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Nicola Sturgeon's resignation as First Minister and leader of the SNP has thrown Scottish politics into flux. But beneath the superficial media coverage and frenetic party politics that followed her resignation, the fundamentals of the constitutional debate remain unaltered. One of these fundamentals, the extent to which Scotland is better or worse off being part of the UK political economy, is rarely debated in the depth it deserves. The parlous state of the UK economy and, in particular, the deeply entrenched territorial inequality that results from its extreme core‐periphery structure that safeguards the economic dominance of London and South East England, holds the potential for a surprise shift in the debate over independence to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collected data from four urban neighborhoods to explore whether citizen participation in urban governance was fostered by civic culture and local political institutions. Although citizen participation was least likely to occur in poor neighborhoods demonstrating lower educational attainment levels, such factors could be mitigated by political mobilization and approaches to urban governance adopted by local institutions (including citizen participation). (SM)

DOCHERTY I., GULLIVER S. and DRAKE P. (2004) Exploring the potential benefits of city collaboration, Reg. Studies 38, 445-456. As they emerge from extended periods of economic restructuring, many large cities are searching for innovative, more effective ways to achieve and maintain competitive advantage in the international economy. Strategic collaboration, although in the early stages of development, might offer a means for nearby cities to enhance their competitiveness and improve their position in regional and global hierarchies. This paper sets out a range of potential answers to the question 'why collaborate?' by exploring the likely benefits to be gained from such collaboration, and suggests possible ways in which the collaborative process between cities could be established and sustained. City collaboration Global economy Competitiveness Urban hierarchy DOCHERTY I., GULLIVER S. et DRAKE P. (2004) Un examen des avantages potentiels de la collaboration interville, Reg. Studies 38, 445-456. A la suite des periodes de restructuration economique prolongees, beaucoup des grandes villes sont a la recherche de facons plus innovatrices et plus efficaces de reussir et de maintenir leur competitivite dans l'economie internationale. Bien qu'elle soit dans ses premieres phases, la collaboration strategique pourrait fournir un moyen par lequel les grandes villes augmentent leur competitivite et ameliorent leur place dans les hierarchies regionale et mondiale. Tout en examinant les avantages potentiels a decouler d'une telle collaboration, cet article cherche a presenter toute une serie de reponses potentielles a la question suivante: collaborer, pour quoi faire? En outre, l'article suggere des facons qui puissent assurer la mise en train et faire le suivi du processus de collaboration interville. Collaboration interville Economie mondiale Competitivite Hierarchie urbaine DOCHERTY I., GULLIVER S. und DRAKE P. (2004) Untersuchung der potentiellen Vorteile stadtischer Zusammenarbeit, Reg. Studies 38, 445-456. Gegen Abschluss ausgedehnter wirtschaftlicher Umstrukturierung suchen viele Grossstadte nach innovativen wirksamen Wegen, Wettbewerbsvorteile in der internationalen Wirtschaft zu erzielen und zu behaupten. Strategische Zusammenarbeit konnte sich fur benachbarte Stadte selbst im Anfangsstadium der Entwicklung als Mittel zurVerbesserung ihrer Wettbewerbsfahigkeit erweisen, und ihrer Stellung in regionalen und globalen Rangordnungen verbessern. Dieser Aufsatz fuhrt eine Reihe potentieller Antworten auf die Frage 'Warum Zusammenarbeit?' auf, indem er die zu erwartenden Vorteile untersucht, die sich aus derartiger Zusammenarbeit ergeben, und schlagt mogliche Wege zur Aufnahme und Aufrechterhaltung von Zusammenarbeit vor. Zusammenarbeit von Stadten Globale Wirtschaft Wettbewerbsfahigkeit Stadtische Rangordnung DOCHERTY I., GULLIVER S. y DRAKE P. (2004) Un examen de los posibles beneficios que se derivan de la colaboracion entre ciudades, Reg. Studies 38, 445-456. A medida que emergen de prolongados periodos de reestructuracion economica, muchas de las grandes ciudades andan en la busqueda de formas mas efectivas e innovadoras de conseguir y manterner una ventaja competitiva en la economia internacional. Una colaboracion estrategica, aunque sea en los estados iniciales de desarrollo, puede ofrecer a las ciudades cercanas entre si una forma de aumentar su competitividad y mejorar su posicion en jerarquias regionales y globales. Este articulo presenta una variedad de posibles respuestas a la pregunta '?Para que colaborar?' explorando los posibles beneficios que se pueden obtener de tal colaboracion, y sugiere posibles formas mediante las cuales el proceso de colaboracion entre ciudades se podria establecer y sostener. Colaboracion entre ciudades Economia global Competitividad Jerarquia urbana JEL classifications: O21, R12, R58

The concept of 'inclusive growth' (IG) is discussed in a political economy framework. The article reports comparative analysis of economic and planning policy documents from Scotland, England and the UK and findings from expert workshops held in Scotland, which identify four key policy areas for 'inclusive growth': skills, transport and housing for young people; city-regional governance; childcare; and place-making. These policies share with the 'Foundational Economy' an emphasis on everyday infrastructure and services, but add an emphasis on inter-generational justice and stress the importance of community empowerment as much as re-municipalisation. Factors enabling IG policy development include: the necessary political powers; a unifying political discourse and civic institutions; and inclusive governance and participatory democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a composite paper bringing together six personal reflections on being supervised as doctoral students by Ronan Paddison. It contributes insightful and poignant voices of experience to a special issue commemorating the academic contributions – here with wider implications beyond the immediately 'academic' – of Ronan Paddison (1945–2019), the founder and for many years Editor-in-Chief of this journal, Space and Polity. The six sets of reflections have been authored independently of one another, but their cumulative effect is to demonstrate the depth of 'hidden' academic (and related) contribution made by Ronan to nurturing early career academics formally (through the doctoral supervision process) and more informally (in numerous ways and sometimes continuing well beyond the submission and award of a thesis). (Editorial abstract) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate development is an intensely social process dependent on rich networks of relations between public and private sector actors. Previous work has explored how far such relations are formalised in large cities through shared coalitions of interest intended to promote urban growth. Relatively little attention has been given to networks in smaller cities, which is the concern of this paper. Drawing on detailed research in a small Scottish city, the paper explores how its local network was characterised by strong reliance on network construction and reproduction through trust and reputation. Significantly, within such local networks, competition and collaboration can exist side by side, without subsuming normal tensions into consistent agendas or formally defined 'partnerships'. Controlling land for urban expansion provides a particular focus for these tensions, since it can allow certain interests to gain network dominance. These findings raise important concerns around whether small cities should rely on informal networks to promote growth instead of constructing formal coalitions that may attract more externally based actors. Such choices have profound implications for the capacity and transparency of development networks, and thus for the accountability of the urban development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions from the transport sector has become a critical imperative for public policy as our understanding of the impacts of the mobility system on the environment has developed. This paper contrasts policy development in three cities (Aberdeen, Bremen and Malmö) that collaborated as part of a European Union knowledge exchange programme designed to share innovative approaches to carbon reduction in the transport sector. We identify a number of critical aspects of governance, including the approach to policy formulation and implementation, and the status of consensus and cohesion, as key determinants of transport outcomes. We conclude that the degree of institutional alignment evident in each city’s governance network is crucial in explaining their appetite for the pursuit of low carbon policies, and in turn the real potential for policy transfer to occur as envisaged by European Union collaboration frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to suggest new avenues for trust research by critiquing the extant literature on this topic. We analyse the most influential research on intraorganizational trust from the perspective of a classic industrial sociology framework from the 1970s – Alan Fox’s work on frames of reference and trust dynamics. Our analysis of intraorganizational trust studies leads us to three conclusions. First, the large majority of intraorganizational trust research has strong unitarist underpinnings, which support a managerial agenda that is potentially detrimental to employees’ (and indeed managers’) long-term interests. Second, most of this research fails to explain how trust in organizations is embedded in societal and field-level institutions, hence it would benefit from looking ‘beyond the factory gates’ for a more complete understanding of trust dynamics in organizations. In this connection, we argue that Fox’s pluralist and radical perspectives, which are under-represented in intraorganizational trust research, could provide new lines of inquiry by locating internal trust relations in a wider institutional context. Third, Fox’s explanation of how low and high trust dynamics in organizations are embedded in wider society may help address the concerns about under-socialized, endogenous explanations and open the way for structure-agency analyses of building, maintaining and repairing intraorganizational trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. Devolution has been described as a key 'global trend' over recent decades as governments have decentralised power and responsibilities to subordinate regional institutions. UK devolution is characterised by its asymmetrical nature with different territories granted different institutional arrangements and powers. This paper seeks to examine the role of state personnel in mobilising the new institutional machinery and managing the process of devolution, focusing on transport policy. The research presented shows a clear contrast between London and Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Scotland and Wales, on the other, in terms of the effectiveness of political leaders in creating clear policy priorities and momentum in transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain's major cities have fallen behind the best practice in transport of European and north American cities, and need to address this to compete in global markets. A number of potential mechanisms are available to UK cities, but only if central government is willing to transfer (limited) financial powers to the city regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the application of scenario-planning techniques to the detailed and daunting challenge of city repositioning when policy makers are faced with a heavy history and a complex future context. We review a process of scenario planning undertaken in the Edinburgh city region, exploring the scenario process and its contribution to strategies and policies for city repositioning. Strongly rooted in the recent literature on urban and regional economic development, the text outlines how key individuals and organisations involved in the process participated in far-reaching analyses of the possible future worlds in which the Edinburgh city region might find itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions between individual liberty and collective social justice characterise many advanced liberal societies. These tensions are reflected in the challenges posed for representative democracy both by participatory democratic practices and by the current emphasis on (so-called) responsible participation. Based on the example of 'community' housing associations in Scotland, this paper explores these tensions. It is argued that the critique of responsibility may have been over-stated, that, in particular, 'community' housing associations offer the basis for relatively more inclusive and effective processes of decision making than council housing, which relies on the traditional processes and institutions of representative local government for its legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics have long been accustomed to playing multiple roles (teacher, researcher, expert and critic). But as university management needs increasingly to demonstrate its relevance and value to the economy and society, so consultancy has assumed greater significance. This article explores the emerging fractures in the landscape of academic consulting, focusing on how consultancy activity impacts on research standards, and the ability of academics to maintain their critical roles as independent figures capable of holding government and other public organizations to account, so that their contribution to improving public policy can be maximized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically reviews how the Scottish Executive's approach to transport has developed since devolution. Although there is much to commend, a number of concerns can be identified, including the possibility that a number of strategic infrastructure schemes appear to have been approved on political rather than on technical grounds. It is difficult to know whether the current set of transport infrastructure investment plans represents good value for public money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regime theory has become a favoured tool of analysis for students of city politics. It provides a consistent evaluative framework with which to analyse the operation of local politics in contrasting cities. Recent applications have sought to extend the reach of regime analysis beyond the US, and to integrate the theory with other urban political and geographical analyses. This paper reflects both of these concerns by applying the insights into power structures and coalition formation in city politics provided by regime theory, and particularly Stoker and Mossberger's (1994) typology of regime characteristics. This is valuable in informing the (re)emerging debates over the preferred spatial and functional structure of urban local governance in the UK. By comparing the development of policy in a particular field, urban rail transportation, the characteristics of two different local institutional mixes, the 'city-regional' and the 'public choice', are demonstrated to exert profound influences on the composition, operation and aspirations of local regimes. The differences in decision-making strategies and policy outcomes that arise are suggested to have significant implications for the preferred spatial structure of local authorities, and the level of public accountability they achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the Scottish government's document on transportation policy entitled 'Travel Choices for Scotland.' Problems related to increasing car ownership; Objectives of modal integration and sustainability; Growth in the use of motor vehicles; Public transportation improvements; Importance of land-use planning to the transport system.

We examine the impact of devolution in the United Kingdom on transport policies in the first two terms of devolved government, from 1999/2000 to 2007/08. In particular, we discuss the nature and extent of policy convergence and divergence between the devolved territories (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London) and England (wherein responsibility for policy formulation remains with the UK government at Westminster), and between the devolved territories themselves. Our analysis builds on existing work on devolution and public policy not only through its focus on transport policy, but also by distinguishing between `horizontal' and `vertical' dimensions of policy divergence and convergence, referring to relations between territories and to links to previous~policies adopted within the same territory, respectively. Findings point to a convergence of overarching transport strategies and a complex picture of both convergence and divergence in terms of specific policy measures. The latter provides evidence of a devolution effect on transport policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]