Technologies

Öjehag-Pettersson, Andreas; Mitander, Tomas

doi:10.4324/9780203705605-4

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The data generation process as well as other forms of data collection were part of a 5-year long research project on the connection between globalisation and the changes in regional development in Sweden. As mentioned, what is presented here are illustrations based on this data and additional analysis as well as more extensive insights into the governing structures of Swedish regional governance is available elsewhere (Öjehag-Pettersson, 2015).…”

Section: Case and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much more than before, regions are understood as competing globally and nationally for resources, a competition that in the end will be useful for the state since it will propel the competitiveness of the nation as a whole. At the same time, regions must now in a sense fend for themselves in their quest for prosperity and whilst growth has been an overarching goal for regional development for a long time, it has never emphasised competition so heavily before (Johansson, 2013; Mitander, 2015; Mitander et al, 2013, 2017; Säll, 2014; Öjehag-Pettersson, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making space for competition: The rationalities of contemporary regional development

Öjehag-Pettersson

2022

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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Taking as its starting premise that we have a politics of space because space is political at the level of ontology, this article investigates how the governing of regional development is guided by a set of prominent political rationalities that revolve around the notions of competition and competitiveness. To this end, I mobilise the Foucauldian framework of governmentality to provide empirical illustrations drawn from a 5-year long research project concerning globalisation in Swedish sub-national regions. These illustrations show how regions are governed through rationalities that stress adaptability, attraction, environment and sustainability as well as leadership in order to prevail in their inevitable competition for vital resources. I argue that as these chains of rationale are put into motion in the contemporary politics of space, they not only promote specific and particular ways of developing regions, but also displace certain practices and objects from the realm of the political to the realm of a natural order. I therefore conclude that current expressions of the politics of space have strong tendencies to deny its own political foundations. Instead, competition and competitiveness are inscribed as naturally occurring features in social relations, thereby elevating their importance in the creation of new sub-national spaces.

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Section: Case and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%