Open AccessThe Social Regulation of Uneven Development: ‘Regulatory Deficit’, England's South East, and the Collapse of Thatcherism
Author(s) -
Jamie Peck,
Adam Tickell
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
environment and planning. a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.74
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1472-3409
pISSN - 0308-518X
DOI - 10.1068/a270015
Subject(s) - thatcherism , scope (computer science) , restructuring , political economy , variety (cybernetics) , economic geography , political science , development economics , sociology , economics , law , politics , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
The evolving methodology of regulation theory is explored, with particular reference to the problematic of uneven development. With a concentration on the subnational scale, the notion of localised modes of regulation is critically examined. With a view to operationalising some of these regulationist concepts, an analysis of the geographical contradictions of Thatcherism is presented. Thatcherism, it is suggested, should be interpreted as a failed or failing regulatory experiment, the contradictions of which are manifest in a variety of ways, including in the geographical sphere—in the collapse of the economy of the South East of England (Thatcherism's ‘heartland’ region) and in Britain's continuing crisis of uneven development. There is scope, it is argued, further to spatialise regulation theory through methodological refinement, and through analyses of regional restructuring and crisis.