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Unpacking the Neoliberal Approach to Regional Policy: a Close Reading of John Freebairn's ‘Economic Policy for Rural and Regional Australia’
Author(s) -
PRITCHARD BILL
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2005.00302.x
Subject(s) - neoliberalism (international relations) , unpacking , narrative , reading (process) , field (mathematics) , intervention (counseling) , regional policy , sociology , political science , political economy , economic geography , economics , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , psychiatry , pure mathematics , law
A close reading of a neoliberal intervention in policy debates on ‘the regional economic problem’ is used to throw light on this method. When it is compared to economic geography, the neoliberal approach advances a relatively simplified conception of regional economic and social life that pays little regard to their richness, complexity and grounded realities. Correspondingly, this approach encourages a vision of regional policy that normalises and exonerates the spatially uneven outcomes of market forces. This article argues that policy‐makers’ ends in the field of regional development should be alert to the limitations that arise from the neoliberal tendency to override the evidence of empirical complexity in favour of a more simple narrative.