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In this article, the author reflects on the impact of neoliberalism on local and regional development during economic crisis. The author notes that neoliberalism has contributed of relatively rapid, but geographically uneven economic development in the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC). According to the author, local and regional development is where strategy making should start.

An emergent heterodox approach is challenging the prevailing orthodoxy of thinking, doing, and governing economic development, particularly at the subnational, regional, and local levels. Looking at underlying debates concerning institutionalism and a ‘new centrism’, the author draws together the theoretical and conceptual threads of the heterodox agenda. Several critical issues are outlined: the historical evolution of economic development approaches; the lack of coherency and consensus in conceptual, theoretical, and policy terms; the underdeveloped empirical base and; the translation into policy and institutional practice. This discussion informs an analytical framework based upon the central dimensions of heterodoxy, experimentation, context specificity, and governance. Empirical analysis of the substance of the new heterodoxy is undertaken by focusing upon a new institutional experiment for organising economic development—the task force—and drawing upon evidence from the national (UK), regional (North East of England), and local (South Tyneside) levels. The argument is that there is a mixed picture with patchy evidence of the emergence of the heterodox agenda, comprising genuine experimentation and innovation, coexisting and interrelating with substantial continuities and the extension and reinforcement of established practices. It is concluded that the currently dominant narrative and technocratic mode of ‘quasi-governance’ of economic development requires a renewed and democratised politics to open up discussion of alter- native responses to the fundamental questions of what kind of economic development is desired and for whom. Strengthened democratic structures as part of the devolution process in the UK nations and regions may offer the potential to begin this debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the issues challenging the subnational governance and economic and social development in the developed and developing world. Impact of the devolution of subnational governance among territories; Insights on the relation between subnational governance and economic and social development; Factors that contributes in the emergence of governance system.

The paper contributes to literature on the geographies of corporate philanthropy through a case study of the origins, growth and decline of the Northern Rock bank's charitable foundation. Analysis reveals the complex, geographically-embedded nature of philanthropic motivations and impacts. It demonstrates that investment in home and community by philanthropists was part of a regionally-inscribed business-model of excessive risk taking that brought them considerable personal financial rewards. It highlights tensions and conflicts between corporate philanthropists and professional grant-makers over the scale and regional focus of giving. The paper concludes that the positive outcomes of corporate philanthropy are difficult to sustain in disadvantaged regions where shifts in corporate strategy and fragilities in the local economy undermine charitable giving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the relationship between decentralisation, regional economic development, and income inequality within regions. Using multiplicative interaction models and regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100000 individuals in the European Union (EU), it addresses two main questions. First, whether fiscal and political decentralisation in Western Europe has an effect on within-regional interpersonal inequality. Second, whether this potential relationship is mediated by the level of economic development of the region. The results of the analysis show that greater fiscal decentralisation is associated with lower interpersonal income inequality, but, as regional income rises, further decentralisation is connected to a lower decrease in inequality. This finding is robust to the measurement and definition of income inequality, as well as to the weighting of the spatial units by their population size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]