Etherington D. and Jones M. City-regions: new geographies of uneven development and inequality, Regional Studies. Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning literature on the 'new regionalism'. Protagonists have made persuasive arguments about regions as successful models of economic and social development. This paper argues that the championing of 'city-regions' provides an opportunity for taking these debates further. It draws on research taking place on the Sheffield City-Region, UK, and particularly discusses the interrelationships between competitiveness, work-welfare regimes - those policies and strategies dealing with labour market governance and welfare state restructuring - labour market inequalities and low pay. The paper suggests that city-regions reinforce, and have the potential to increase, rather than resolve, uneven development and socio-spatial inequalities. [image omitted] Etherington D. et Jones M. Les Cites-Regions: de nouvelles geographies du desequilibre et de l'inegalite, Regional Studies. Pendant les dernieres annees, on a temoigne de la croissance d'une documentation sur le 'nouveau regionalisme'. Les partisans ont prone la region comme modele du developpement economique et social. Cet article cherche a affirmer que se faire le champion des 'cites-regions' donne la possibilite d'approfondir ce debat. En puisant dans les recherches faites a propos de la cite-region de Sheffield, on discute en particulier de la correlation entre la competitivite, les actions travail-assistance sociale - a savoir, les politiques et strategies qui traitent de la maitrise du marche du travail et de la restructuration de la protection sociale - les inegalites sur le marche du travail et les petits salaires. L'article laisse supposer que les cites-regions renforcent, et ont le potentiel d'augmenter plutot que de resoudre, le desequilibre et les inegalites socio-geographiques. Nouveau regionalisme Regionalisation Cites-Regions Marches du travail Inegalite Petits salaires Etherington D. und Jones M. Stadtregionen: Neue Geografien von ungleichmassiger Entwicklung und Ungleichheit, Regional Studies. In den letzten Jahren ist eine aufkeimende Literatur uber den 'neuen Regionalismus' entstanden. Ihre Autoren haben Regionen mit uberzeugenden Argumenten als erfolgreiche Modelle der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Entwicklung dargestellt. Wir argumentieren, dass die Forderung von 'Stadtregionen' eine Chance bietet, um diese Debatten einen Schritt weiter zu fuhren. Fur unseren Beitrag nutzen wir Forschungsarbeiten in der Stadtregion von Sheffield und erortern insbesondere die wechselseitigen Beziehungen zwischen Wettbewerbsfahigkeit, Arbeits- und Sozialplanen (also den Politiken und Strategien zur Lenkung des Arbeitsmarkts und zur Umstrukturierung des Sozialstaats), Ungleichheit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und Niedriglohnen. Wir argumentieren, dass Stadtregionen eine ungleichmassige Entwicklung und sozioraumliche Ungleichheit verstarken und potenziell noch erhohen, statt sie abzubauen. Neuer Regionalismus Dezentralisierung Stadtregi...

This paper argues that city-region building debates and relatedly ''post-political'' literatures are missing critical perspectives on the state, particularly the state's continued existence as a social relation and an arena for politics, its role in the regulation of uneven development and the conflicts and struggles that arise from this. The paper brings the state centrally into ''post-political'' debates via a critical analysis of the interrelationships between depoliticization and neoliberalism. Focusing on Sheffield (South Yorkshire, England) in the context of devolution and deal-making public policy, the paper explores the seemingly consensual vision-making dynamics of this city region and dissects the tensions around economic governance, welfare austerity and social inequalities to get a handle on the ''post-political'' depoliticized state in, and of, contemporary capitalism.

Within the context of spatial rebalancing and a Northern (metro-region) Powerhouse, this article explores the implementation of the devolution of employment and skills within the Sheffield city region. We make both an original empirical and analytical contribution by suggesting that notions of governance and metagovernance failure are important for analyzing the development, tensions and contradictions of city region economic governance within the context of the UK Government's devolution and localism agenda (in particular "Devolution Agreements"). We consider that governance failure arises because of the primacy of a neoliberal-dominated strategy orientation towards the market and its failure in the delivery of skills. Governance and metagovernance mechanisms are unable to sufficiently coordinate effective responses to address a legacy of de-industrialisation, deeprooted labour market and sociospatial inequalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic both revealed and intensified the United Kingdom's (UK) regional inequalities. The UK is widely recognised as one of the most regionally unbalanced nations in the developed world, with many “left behind” places across the North and Midlands like Stoke-on-Trent falling way behind parts of London and the Southeast of England in terms of living standards in the neoliberal era. Since 2019 the UK Government have promised to “Level Up” the UK, culminating in the publication of the Levelling Up White Paper in 2022. This pinpointed the need to raise living standards, opportunity, and prosperity across the UK, with Stoke identified as a priority area. Primarily utilising qualitative case study data (N = 15) provided by Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent (CASNS), this article explicates how there are myriad challenges to the Levelling Up strategy in Stoke. Suffering from a historical legacy of the loss of its ceramics and manufacturing industries, the paper outlines how the city-region contains a structural cocktail of disadvantage including low paid jobs, welfare erosion, indebtedness, destitution, and food insecurity. The article closes by discussing the implications of these structural problems for the Government's Levelling Up agenda, suggesting that only a transformative shift in both allocated resources and neoliberal spatial development will regional imbalances be adequately addressed in places like Stoke-on-Trent.

The increasing number of recipients of disability and long-term sickness benefits has resulted in the introduction of specific employability programmes in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In the UK Pathways to Work involved enabling and support measures for benefit recipients with long-term health conditions. In Denmark ‘flex-jobs’ are an integral occupational health intervention for both employed and unemployed people with reduced working capacity. Through a comparative analysis primarily based on stakeholder interviews in both countries, this paper argues that the concept of an inclusive labour market strategy is crucial to assisting these groups into work, underpinned by governance and a politics of representation. In Denmark both the role of the social partners and subsidized employment are significant. In the UK governance has been constrained and insufficient attention has been paid to income security. Comparing these two models highlights policy learning for the UK from the successes of and challenges to the Danish model.