ABSTRACT
The official rediscovery and, indeed, celebration of a regional dimension to British – and particularly English – policy and politics is a relatively phenomenon. The rebirth of regionalism as a political idea has been underpinned by the rise of a new regional economic geography, which suggests that regions and regional networking can help to generate economic innovation, competitiveness and prosperity. Geography – or the geographical imagination – opens up ways of understanding regions in different ways, namely, as sets of living relationships. The rebirth of regionalism as a political idea has been underpinned by the rise of a new regional economic geography, which suggests that regions and regional networking can help to generate economic innovation, competitiveness and prosperity. The emphasis on competitiveness as a focus for regional economic development policy is itself a problem, because it implies that success will be measured through the ability of a region to attract large firms and sustain a high technology sector.
