Economic development mainstream is failing to ensure that economic gains and wealth are delivering socially or at scale. Poverty, wage stagnation, underinvestment, low productivity and widening inequalities of income and wealth are now entrenched features of many local economies. To address this failing, a new movement is growing, characterised by an intentional reorganisation of the economy. Local Wealth Building is a practical systems approach to economic development, which is built on local roots and plurality of ownership. In this there is a rejection of liberal economics. In local wealth building, social and environmental gains are not an afterthought, but rather built in as an intentional function of the economy. As such it is a process which ensures a more reliable set of outcomes including jobs and meaningful work, equity, inclusion, economic stability and environmental sustainability. Work by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies with a number of Local Authorities and local anchor organisations is at the vanguard of this movement. This work is bespoke to place and is contributing to a new democratisation of the economy which seeks to provide resilience where there is risk and local economic security where there is fragility.
Studies of places have been dichotomised as rural or urban. Towns, however, are neither rural nor urban. Towns have been neglected in research and policy agendas. In England the recent focus has been on high streets whereas in Scotland it has been on places and towns.Understanding Scottish Places (USP) is a web based platform that has become a key tool for evidence gathering, town comparison, knowledge exchange, regeneration planning and informed decision making for Scottish towns. USP is novel and contemporary and is engaging new ways of looking at, and planning in, and for, towns. This paper places USP in the research context and considers its development and use.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the background to the development of the World Towns’ Framework, developed in June 2016 at the inaugural World Towns Leadership Summit in Scotland. The paper also provides an academic underpinning to the four pillars of the agreement; a unique sense of identity and place, economy, leadership and citizenship and environment. It ends with a call to action for practitioners, policymakers and organisations providing support to people in places who want to contribute to the development of the Framework and adopt it. Design/methodology/approach The paper is divided into four sections. The first section gives the background to the development of the World Towns Framework. The second section publishes the World Towns Framework in its entirety. The third section builds an evidence-base for the components or pillars of the World Towns Framework, based upon work undertaken by the think tanks and academic partners involved in its development. The final section sets out a call for action – explaining how the Framework can be further developed and utilised. Findings The paper contains three main contributions. It articulates a new narrative for towns, neighbourhoods and city districts in responding to contemporary urban challenges; it shapes a new urban agenda for these urban places and it asserts the need for new alliances and approaches essential for a strong competitive economy, which is more inclusive of towns and smaller places, combined with a fairer, more equal society. Research limitations/implications The evidence base for the research is limited to the work that has been carried out by the academic institutions and think tanks that supported the development of the World Towns’ Framework. Practical implications The practical implication of the World Towns Framework are a shared understanding of how towns and smaller places can engage in management, development and marketing practices that will lead to a stronger economy and fairer society. Social implications The focus upon place uniqueness and identity, a more equitable economy, a greener and cleaner environment and stronger place leadership and citizenship can lead to better, fairer and more liveable places. Originality value This is the first attempt to develop a World Towns Framework to shape urban change outside of cities and metropoles.
The piece focuses on how the economics of market liberalism are incapable of addressing social injustice and how we need a fundamental reset to the UK's political economy. The article comments on the ideas contained within The Everyday Economy, a publication by Rachel Reeves MP, and acknowledges the important role that everyday economic sectors (such as retail, care, transport and utilities) play, and the usefulness of these sectors as an entry point to turning back the market liberal tide through more democratic control and new forms of ownership. However, the article highlights how a new economics must go even further in terms of correcting wealth extraction, with a much deeper intentional reform of state institutions. Included within that is the need to embrace new civic activism as a means to advance democratic economic ownership and economic justice, thus sustainably reversing the market liberal hold on our economy.
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