Across the world, regions are shaped not only by their present-day borders but also by layers of past governance, political ambition, and entrenched planning legacies. Nowhere is this more visible than in cities of the global south where the informal economy forms the backbone of everyday life. In Johannesburg, the inner city’s pavements and public […]
In the high-stakes game of 21st-century geopolitics, the map of the future is being drawn on the blueprints of the past. Nowhere is this clearer than in Kyushu, Japan. The recent opening of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plant in Kumamoto Prefecture is not merely a business transaction; it is a signal event in […]
South Africa’s post-apartheid development landscape remains profoundly shaped by its inherited spatial and institutional architecture. Derived from my PhD study, Bell (2025) argues that underdevelopment conditions, stemming from apartheid’s racial capitalist project, created spatial and institutional constraints in Gauteng’s periphery. These conditions limited equitable urban and industrial transformation, and persist today (Ashman, 2022; 2023). Understanding […]
In 2020, a merger of the counties of Troms and Finnmark in northern Norway was implemented as part of a nationwide regional reform. Unlike some mergers that took place at the time, this merger was not based on an initial voluntary agreement between the respective county councils. A consultative referendum held in Finnmark two years […]
Canada’s expansive Prairie region comprises the century-old provinces of Manitoba (est. 1870) and Saskatchewan and Alberta (est. 1905). However, this super-region, one-third the size of Canada (1.96 million sq. km.), faces three significant challenges: economic diversification, deteriorating infrastructure, and climate change. But do present-day decision-makers draw on insights from the region’s collective past? A past […]
Ghana is often celebrated as one of Africa’s most stable democracies—peaceful transitions of power, competitive elections, and a vibrant civic sphere (Gyimah-Boadi 2009; Paller 2019). Yet beneath this democratic success lies a stubborn paradox: political authority remains profoundly centralized. Despite more than three decades of multi-party elections and over four decades of decentralization reforms, Ghana’s […]