Allen J. and Cochrane A. (2007) Beyond the territorial fix: regional assemblages, politics and power, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. The idea of regions as territorially fixed in some vital political sense is a stubborn conception, one that is both mobilized to pursue selective interests and to establish regional identities. To assert that regions are political constructs, however, is not to say that such bounded, territorial entities enclose all the political relations that produce them. This paper puts forward a relational view of the region based upon an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where elements of central and local government are 'lodged' within the region, not acting above or below it. Using examples drawn from governing agencies across and beyond the south-east of England, it is shown how a more diffuse form of governance has given rise to a spatially discontinuous region. This is grounded in an exposition of the political assemblage that is Milton Keynes today, with its provisional, cross-cutting mix of institutional agencies, partnerships, businesses and interest groupings engaged in a 'politics of scale' exercise to fix the region. Allen J. et Cochrane A. (2007) Au-dela de la delimitation territoriale fixe: les regroupements regionaux, la politique et le pouvoir, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. D'un important point de vue politique, l'idee que la region constitue une zone bien delimitee fixe est une notion obstinee, dont on se sert afin de poursuivre des interets particuliers et d'etablir des identites regionales. Cependant, affirmer que la region est une structure politique ne veut pas dire que de telles delimitations territoriales embrassent tous les rapports politiques qui les creent. Cet article cherche a avancer un point de vue relationnel de la region fonde sur un regroupement d'agents regionaux politiques, les uns publics, les autres prives, ou des elements des administrations centrale et locale se sont 'loges' au sein de la region et n'agissent ni au niveau superieur, ni au niveau inferieur. A partir des exemples puises dans des agences publiques a travers et au-dela du Sud-est de l'Angleterre, on montre comment une forme de gouvernance plus diffuse a donne naissance a une region geographiquement discontinue. Cela est fonde sur une presentation d'un regroupement d'aujourd'hui, a savoir Milton Keynes, etant donne son melange provisoire d'agences institutionnelles, de partenariats, de commerces et de groupes d'interet qui se chevauchent et qui s'engagent dans une action de 'politique a l'echelle' afin de bien delimiter la region. Region;Regroupements;Pouvoir;Politique;Gouvernance;Reseaux Allen J. und Cochrane A. (2007) Jenseits der territorialen Festlegung: regionale Versammlungen, Politik und Macht, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. Die Idee der Regionen als in einem wesentlichen politischen Sinn territorial festgelegt ist eine hartnackige Vorstellung, die sowohl zur Durchsetzung selektiver Interessen als auch zur Festlegung regionaler Identitaten mobilisiert wird. D...

Multi-scalar or multi-site power relations offer two contrasting ways of understanding the shifting geography of state power. In this paper, we argue for a different starting point, one that favours a topological understanding of state spatiality over more conventional topographical accounts. In contrast to a vertical or horizontal imagery of the geography of state power, what states possess, we suggest, is reach, not height. In doing so, we draw from Sassen (2006, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, Princeton University Press) a vocabulary capable of portraying the renegotiation of powers that has taken place between central government in the UK and one of its key city regions, the South East of England; one that highlights an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where negotiations take place between elements of central and local actors "lodged" within the region, not acting "above", "below" or "alongside" it. The articulation of political demands in such a context has less to do with "jumping scale" or formalizing extensive network connections and more to do with the ability to reach directly into a "centralized" politics where proximity and reach play across one another in particular ways.

Using the example of Manchester's Olympic bidding process, the paper examines some of the links between globalisation and what has become known as the 'new urban politics'. The politics of the city's Olympic bids powerfully symbolise many of the supposedly transformative features of the new urban politics, British-style, as the old images of municipal welfarist (bureaucratic) politics have apparently been superseded by those of a dynamic and charismatic (entrepreneurial) business leadership. But while there are superficial similarities between these developments and those highlighted by analysts of US 'growth coalitions', the Manchester case reveals how they are as much about struggles over the role, meaning and structure of the state, as they are about urban growth. Manchester's Olympic bid committee resembles not so much a growth coalition as a grant coalition. This said, it is important not to underestimate the significance of the new urban imperative to talk about growth in order to get grants.

. (2015) Multiculture and public parks : researching super-diversity and attachment in public green spaces. Population, Space and Place, 21 (5). pp. 463-475. Permanent WRAP url:http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/63116 Copyright and reuse:The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work by researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Publisher's statement:"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Neal, S, Bennett, K, Jones, H, Cochrane, A, and Mohan, G (2015), Multiculture and Public Parks: Researching Superdiversity and Attachment in Public Green Space. Popul. Space Place, 21, 463-475. doi: 10.1002Place, 21, 463-475. doi: 10. /psp.1910., which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi. org/10.1002/psp.1910 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP url' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractSituating itself in encounter and public space debates and borrowing from non-representational theory approaches this paper uses data from the authors' two-year ESRC research project to consider how local urban parks can work as sites of routine encounter, mixity and place belonging. The paper explores how parks as green public spaces are not only important as sites of inclusive openness but that the materiality of parks is a key dynamic in affective encounter processes. Parks can work as animators of social interactions, participatory practices and place affinities across ethnic and cultural difference. The paper concludes that the concept of convivial encounter can be extended to incorporate the concept of elective practiceschoosing to be in shared public space can generate connective sensibilities which are not necessarily contingent on exchange. In using parks as a lens to examine localities and diversity the paper critically reflects on research practices for understanding and describing heterogeneous formations of multiculture and argues that the project's research design and the fieldwork methods present an attempt to carefully and appropriately respond to research with complexly d...

There has always been a localist element to British politics. But recently, a particular version