Place-Based Rural Development: A Role for Complex Adaptive Assemblages?

Abstract

Tackling spatial inequalities needs to make sure that it improves the lives of people in rural and peripheral regions. Whilst local metrics and key indicators may be improved by measures implemented, this does not always translate to local people ‘feeling’ that development has improved their lives. Using ethnographic fieldwork and embodied and conversational research techniques, this paper adds to the place-based, evolutionary economic geography and resilience literature to develop the concept of the complex adaptive region assemblage, which draws on Deleuzian-based theory. I question whether this might be a lens to explore and better understand the measures that can be put in place in order to address the gap between regional development programmes, and the experiences of members of the public. The starting point was to explore the positionality of local people, and the paper finds that in the case studies (Cornwall UK and Southwest Virginia USA), systems put in place to revitalise these areas could be more effective if they pay attention to connecting spaces between local residents, and how they navigate their localities.