How to revive left behind places

Recent political cycles across the OECD have seen the ‘revenge of places that don’t matter’. These ‘left behind places’, where economic prosperity has withered and culture decayed, have made their misery known electorally. The economic consequences, notably assaults on trade and globalism, and the human misery obvious in things like deaths of despair from suicide and opioid overdoses, have provoked a flurry of activity concerned with how to revive left behind places and dampen their rage. A large part of this agenda is localism: a combination of place-based policy, participatory governance, and community initiatives aimed at fostering not just economic, cultural, and political revival, but also social capital and ’pride in place’. How effective is this agenda likely to be, and how should we even conceptualise its effectiveness? Is economic growth the goal, or something more complex? To think through these issues, ePODstemology welcomes Jack Shaw, senior account manager for the London Progression Collaboration, affiliate researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University, and local government member for Barking and Dagenham in London. Jack is in the thick of the localism debate in the UK, where the government has recently released a whitepaper on ‘levelling up’ that aims to redress left behind places, in large part through localism initiatives and the devolution of decision making powers from the centre to local governments. Will it work or is it all bluster? Tune in to find out.   

Follow Jack on twitter! @JackShawLPC

https://www.ippr.org/about/people/staff/jack-shaw 

Levelling up whitepaper: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9463/#:~:text=of%20his%20Government.-,Levelling%20up%20white%20paper,social%20disparities%20across%20the%20UK. 

Bennett Institute materials on localism, place, levelling up, community infrastructure, etc.

https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/place/ 

Rodriguez Pose on the revenge of places that don’t matter: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/85888/1/Rodriguez-Pose_Revenge%20of%20Places.pdf 

Torsten Bell on low growth and productivity in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/10/why-be-a-poor-version-of-germany-instead-of-doing-what-we-do-best 

Bennett Institute outputs on productivity in the UK: https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/productivity/ 

The Economist on the cultural transition from Billy Elliot to Everyone is talking about Jamie: https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/04/28/in-britain-internal-migration-is-out-of-favour 

Ron Martin and Peter Tyler on how the levelling up agenda is underfunded (and other gems): https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/levelling-up-left-behind-places/  

Eric Kleinenberg on urban farms and other initiatives in Palaces for the People: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557044/palaces-for-the-people-by-eric-klinenberg/ 

Diane Bolet on the link between community pub closures an