Evolving conceptions of regional policy in Europe and their influence across different territorial scales

Abstract

This chapter explores evolving approaches to territorial policy and governance within the context of the European Union’s (EU) Cohesion Policy. The chapter traces evolving conceptions and models of regional policy in Europe, paying attention to the emergence of place-based and territorial approaches to promoting development and exploring the ways in which they have been manifested in reforms of the EU’s Cohesion Policy and the restructuring of sub-national policy and governance in England. The chapter addresses, in turn, the emergence of a ‘place-based’ approach to regional policy within the context of debates around whether to tailor public investments to specific places or to use similar investments across the national space; how such a place-based approach has been adopted in recent reforms to the EU Cohesion Policy; and the representation of place-based and territorial approaches to development in the context of state rescaling in England, with reference to the case of the Liverpool City Region.