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Spatial Dimensions and Institutional Uncertainties of Planning and the ‘New Regionalism’

Over the last two decades, there have been numerous advancements in theorising the significance of subnational territories within both the global economy and nation-states. Within the United Kingdom over the last few years, academic study has tended to concentrate on the ‘new regionalism’ and the rescaling of political processes caused by the ‘hollowing out’ of the nation-state and governmental devolution and decentralisation to the subnational level. Part of the reason for this push towards a renewed interest in regional governance and policy processes has been the autonomous institutional capacities of regions to harness regional economic development with planning processes. The new regionalism (a contentious label) has occurred throughout the United Kingdom, but has been implemented separately in each country, through the creation of Regional Development Agencies in the English regions, and new politically accountable elected forums in Wales and Scotland. In this paper, we provide one of the first attempts empirically to analyse the new institutional structures through a survey of agencies across Britain—in England, Scotland, and Wales—in order to provide a comparative assessment of evolving forms of regional governance. We illustrate a mixed reaction from public-policy stakeholders with concern over the ability of these new forums to develop a capacity to harness both economic development and planning policy processes. On a more conceptual level, the research indicates uncertainty over both the future spatial dimension of planning processes and the scale links between the new regional level and the existing national and local levels of governance.