a period spanning approximately the last 15 years. In doing so, we hope to show why planning has been such an intractable issue for all governments that have sought its reform irrespective of the particularities of their political agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly at the scale of cities, strategies and plans to respond to the challenges of climate change and constrained resources are being developed. A range of climate change plans, low-carbon strategies, peak oil preparations and so on have been developed, often with ambitious aspirations. At the same time, new and reconstituted “intermediary” organizational forms are working between the priorities of these plans and the contexts of their “application”. This is the movement between the “what” of the plans, strategies and preparations and the priorities they embody and the “how” of attempts at their accomplishment. Drawing on research in Greater Manchester, in this paper we examine the organizational contexts constituted for such a purpose and ask fundamental questions about whose priorities are being advocated, where and how this is organized and what the implications of this are for forms of urban transition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we ask how a shrinking city responds when faced with a perforated urban fabric. Drawing on Manchester's response to its perforated eastern flank —and informed by a parallel study of Leipzig—we use the city's current approach to critique urban regeneration policy in England. Urban renaissance holds out the promise of delivering more sustainable—that is more compact, more inclusive and more equitable—cities. However, the Manchester study demonstrated that the attempt to stem population loss from the city is at best fragile, despite a raft of policies now in place to support urban renaissance in England. It is argued here that Manchester like Leipzig is likely to face an ongoing battle to attract residents back from their suburban hinterlands. This is especially true of the family market that we identify as being an important element for long-term sustainable population growth in both cities. We use the case of New East Manchester to consider how discourses linked to urban renaissance—particularly those that link urbanism with greater densities—rule out some of the options available to Leipzig, namely, managing the long-term perforation of the city. We demonstrate that while Manchester is inevitably committed to the urban renaissance agenda, in practice New East Manchester demonstrates a far more pragmatic—but equally unavoidable—approach. This we attribute to the gap between renaissance and regeneration described by Amin et al. (Cities for the Many Not for the Few. Bristol: Policy Press, 2000) who define the former as urbanism for the middle class and the latter as urbanism for the working class. While this opportunistic approach may ultimately succeed in producing development on the ground, it will not address the fundamental, and chronic, problem; the combination of push and pull that sees families relocating to suburban areas. Thus, if existing communities in East Manchester are to have their area buoyed up—or sustained—by incomers, and especially families, with greater levels of social capital and higher incomes urban policy in England will have to be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional Development Agencies have been given the fundamental aim of improving their regions' economic performance and competitiveness. Supporting innovation is a cornerstone of this policy. This paper explores the limitations of region-based strategies arguing that this neglects the importance of policy intervention at the local level, using case studies of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to place policy research undertaken in the Yorkshire and East London regions of the UK within the broader context of regional innovation system building. In particular, it attempts to draw out the releasing factors and conditions that shaped stakeholder relationships in these two EU Objective Two regions during the 1990s. This is undertaken with a view to drawing out conclusions about the extent of autonomy, institutional lock-in and compatibility within regional governance. The extent to which such EU stimulated influences are relevant to the practice of regional technological development is explored in areas which have experienced industrial restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years community involvement and increasingly social capital have become central themes in debates and policies surrounding urban regeneration. This paper attempts to contribute to these debates by reviewing the role of social capital in the context of a major regeneration initiative, namely the European Union-sponsored Objective One Programme, currently underway on Merseyside. The paper argues that it is important to show how social capital is formed through the 'scaling-up' of local associational relationships, networks and institutions, to wider power structures and relations. Trust amongst participants is central to this process. Two areas on Merseyside are used as case studies to illustrate the argument. The paper concludes that the active development of trust and the social relationships surrounding it needs to be central to the process of urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and regions in different political contexts might play different roles in building communities, but when the cities shrink, they share common elements of what can be characterized as a “shrinkage identity”. One well-documented element is the independence from the country political context and a certain dependence on the effects of globalization on local industries. It can be described as economic structural dependency. Two other potential elements received very little attention: social structural dependency (so-called instituted behaviour) and urban sprawl. Case studies from Germany and England and observations in Australia witness that these three elements are specifications of the same analogue on different levels: spatial mismatches of needs and urban functions. This paper poses questions related to the role of the spatial mismatch concept and particularly interrogates social structural dependencies and urban sprawl as examples. It suggests that the latter are certainly contributing to long-term urban shrinkage (as cause and effect) and that spatial mismatches in general are hardly discussed as reasons for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, bioscientific research and commercialization are considered to be critical for improving a number of areas of social and economic life. Especially in the sector of human healthcare, the recent developments in new life sciences and biotechnology appear to constitute the main driving force of change. The most important characteristic of the new paradigm of technological change and innovation in life sciences is the close collaboration between all actors involved, including companies and research institutes, public policy initiatives and regional impacts. This paper examines in depth the complex collaborative relationships between public policy, public research and private firms in genomics and biotechnology, focusing on the cases of Cambridge and Scotland. On the basis of empirical evidence, it is argued that although these relationships are uneven and contradictory in both regions, they play significant roles in building firm-based and policy-making capabilities. Therefore, public-private collaborations in genomics and biotechnology are inevitable for regional innovation and development within the contemporary capitalist knowledge-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the findings of a study on the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter at its zenith from 1880 to 1920. Drawing on a unique database covering four decades and secondary data, it has been possible to map out the organization of production, the degree of firms' specializations, and extent of production and social networking within the Quarter. Such evidence seems to suggest that the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter was a Marshallian industrial district at the turn of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reformed planning system introduced in England in 2004 weakens the position of counties and unitary authorities. Regional bodies and central government have a larger say on the future shape of localities under these arrangements. In particular sub-regional strategies have a much bigger role within the new Regional Spatial Strategies. This paper examines the prospects for the influence of this new tier of planning, based on government guidance about sub-regional planning and on the evidence on emerging practice, particularly in the southern regions of England. The balance of influence of different actors is changing, both between government tiers and in wider governance relations. The prospects for integrated action in spatial terms are changing, as are the relationships to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formerly sleepy, rural county of Oxfordshire is now one of Europe's leading centres of enterprise, innovation and knowledge. It is a hotspot for high-tech manufacturing and service employment. But what is behind this phenomenon, and to what extent has it been managed? This paper sets out the facts, and explores the underlying factors. It starts with a number of definitional questions and approaches used in the research. It concludes with an examination of the role of planning in the process—and the extent to which is has helped or hindered the rise of “Enterprising Oxford”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how the Merseyside Objective One (MO1) programme provided a platform for sub-regional partners to develop a consensus about strategic economic development priorities and resulted in innovations and collective learning particularly in terms of community economic development and closer engagement of Higher Educational Institutions and the private sector. However, such gains were partially offset by over-complex management arrangements, blurred accountability, competition for resources and match funding problems. Devolution of responsibility for programme content and implementation under the new Structural Fund regulations should allow partners to address many of these shortcomings in the second MO1 programme. Tighter financial controls may, however, reduce room for manoeuvre and discourage experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural planning and the development of cultural quarters has become a new orthodoxy in the revitalization of inner city industrial districts, yet this orthodoxy is now widely questioned as to whether it delivers on its promises. In Birmingham UK, the aim to create a new cultural quarter in the industrial inner city area of Eastside represents a unique opportunity for the city to examine and learn from past lessons of the "cultural turn" in urban policy. The article examines these lessons and whether the Eastside scheme is set to repeat the mistakes of the past [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing materials from brownfield housing developments in London are analysed in order to evaluate the extent to which the British government's 'urban renaissance' goals can overcome public scepticism and a historical distaste for high-density urban living. A case study of Tunnel Wharf in Rotherhithe is presented along with a broader analysis of marketing materials from other developments. These marketing efforts suggest that urban living can be successfully sold to some segments of the British public, in large part by playing to cities' natural strengths. However, these sales pitches rely heavily on appeals to such themes as exclusivity and the ability to control one's environment, and thus raise broader questions about the viability and coherence of the urban renaissance vision. Specifically, it is suggested that the psychological response to increased urban densities may imply possible trade-offs between the preservation of countryside and the promotion of 'urbanity' in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One outcome of the increasing spatial sophistication in research on regions is a growing interest in how spatial imaginaries are institutionalized in processes of region-building. This article proceeds from the observation that the Mersey Belt spatial imaginary, in north-west England, exhibits an outstanding degree of durability as compared to other spatial imaginaries in the region. It is hypothesized that the Mersey Belt has come to function as an informal planning institution with which subsequent spatial imaginaries are compelled to engage. In order to test this hypothesis, Neuman's lifecycle theory of institutional change is adapted to examine a spatial imaginary as a planning institution, analyzing the relationship between the Mersey Belt and subsequent spatial imaginaries produced in the region. The article in this way adds to existing theories on the institutionalization of spatial imaginaries. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the Mersey Belt has become embedded within the region's planning culture, such that shifts in the spatial conception of the region based on new economic imaginaries have been expressed through the spatial imaginary of the Mersey Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marginal spaces are increasingly being taken up for commercial use in London. This includes railway arches, which are appropriated for many different social and economic activities. This article presents the findings of a study on 165 arches in three London neighbourhoods (Hackney, Bethnal Green and Bermondsey), which found the arches to host a disproportionate amount of manufacturing, in addition to concentrations of sectors such as food and drink; and taxi services. Despite being part of Britain's industrial heritage, the arches have proved highly adaptable 'hybrid' spaces supporting office, retail, wholesale and production. They are also modular - businesses move into neighbouring arches as they expand. The arches are therefore well-suited to the postfordist economy of the inner city, which incorporates a highly networked system of small-scale manufacturers and retailers that require flexible and affordable small spaces close to commercial centres. Being arranged side-by-side, and open onto the street, they support knowledge-sharing between firms, while also bringing life to neighbourhoods. The arches have a spatial/functional configuration that might be copied in new forms of industrial development. Indeed, they suggest the possibility of a new spatial form - 'industrial streets' as opposed to industrial estates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationships between land-use planning, property and economic development, with a focus on the changing attitudes towards employment land in post-industrial cities. Drawing on case study data from two London local authorities, it finds that planning authorities are moving away from protecting employment land to actively promoting the mixed-use redevelopment of employment sites, even when there are thriving businesses on these sites and a shortage of supply of employment premises and land, relative to demand. We examine the drivers for changing policy including the national and regional policy contexts, housing targets, the influence of austerity measures, rise of Neighbourhood Planning and changing conceptions of regeneration and the role of housing therein. The article highlights the complex task faced by local planners and the tensions involved in simultaneously finding sites for housing, fostering economic development and promoting mixed-use redevelopment in planning policy and decisions. We find that changes in policy are fuelling speculation for housing development on sites occupied by viable businesses, supporting rather than responding to deindustrialization. This is leading to a gap between aspirations for delivering mixed-use environments on hitherto employment sites and realities on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews recent debates about the emergence of “spatial planning” as a new ethos for English planning, suggesting that continued uncertainty around the term's use is partly caused by a failure to consider its emergence as the product of a contested political process. Drawing on an interpretive approach to policy analysis, the article goes on to show how this new organizing principle is a complex articulation of different and potentially contradictory reform impulses. The result is to destabilize the concept of spatial planning, showing how it has been constructed as an “empty signifier”, an unstable and tension-filled discursive stake in an ongoing politics of reform. Finally, it is argued that this has significant implications for the ways in which implementation success and failure should be understood and for analysis of planning reform initiatives and systems more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Savitch and Kantor explain divergent trajectories of urban development with the help of four variables, namely, market conditions, inter-governmental support, local culture and popular control in their theory. In this article, we apply Savitch and Kantor's theory to the urban tourism development of Antalya, Amsterdam and Liverpool. The case study is partly based on written documents and partly on face-to-face interviews with representatives from public, semi-private and private organizations of the tourism sector. We found that Savitch and Kantor's theory of urban development is only partly helpful in explaining divergent urban tourism development trajectories. A centralized unitary state does not necessarily lead to a social-centred urban development trajectory but can be just as good a pre-condition to a neo-liberal urban development strategy as seen in Antalya and Liverpool. And although  market conditions are favourable, an integrated inter-governmental support, a well-developed popular control, and a post-materialist culture have enabled Amsterdam to follow a social-centred urban policy, it has unintentionally and paradoxically resulted in gentrification and a commodification of heritage and culture. A strong social-centred urban policy in a first stage has created an urban milieu that has become exploited by gentrifiers and the tourism industry in a later stage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A brief characterization of the cultural economy of landscape is provided, with special reference to the English Lake District. The early growth of tourism in the Lake District in relation to its natural, literary and artistic assets is described. I examine the cultural economy of landscape in relation to three critical social groups, namely, local producers of goods and services, residents and visitors/tourists. I then offer a detailed account of the main elements of the Lake District's cultural economy and the tourist experience today. Attention is devoted to (a) the natural environment and its attractions, (b) the historical-artistic patrimony of the region and (c) the growing importance of food production, cuisine and crafts within the regional economy. I show how these elements of the cultural economy combine with a complex institutional milieu to generate a path-dependent trajectory of development. In the conclusion, I present a few remarks on the concept of creative regions and the senses in which peripheral areas like the Lake District might and might not be analysed in terms of this concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the variety of linkages firms have established with university science. These include using universities as a source of ideas for start-ups, scientific collaboration between firms and laboratories, the role of scientists on the scientific advisory boards of firms, and the role of universities in supplying firms with a labour market for talented scientists. These linkages are plentiful across Cambridge area biotechnology firms. However, and perhaps surprisingly, our evidence shows that a key actor, the University of Cambridge does not dominate the scientific linkages of the area's firms. A large percentage of Cambridge's firms do not derive from its university. The majority of scientific collaborations are not with University of Cambridge laboratories, nor do Cambridge scientists dominate the scientific advisory boards of firms. Moreover, the majority of scientists within area biotechnology firms appear not to have left University of Cambridge laboratories to move to industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a synthetic account of the historical development of London's water supply system within its wider national context, and addresses the current organizational setting of the water sector. Particular attention is paid to the post-Second World War period, which marked a transition towards integrated water management in England and Wales, a trend that has been consolidated since the 1970s. The article emphasizes the continuities and contradictions arising from the different combinations of public and private management strategies characterizing the UK water sector, and their implications for the sustainable management of water resources. It argues that there exists an in-built contradiction in the current institutional framework between the profit-oriented rationale of the private operators and the goals of efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability pursued by the water regulators. Within this framework, it highlights the key policy issues facing the metropolitan water systems, and suggests what their most likely trajectories might be in the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the north part of Southwark in London the local authority has become increasingly keen to promote an unknown area, known as Bankside. The primary focus of this strategy has been on the clear definition of this area as part of central London. Much of this strategy has been based on the precise definition of this area using design-based and architecturally-focussed landmarking, notably facilitated by the decision of the Tate to establish its new Gallery of Modern Art in the area. This it is argued has produced a heavily commodified landscape for (high) cultural consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The north-east of England is one of the most successful regions in attracting foreign investment in the UK-Germany being the most important European investor. This article seeks to provide a detailed account of the underlying motives and linkage effects of German direct investment in the manufacturing sector in the north-east of England. The study of 19 of the 29 German-owned manufacturing companies found that market-orientation was by far the most important pull-factor. The direct effects in terms of associated jobs and capital spending created a solid and persistent structure with six companies even expanding. However, to be more beneficial to the restructuring of the regional economy the existing linkages of the German-owned manufacturing sector have to be consolidated and additional networks built up. A separate discussion of the rise and fall of the Siemens semiconductor plant at Wallsend reveals the volatility of flagship investments and stresses the need for a regional industrial policy combining Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with endogenous economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which evaluated the key arguments underlying the local production network paradigm. Research design; Methods; Case study of companies in Hertfordshire, England; Results; Conclusions.

Presents information on a study that uses Manchester in England as a case study to evaluate the relationships between patterns of land development and local railway networks in Great Britain since 1947. Information on the town planning and Manchester's railway network from 1947 to 1996; Inherited relationships between the railway networks and urban form; Conclusions.

Compares the economic promotional strategies and institutions of two cities, Paris and London. Global and competitive contexts; Two approaches in response to a common economic context; Balance of actors and decision-making.

Presents information on academic and professional accounts of the British commercial development industry. Growth of commercial development in the United Kingdom; Conclusion; References.

Explores the economic and social regeneration of Liverpool, England and its limited participation in the political issues in Europe. Impact of economic shift on manufacturing base of Liverpool; Out-migration as a response to economic decline; Key characteristic of economic restructuring; Reaction to national and international media coverage of the city.