ABSTRACT

It is somewhat ironic that as globalisation extends its web of economic uniformity and ever-increasing cultural blandness, the importance of place and regional identity has increased. This phenomenon can be seen at various levels: the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) (Commission of the European Communities, 1999) has emphasized the need to respect and reinforce the distinctiveness of place, devolution to the Celtic nations and the Greater London region of England is a reflection of the political importance attached to place-based and national or regional politics, whilst the increased attention paid to regions, sub-regions and city-regions as key spatial components for the planning and development of England is evident in a number of recent governmental and academic studies (DTLR, 2002; ODPM, 2004; Roberts and Baker, 2004).