The Dictionary of Human Geography

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above all with a sense of ‘belatedness’ – a sort of

elegy for the world we have lost – that, on

occasion, too readily modulates into what

Rosaldo (1989) calls ‘imperial nostalgia’

whereby ‘people mourn the passing of what

they themselves have transformed’.

These issues are thus not confined to

regional geography, and they admit of no easy

solution. They also indicate the importance of

developing anethicsof regional description

and analysis capable of addressing both the

subjects and the audiences of such accounts.

The authors of regional geographies have

an obligation to respond to questions of

adequacy, accountability and authorization:

What are their responsibilities to the people

whose lives they write about? And they also

have an obligation to convey places, regions

and landscapes as something more than the

lifeless parade of categories or the endless

tabulations of statistics that loom so large in

many textbooks of regional geography. There

is a need to represent places and their inhab-

itants in ways that compel their audiences to

care about them: which is why the ‘openness’

of regions – the sense of trans-local and trans-

regional engagement and interconnection – is

important not only intellectually but also pol-

itically. Whatever else regional geography is

about, it surely ought to be about disclosing

our involvement with the lives and needs of

distant strangers. dg

Suggested reading

Barnes and Farish (2006); Paasi (2002); Thrift

(1994).

regional policy Policy concerned both with

the regional (normally thought of as sub-

national) constitution and effectivity ofecon-

omy,society,cultureand polity, and with

the economic, social and cultural constitution

and effectivity of regions. These two aspects of

policy are not binaries: they are mutually con-

stitutive of regional policy. However, although

always influentially co-present in policy initi-

ation, design and implementation, their rela-

tive significance varies across space and time.

As objects of policy,regionsare subjected

to attempted policy-led transformations

designed to ameliorateuneven development

for reasons ofsocial justice, welfare and

economic efficiency. Whilst contemporary

emphases in regional policy are increasingly

preoccupied with a singular concern for

economic growth, these motives are not

mutually exclusive. Regional policy is rarely

purely redistributive. It is intended to be

transformative. Thus it may, for example,

involve bringing work to (unemployed/low-

productivity) workers or attempt to address

the uneven distribution of cultural facilities

(e.g. symphony orchestras, art galleries and

theatres) or the regional availability of educa-

tional facilities (such as university disciplines,

for example). Such policies are usually driven

and financed from outside the region – albeit

often with regional participation – by national

or supra-nationalstatebodies. In terms of

policies attempting to address issues of welfare

and social justice, what is inescapable here is

fiscal redistribution and effort to direct the

geographical trajectories of the circuits of

value that make up economic geographies.

And, in addition, national macro-economic

policies are rarely region-neutral – as may be

illustrated, for example, in claims for and

against public expenditure in south-east

England and in debates around the political

and fiscal separation of the north from the

south of Italy – whilst a range of policies (e.g.

labour market policy, transport policy and

welfare policies) have pronounced regional

consequences even if articulated at the level

of the nation or supra-national state.

Alternatively, regional policy may stress

regional responsibilities for addressinguneven

development through regionally induced

supply-side transformations – involving

regional training, learning and innovation,

for example – designed to increase regional

economic efficiency,productivityand dyna-

mism. It thereby places responsibility for these

transformations on local workers and firms –

albeit with some support and encouragement

(both positive and negative) of various kinds.

Local responsibilities may also be emphasized

through competitive bidding processes for

major international events such as the

Olympic Games, for licences to open and run

casinos, or for resources to finance cultural

renovation or the upgrading of institutions of

higher education, or for investment in new

or upgraded infrastructure – to encourage

regional capacities such as public transport or

cycling for a post-carbon age.

The claimed economic, political and social

formative role of regions underlies their roles

as subjects of policy. Economically, claims for

the significance of regional context and prox-

imity in enabling the intense development of a

range of traded and untradedinterdependencies

and the emergent role oftrustin cutting the

transaction costsof economic activity, as

well as notions of ‘buzz’ based around per-

sonal and face-to-face contact in enhancing

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_R-new Final Proof page 636 2.4.2009 9:12pm

REGIONAL POLICY