Agglomeration is in the eye of the beholder: the changing governance of polycentrism

ABSTRACT

With a focus on evolving governance configurations, this paper traces attempts at promoting polycentrism. The paper steers attention to the policy approaches that seek to develop and promote a polycentric urban region (PUR), whether that polycentric economic system is actual now or something only faintly sketched out now but aspired to in the future. Tracking policy shifts concerning a perceived Glasgow–Edinburgh economy over a period of two decades, the paper explores why different projects, strategies and initiatives have come and gone. In doing this, the paper operationalizes the territory, place, scale, network (TPSN) framework, showing how polycentrism inserts through structuring principles to try to shape existing fields of socio-spatial relations and organization (notably concerns for city-regionalism). In this framing, agglomeration is presented as a malleable and seductive notion that helps to secure views on why certain forms of subnational development should take priority.

KEYWORDS:

• polycentrism
• sociospatial relations
• agglomeration
• governance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks all interviewees for their time commitment. Thanks are also due to attendees at the Loughborough (2019) conference Planning and Governing Polycentric Urban Regions, where helpful comments on the paper were received. This paper will be presented, for information purposes, to the independent Commission on Economic Growth that advises city-region policymakers in Glasgow, UK. The author provides research support to the commission, and commission activities receive resource from the Glasgow City-region Programme Management Office. The paper reflects the views of the author only, not commissioners nor any other person(s)/organization(s).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Here, the Glasgow city-region includes: Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire; the Edinburgh city-region includes the Lothians (East, West and Mid), Fife, and the Borders.

2 A number of data sources offer perspectives here. First, Transport Scotland (2019, p. 72), reporting data from the Scottish Household Survey, presents a picture of journey origins and destinations by local authority area (for a combined period 2014–18). This suggests still limited interaction between the two city-regions, with fewer than 1% of trips that start in Glasgow ending in Edinburgh (0.8%). Conversely, of all trips starting in Edinburgh, 0.9% end in Glasgow. Origin–destination patterns for authorities in both city-regions, such as North and South Lanarkshire (Glasgow) and the Lothian authorities (Edinburgh), present similar ranges. The aforementioned statistics capture more than commuting and include trips taken for shopping, for example. Commuting patterns are also exhibited in the report, which links area of residence with area of work. The percentage of employed workers who reside in Glasgow but work in Edinburgh is 1.1%. Conversely, 0.8% of employed workers who reside in Edinburgh work in Glasgow. Commuting linkages across other city-region local authorities (as above) suggest higher interactions. For example, of employed workers residing in North Lanarkshire, 1.6% commute to Edinburgh and 4% to the Lothians; the same metric for South Lanarkshire to Edinburgh is 1.7% and 2.2% to the Lothians. Though far outweighed by inter-city-region commuting (e.g., around 30% of employed people who live in the Lothians work in Edinburgh), the insight here is that interactions between the wider areas of the city-region appear marginally higher than interactions between the core areas themselves. Airport passenger statistics, presented by the Civil Aviation Authority (2018), show passengers using the airport and where, in terms of local authority areas, the passengers reside. This shows how hub infrastructure is used across the central belt. These data highlight that Edinburgh airport is used more by passengers with an address in Glasgow (3.2%) than Glasgow airport is used by passengers with an address in Edinburgh (1.8%). Edinburgh airport’s position to the west of Edinburgh, on the way to Glasgow effectively, may be a contributing factor. Other insights on linkages can be dawn from business case projections. Relevant to this case, the rail investments between Glasgow and Edinburgh hinge on projections of heightened rail passenger use between the cities (as a result of the infrastructure improvement) (Ernst & Young, 2013), though this may plausibly displace other modes to some degree. In summary, the data and insights above suggest the view of Bailey and Turok (2001, p. 697) which pointed to two ‘separate city-regions’ is still very much intact. In terms of settlement sizes, data show Glasgow sustaining its positions as the largest city-region in Scotland. Travel-to-work area populations show Glasgow at 1.286 million compared with Edinburgh at 716,000 (as at 2017) (Scottish Government, 2019). The core-city local authorities within the city-regions are more comparable, Glasgow City recording 626,000 compared with the City of Edinburgh at 518,500 (as at 2018; Nomis/Office for National Statistics (ONS) population estimates). A summary of evidence from the Fraser of Allander Institute highlighted the continued ‘economic rise of the east’ (based on local authority data) (McGeoch, 2019). In this respect, population growth is outpacing that observed in Glasgow, whilst employment rates since the Great Recession tell a similar story. Indeed, Edinburgh exhibits characteristics of fast growth in urban development: notable population and employment growth, but challenges with housing affordability (relative to the rest of Scotland) (McGeoch, 2019). In summary, whilst the balance of overall size still favours Glasgow, Edinburgh is eating away at the differential.

3 Across the rest of the central belt, a mix of SNP and Labour administrations, often minority, are in place.