The Production of Place: Perception, Reality and the Politics of Becoming

Abstract

This article uses critical political theories to engage with regional economic development as a site of exclusion, inequality and interwoven power relationships, which would benefit from theoretical analysis. It does this through the concept of lifestyle from regional development creative industries discourses and regional branding, considering how time operates in the narratives of place used to represent and promote a region to the outside world. Using Cornwall as a case study and an analysis informed by complexity theory, the article claims that regional narratives need to be understood not just for how they are produced and what they say, but also for the futures that they imply. It argues that while strategic development narratives need to be situated within an affective assemblage that resonates with popular perceptions of place, they also need to have a narrative that opens up spaces of possibility for future action and facilitates adaptation.