Professor Ivan Turok, Executive
Director of the Economic Performance and Development Programme, Human
Sciences Research Council, South Africa
Editor-in-Chief,
Regional Studies
Email:
iturok@hsrc.ac.za
A series of extraordinary
challenges and risks are coming
together and causing great uncertainty across the world. The anaemic and
unbalanced recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has produced turbulent
international markets. The instability coincides with a longer trend of rising
social inequality, which is provoking discontent and disaffection in many
regions and nations. There are multiple targets of this resentment, including
international trade, refugees, business elites and the political establishment.
The backlash is apparent in rising populism and nostalgic nationalism,
resulting in protectionism, currency wars and resistance to immigration.
The Regional
Studies journal was launched
50 years ago into a very different environment of relatively high and stable
economic growth, when the benefits were shared more equally. This was an
optimistic era of full employment, rising prosperity and diminishing regional
inequalities. It was also a period of relative political stability and
ignorance of global warming. Regional
Studies was intended to
stimulate research on how space, place and location mattered to economies and
societies.
The 50th anniversary special issue of Regional
Studies published this month
reflects back on developments over this period and offers signposts for urban
and regional research looking ahead. It outlines the changing international
context for regional studies and identifies ways in which regional research is
made more compelling by the threats and uncertainties confronting the world
today, and the many anxieties facing localities and regions.
This is clearly a period of flux, in which circumstances are
changing rapidly and unpredictably. Globalisation is under particular scrutiny,
following decades during which regions and nations became intertwined through
cross-border flows of
trade, capital,
labour, technology and information. The increasing openness of territorial
boundaries and the integration of world markets rewarded highly-educated
groups, well-positioned city-regions and selected emerging economies, shown by
the rise of
China. But freer trade and financial deregulation also caused volatility
and instability. Deindustrialisation, privatisation and welfare reductions in
many advanced economies enlarged
social and spatial divisions and
left working class communities worse off. People were told that governments
can’t buck the market, and that there is no alternative.
Falling transport costs, human mobility and digital technologies
prompted many economists to predict the death of distance and the demise of
cities and regions. Geographers proposed more permeable concepts of the region,
and focused more on the flows and relationships between regions. Intensified competition
for trade, talent and investment amplified
regional disparities by raising the stakes for winning, and leaving
less-favoured places with lower wages and lost jobs, thereby fuelling the sense
of injustice and anger. Regional research became a multi-disciplinary endeavour
covering a range of disciplines beyond economic geography.
The impetus to hyper-globalisation has stalled since the Great
Recession. Economic fragility, financial austerity and the rise of emerging
economies in the East provoke fear and frustration in the West. People feel
buffeted by forces beyond their control and increasingly question the benefits
of interconnected world markets. Resentment towards new waves
of immigration and
international institutions is rising, epitomised by Brexit, despite the
academic consensus that this is not in Britain’s interests.
Global trade and capital flows are being forced into reverse by
rising protectionism and the dismantling of free-trade agreements, exemplified
by the first steps of the Trump Presidency. At the very time when international
cooperation is vital to mitigate the risks of climate change, illicit financial
flows, escalating refugee crises and mounting threats to security and peace,
popular opinion seems to favour going it alone. Enlightened thinking also risks
being crowded out by uncompromising, partisan and chauvinistic reactions to
unfolding events.
The implications for cities and regions of the fracturing of the international
order are highly uncertain. Resurgent popular nationalism could inhibit foreign
investment, access to external markets and scarce skills. It could force more
reliance on local capabilities and domestic production. Patriotic impulses that
challenge ossified structures and global cartels could potentially provoke a
resurgence of regional
enterprise and organic growth. Well-conceived policy
reforms that disrupt business inertia could engender
a wave of innovation and creativity based on smaller-scale
production. Dynamic regional multipliers might be spurred by efforts to
localise resource flows so as to secure the supply of food and scarce
materials, to cut energy consumption and to regenerate degraded ecosystems –
boosting the ‘circular economy’.
Democratic constraints on business short-termism may also curb financial
speculation and encourage longer-term
investment in the real
economy.
Furthermore, international disengagement might serve to bolster
local and regional identities and renew a sense of place and belonging. This
could elevate the obligations on civic leaders and rebuild confidence in the
role of city and regional institutions. Against this, heightened perceptions of
fear and insecurity could foster a ‘new tribalism’ through separatist
movements, ethnic tensions, insurgent splinter groups and other inward-looking
forces that escalate conflict and pull countries and regions apart. Much
depends on whether democratic institutions are capable of responding to the
genuine concerns of citizens and can meld different interests and values
together in pursuit of shared agendas, collective solutions and a new social
contract.
The case for regional studies is accentuated in all these
scenarios. Systematic analyses of how different territories are adapting to the
unravelling of globalisation and introducing more holistic and resilient
strategies to cope with the turbulence are urgently needed. The world is also
undergoing other complex transitions: towards a lower
carbon future; an increasingly urban
milieu; unprecedented technological advances; cultural intermingling, and
new global geopolitical alliances. A new era is emerging in which the rules of
the game are being rewritten. New relationships are being established between
politics and the economy, between state institutions and markets, and between
different places and territories. The regional dimension has been neglected in
recent commentaries, but whether regions have the capabilities to influence
these transitions and manage the risks they entail will have a major bearing on
the outcome. The Regional
Studies editorial team would
welcome proposals for papers and special issues addressing the themes of
regional transitions, shifting state-market relationships and new
inter-regional connections in the context of stalled globalisation.
Professor Ivan Turok is Editor-in-Chief of
Regional Studies and Executive Director at the Human Sciences Research Council,
South Africa.
You can read the 50th anniversary special issue here.
Global reversal, regional revival?
Ivan Turok, David Bailey, Jennifer Clark,
Jun Du, Ugo Fratesi, Michael Fritsch, John Harrison, Tom Kemeny, Dieter Kogler,
Arnoud Lagendijk, Tomasz Mickiewicz, Ernest Miguelez, Stefano Usai & Fiona
Wishlade
Michael Keating
Anssi Paasi & Jonathan Metzger
Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken
& Bernhard Truffer
Shifting horizons in local and
regional development
Andy Pike, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose &
John Tomaney
Transforming cities: does
urbanization promote democratic change?
Edward L. Glaeser & Bryce Millett
Steinberg
Uneven and combined development
Michael Dunford & Weidong Liu
The city as innovation machine
Richard Florida, Patrick Adler &
Charlotta Mellander
Global investments and regional
development trajectories: the missing links
Riccardo Crescenzi & Simona Iammarino
Geographical linkages in the
financial services industry: a dialogue with organizational studies
Eric Knight & Dariusz Wójcik
The interregional migration of human
capital and its regional consequences: a review
Alessandra Faggian, Isha Rajbhandari &
Kathryn R. Dotzel
Can transport infrastructure change
regions’ economic fortunes? Some evidence from Europe and China
Chia-Lin Chen & Roger Vickerman
Future green economies and regional
development: a research agenda
David Gibbs & Kirstie O’Neill
Dimitris Ballas, Danny Dorling &
Benjamin Hennig