DR NICOLA HEADLAM

HESELTINE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND PRACTICE

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

POST-CRASH CITIES CONFERENCEUNIVERSITY OF YORK

5 T H JULY 2013

Exquisite paradox of localism, gaming the north, & the long bust

1.WHY EXQUISITE PARADOX? 2.SCALING BOURDIEU’S 2 HANDS?

3. THE URBAN INDUSTRY4. ORIGINAL:MODERN (?)

Build tents not temples…the sound of one hand

clapping…

Georg Simmel

“Economic facts are social facts are psychic facts are aesthetic facts”

The metropolis & mental life…

Who/whom? & where..

Fundamental questions of constitutional structures, central-local relations, institutional co-ordination, and public expenditure… are addressed as the perhaps unglamorous dimensions of sub-national government and governance.

(Pike and Tomaney 2004)

1. Exquisite paradox of “localism”

“WELL THAT’S NOT THE WAY, BUT THAT’S NOT THE WAY THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT

DOES THINGS, (Y’KNOW) THERE’S NOTHING ABOUT “DO IT THIS WAY”, IT’S ABOUT CRUDELY, WE’LL CONTINUE TO

MAKE YOUR LIFE SO UNPLEASANT UNTIL YOU CAN FIGURE YOURSELF

INTO A WAY IN WHICH WE FIND ACCEPTABLE, IF I WERE BEING CRUDE ABOUT IT, (LAUGHTER) ERM BUT WE WON’T TELL YOU WHAT THAT IS.”

(INTERVIEW MAY 2013)

Chris Hood

(Hobbes)Bourdieu’s 2-hands

2. The degeneration of regeneration

Intransitive verbs – no subject no object“Big tent” 3rd way urbanism and the post-

politicalUrban strategic milieu - policy not politics*

State as conundrum (problematic) Urban “industry” & panjandrum

Spatially extended product: “Brand, plan & strategy”

Place marketing – symbolic and visible

Urban industry

(3) Long boom : austerity localism

neo-liberalism squared “debate”“people not place” hands of the state

right punishes / left strokesAusterity localism

exit strategy for the state barnet ‘graph of doom’ – scripts - technologies

Urban Right hand

Local/Urban regulationFiscal (fiduciary) taxation – redistribution

(damping) Cuts - Local Govt Finance - Business Rates

Spatial – control through spatial planning system Development Control

Cognitive – Local govt subservience / lack of autonomy

Urban Left hand

Local/Urban policyFiscal (?) Regeneration, economic development, urban policy - Social welfare spending - £ “Damping”EU structural fundingSpatial Regeneration / Area Based InitiativesCognitive – public service ethos

Gaming (1)

Gaming (2)