Managed workspace. Do tenants stay too long?

The managed workspace format rose to prominence as a tool for local economic development during the 1980s, Its popularity has continued into the 1990s, offering support for new and small firms in their early stages of operation through the provision of suitable premises and a “protected environment”. In this article, evidence is presented to indicate that a significant proportion of tenant firms are, in fact, remaining in managed workspace well beyond the early stages of operation for which it is primarily intended, and we examine the reasons for this. Most significantly, this examination reveals that the added costs associated with the provision of the “protected environment” often appear to produce little in the way of added value for these more mature tenant firms, and on this basis we conclude with a call for a reappraisal of the role for managed workspace in local economic development policies.     

Integrating the economic and the social. Policy and institutional change in local economic strategy

Since the mid-1990s policy “integration” has become an increasingly salient theme within central government and local government policy-making. In this paper we report survey findings tracing the recent emergence of explicitly “integrated” local economic and social strategies, and the evolving position of ostensibly social themes in local economic strategies. These highlight some of the more important policy and institutional changes that have characterised local economic strategy in the post-Thatcher era. Subsequently, in the light of this initial data we outline a number of possible directions for further research.     

Sustainable development and the local economy

This article sets out the divergence so far between the developing “environmental economics” and local authority “green strategies”. We propose a model of environmentally sustainable economic development. Our argument outlines “environmental efficiency” and more stringent “sustainability” objectives. It reviews current local authority activities and practices. All are within the “environmental efficiency” framework. It concludes by identifying opportunities created by recent government commitment to environmental improvement targets and argues that local authorities are well placed to take up the challenge of developing sustainable development in local economies. It suggests that this process will involve intervention in the market in a way not dissimilar to that adopted in the 1980s by local authorities concerned with developing socially progressive economic strategies and that this process might be termed “social environmentalism”.     

Re-booting the local economy: Information and communication technologies in local economic strategy

Many local economic strategies today include reference to a communications infrastructure that involves electronic networks alongside that of roads and railways. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), often referred to as the “information superhighway” or informatics, are considered useful to stimulate local economic activity. This paper, based on a North East case study, suggests that the importance of ICTs to local economic strategy lies in the rationale of key local strategy makers, while the use of ICTs for local economic development means that the local governance of ICTs will become a salient feature in future economic development.     

Rethinking the role of the service sector in local economic revitalisation

This article evaluates the role of the service sector in revitalising local economies. Using case study evidence from the Fens, the view that services are “parasitic” activities is refuted. Instead, services are shown to contribute positively to local economic rejuvenation not only as “basic” activities which bring income into local economies from outside but also, just as importantly, as locally-oriented activities which stop income from leaking out of the locality. The consequences of this reconceptualisation of services for the nature of local economic policy are addressed.     

Microcredit in Prefamine Ireland

Hundreds of independent, local, quasi-charitable microcredit societies, or “loan funds,” were lending to as many as 20% of Irish households in the mid-19th century. Their goal was to relieve poverty by providing credit to the “industrious poor” at competitive interest rates without public funding. They successfully mitigated informational, moral hazard, and enforcement problems, and operated at a surplus in a market where intermediation by the banks seems not to have been profitable. Loan fund activity offers new insights into capital formation in the 19th-century Irish economy and challenges traditional notions regarding the economic activities of the Irish poor. They are also relevant for economists studying current microcredit initiatives.     

Telecommunications and the local economy: Some emerging policy issues

This paper provides a brief overview of the issues which surround local economic development and telecommunications. The implications of telecommunications for urban and regional development in the present “information-based” era are outlined and the seven basic features of this development are described. Some necessary steps and conceptual approaches to developing specifically local development policies in this new area are then expounded by way of the development of a “framework for the local policy maker”. Finally, several leading attempts at developing locally controlled telecommunications infrastructures in the UK, as agents of economic and social development, are briefly analysed.     

Neo-Corporatism and Territorial Economic Development: The Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement in Local Government

This article argues that the democratization of local governments that has been led by indigenous movements in Ecuador can best be described as “neocorporatist”. The article, based on the evidence from two cases of indigenous local governments in the Andes, argues that the forms of “neo-corporatism” created by the Ecuadorian indigenous movement on its entry into government are designed as participatory institutional frameworks that also serve as channels for the expression of social movements’ demands. The neocorporatist practices deployed by indigenous movements in these areas have had mixed results, both in terms of their implementation and of their capacity to foster viable income-generating activities for poor rural areas. On balance, while the forms of neocorporatist government fostered by the indigenous movement can have positive impacts on economic development, there are still two broad limitations. First, it continues to be difficult to foster a process of territorial economic development that effectively addresses the distinct interests that exist among different community organizations. Second, the negative effects of the wider economic context in which local territories find themselves remain beyond the control of the local government.     

Playing the defence card: Local authority responses to the 1992 regional policy consultation paper

After two decades or more of hope, the jubilation over the relaxing of the “cold war” is tempered in those localities dependent in some way on the defence industries. In June 1992, the UK government produced a consultation paper on the topic of regional industrial policy and this provided an opportunity for defence-related local authorities to “flag up” their problems. The review event offers a common reference activity around which to compare the occurrence and the nature of local reactions. This article investigates the responses from a large sample of these local authorities, exploring the arguments put forward, the representations made, and the strategies deployed. It also tries to account for the various attitudes and reports on the outcome of the review process. Amongst an array of interesting findings, the analysis reveals a range of response strategies by local authorities and a variety of attitudes to policy support.     

Stakeholding and the local economy

During the 1980s local economic policy became an issue of major political concern. The polarisation of the New Right market-led strategies advanced by the Thatcher governments and the New Left-inspired counter-response, typified by the last years of the GLC, reflected the tenor of national political and economic debates at the time. Arguably, in the 10 years since the abolition of the GLC, local economic development has been devoid (some might say spared) of any “big idea” arising from wider political debates. Recently, however, there have been signs that a new political direction may be emerging at the national level with significant implications for local economic policy. That direction is the notion of stakeholding.     

Local economic strategies: Paradigms for a planned economy?

Interventionist local economic strategies are perceived by the present government as a significant threat, as shown by the concerns of the Widdicombe inquiry. But are they of lasting influence, or mere “fashionable playgrounds for the new left"? John Benington identifies a major shift in the way local authorities see their own role as employers and purchasers. But there is also a risk that the new left approach will become depoliticised and bureaucratised, and that certain community and trade union activities which have been strengthened by the local state will become dangerously dependent on it.     

政绩压力与利益谋取 ——对农地征用中地方政府行为的理论分析

政府应该在经济发展中扮演怎样的角色是发展中国家普遍面临的问题。当前中国出现的农地征用中地方政府的积极介入行为为我们分析这个问题提供了具体的事实案例。在农地征用过程中,由于地方政府掌握着土地征用权,所以它们构成农业用地向城市用地（包括公共用地和商业用地）流转的唯一中介,从而积极地介入到土地流转的过程中。地方政府在农地征用中的权力运行有着内在的政治逻辑,这是与当前中国的政治经济体制所分不开的。地方政府积极主动介入农地征用的行为是当前压力型政治经济体制下应对自上而下的政绩压力的产物,也是地方政府谋取自身利益的必然结果。地方政府的这种行为在一定程度上为促进地方经济发展作出了贡献,但是也带来了一系列的社会问题。要促进中国经济的健康发展,就必须对这种体制进行及时主动的变革。     

Small business service firms and the 1990s recession in the United Kingdom: Implications for local economic development

During the 1990s recession, the UK experienced a dramatic growth in employment in information-intensive business firms. This paper explores this growth with reference to small management consultancy and market research firms. Business service firms continued to be established and to grow during the recession because of three related attributes: professional expertise, an existing reputation and a network of client contacts. These attributes are related to the theoretical work of Granovetter (1973; 1982; 1985) who argues that “weak ties” operate to connect different groups of people together. The implications of these attributes for local economic development are considered. Success for all companies at the level of the local economy will be partially dependent on efficient and effective use of available business service expertise. The three attributes make it impossible to develop successful mechanisms to encourage the formation of business service companies in areas with underdeveloped service infrastructure. Mechanisms, however, may be developed at the local level to encourage the establishment of “weak ties” between local companies and regional and national providers of business service expertise.     

Cable and local economic development: Local authority roles and responses

There has been much recent comment about the development of the “information superhighway” and the opportunities that this will create for economic development. Yet elements of such a superhighway are already in place through the activities of cable companies in the UK This paper outlines the development of cable to date and examines the response of local authorities to such developments.     

Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?

In developing countries, urban clusters of informal firms such as brick kilns and leather tanneries can create severe pollution problems. These firms are, however, quite difficult to regulate for a variety of technical and political reasons. Drawing on the literature, this paper first develops a list of feasible environmental management policies. It then examines how these policies have fared in four independent efforts to control emissions from informal brick kilns in northern Mexico. The case studies suggest that: (a) conventional command and control process standards are generally only enforceable when buttressed by peer monitoring, (b) surprisingly, clean technologies can be successfully diffused even when they raise variable costs, in part because early adopters have an economic incentive to promote further adoption, (c) boycotts of “dirty” goods sold in informal markets are unenforceable, (d) well organized informal firms can block implementation of costly abatement strategies such as relocation and (e) private sector-led initiatives may be best suited for informal sector pollution control.     

Europe and East Asia in the context of regionalization: Theory and economic policy

Much academic interest has recently centered on economic regionalism as a framework of international economic relations. The European Community (EC) has been a focal point. Other regional economic organizations (APEC, NAFTA), have been subjects of debate.This paper discusses three principal arguments: (1) the “natural”/“optimal” regional grouping, (2) transaction cost advantage in a regional model, and (3) the balancing of intraregional and extra-regional economies. Indeed, the argument is most certainly for an international regime of an “open,” not a “fortress” economic regionalism.This paper examines the subject relative to economic theory and policy.     

Urban development corporations and enterprise boards revisited: A survey of current policies and practice

This article aims to fulfil three functions. First, it provides a brief survey of the current state of policy and practice amongst two categories of local economic development institution, Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) and Enterprise Boards. This includes forming some impressions of the impact on Enterprise Boards of the abolition of the GLC and the Metropolitan Councils, and of the provisions of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (Part V). And it includes some assessment of the responses of Urban Development Corporations to the largely critical assessments of them made by the National Audit Office (1988) on Liverpool and LDDC, and the House of Commons Employment Committee (1988) on employment effects. The recent expansion of numbers of UDCs (five “second-generation” ones set up in 1987, and four “third-generation” ones established during 1988 and 1989) also allows wider analysis of the form to be carried out.

The second aim of the article is to explore the extent and causes of diversity both between and within the two groups. This includes analysis of the degree of overlap and convergence between the two groups as well as the range of models within each.

A third aim is to explore the validity of either model for future implementation of local economic strategies.     

Contract culture and target fetishism: The distortive effects of output measures in local regeneration programmes

Performance management in TECs¹ and urban initiatives has developed in the 1990s into a “contract culture” characterised by heavy reliance on quantitative indicators as the basis for funding arrangements. These indicators may have perverse effects. Firstly, they may distort the design of local policy at the level of strategic planning and SRB (Single Regeneration Budget) bid-writing. Secondly, their use in contracts between TECs, City Challenge companies, SRB partnerships and their delivery agencies may distort policy implementation. An instructive parallel may be drawn between this “indicator distortion” and the distortions induced by planning targets in the former Soviet Union.     

European Union integration lessons for ASEAN + 3: the importance of contextual specificity

This paper will argue that EU integration appears to offer ASEAN and three Northeast Asian Countries (China, Japan and South Korea) political and security lessons concerning maintenance of regional stability, as well as some economic lessons. There is not, however, any institutional blueprint for integration that these countries could emulate. This is in part because economies are characterized by “contextual specificity” of chosen institutions and their corresponding working rules. These institutions and rules evolve in particular cultural and historical settings and are shaped by the specific country’s philosophical basis, political structure, and attitudes of authorities towards alternative types of economic institutions and the types of corresponding rules they could choose to establish for those institutions.