Reconstructing an urban and regional political economy: on the state, politics, scale, and explanation

This paper begins from the premise that a number of now fashionable institu tionally focused accounts of urban and regional political economy often beg in at a point that is analytically flawed (or at least partial) in that the institutional ensembles themselves-whether analyzed as an urban 'regime', regional 'thickness' or a local 'regulatory mode'-are automatically assumed to be a pre-given part of the explanation. However, the authors contend th at for a deeper analysis of urban and regional political economy to be adva nced, these institutions themselves need to be explained. In order to proce ed with such an explanation three key factors require more serious consider ation. These are: (1) the need to outline one's chosen research object of e nquiry, and all that this entails in terms of research methodology, theory selection, and an uncovering of the 'constitutive properties' of causation; (2) a greater readiness to analytically interrogate the relational interpl ay between economic development, political governance and scale; and (3) an obligation to pay due respect to the politics of representation and active processes of state restructuring and political strategizing through and ar ound which economic development is itself constituted. In order to explore these themes, the authors draw, variously, on a methodological (re-) readin g of the regulation approach, recent theoretical innovations on the 'politi cs of scale', Jessop's state-theoretical writings and his recently develope d neo-Gramscian methodology for analyzing urban economic governance, alongs ide Jenson's political sociological approach towards the 'politics of repre sentation'. Where appropriate, they explore, briefly, ways in which these t heoretical themes may be deployed in empirical research, by considering cer tain restructurings in and of the political economy of Britain during recen t decades. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.