Metaphors of regional policy: cities as engines, multilevel governance in gardens

ABSTRACT

Metaphors of regional policy: cities as engines, multilevel governance in gardens. Regional Studies. Recent work in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology suggests a much greater communicative role for metaphor: good metaphor links a paradigmatic way of knowing the world with our hard-wired programmes for surviving in it. From this perspective, the engines-of-growth metaphor underlying the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography (2009) naturalizes the new economic geography paradigm. In contrast, the alternative place-based approach espoused in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Promoting Growth in All Regions (2012) remains largely inaccessible to laypersons. The productiveness of a garden metaphor for linking the place-based paradigm to some primitive functions is assessed.

摘要

区域政策的隐喻：城市作为花园中的引擎和多重层级治理. Regional Studies. 认知科学与演化心理学的晚近研究，显示出隐喻具有更大的沟通角色：好的隐喻，连结认知世界的典型方式与我们深植其中的生存计画。从此一观点而言，世界银行的⟪2009年世界发展报告：再形塑经济地理（2009）⟫的潜在成长隐喻之引擎，自然化了新经济地理的范式。反之，经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的⟪促进所有区域的成长（2012）⟫所拥护的以地方为基础的另类方法，对普罗大众而言却仍然相当不可及。本文评估将以地方为基础的范式连结至若 干原始功能的花园隐喻之生产力。

RÉSUMÉ

Des métaphores de la politique régionale: les grandes villes comme forces motrices, la gouvernance multi-niveaux en tant que jardin. Regional Studies. Des recherches récentes dans les domaines de la science cognitive et de la pyschologie évolutionniste laissent supposer un rôle nettement plus important pour la métaphore comme moyen de communication: la bonne métaphore relie une manière paradigmatique d’incarner des visions du monde avec les actions préprogrammées qui permettent aux individus d’y survivre. De ce point de vue, les forces motrices de la métaphore de la croissance qui sous-tend le rapport de la Banque mondiale intitulé World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography (2009) – Rapport sur le développement mondial 2009: Repenser la géographie économique (2010) – naturalisent le paradigme de la nouvelle géographie économique. En revanche, l’autre approche territorialisée qu’embrasse le rapport de l’Organisation pour la coopération et le développement économiques (Ocde) intitulé Promoting Growth in All Regions (2012) – Inciter la croissance à travers toutes les regions (2012) – reste dans une large mesure inaccessible au grand public. On évalue l’efficacité de la métaphore du jardin comme moyen de relier le paradigme territorial à quelques fonctions fondamentales.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Metaphern der Regionalpolitik: Städte als Motoren, mehrstufige Politikgestaltung in Gärten. Regional Studies. Die aktuellen Studien der Kognitionswissenschaft und Evolutionspsychologie lassen auf eine deutlich wichtigere kommunikative Rolle der Metapher schließen: Eine gute Metapher verknüpft eine paradigmatische Methode zum Kennenlernen der Welt mit unseren zum Überleben in ihr fest verdrahteten Programmen. Aufbauend auf dieser Perspektive bewirkt die Metapher der Wachstumsmotoren, die dem Weltentwicklungsbericht 2009: Wirtschaftsgeografie neu gestalten (2009) der Weltbank zugrundeliegt, eine Naturalisierung des Paradigmas der neuen Wirtschaftsgeografie. Im Gegensatz hierzu bleibt der in Förderung von Wachstum in allen Regionen (2012) der Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD) vertretene alternative ortsbasierte Ansatz Laien größtenteils unzugänglich. Im Beitrag wird die Produktivität einer Garten-Metapher zur Verknüpfung des ortsbasierten Paradigmas mit einigen primitiven Funktionen untersucht.

RESUMEN

Metáforas de la política regional: ciudades como motores, gobernanza de varios niveles en jardines. Regional Studies. El trabajo reciente sobre ciencia cognitiva y psicología evolutiva indica un papel comunicativo mucho mayor para la metáfora: una buena metáfora permite vincular un método paradigmático para conocer el mundo con nuestros programas configurados para sobrevivir en él. Desde esta perspectiva, la metáfora de los motores de crecimiento que subyace en el Informe del Desarrollo Mundial 2009 del Banco Mundial: Reestructuración de la geografía económica (2009) naturaliza el paradigma de la nueva geografía económica. En cambio, el enfoque alternativo basado en el lugar representado en la publicación Promoviendo el Crecimiento en todas las Regiones (2012) de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) sigue siendo en gran medida inaccesible para la mayoría de los legos. Aquí se evalúa la productividad de una metáfora de jardín para vincular el paradigma basado en el lugar con algunas funciones primitivas.

KEYWORDS:

• multilevel governance
• new economic geography
• evolutionary economic geography
• cognitive science

关键词:

• 多层级治理； 新经济地理；演化经济地理；认知科学

MOTS-CLÉS:

• gouvernance multi-niveaux
• nouvelle géographie économique
• géographie économique évolutionniste
• science cognitive

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• mehrstufige Politikgestaltung
• neue Wirtschaftsgeografie
• evolutionäre Wirtschaftsgeografie
• Kognitionswissenschaft

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• gobernanza a varios niveles
• nueva geografía económica
• geografía económica evolutiva
• ciencia cognitiva

JEL:

• B52
• O2
• R11
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks former US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary Doug O’Brien for hosting an OECD Washington, DC, launch of Promoting Growth in All Regions (2012), Enrique Garcilazo and Betty-Ann Bryce from the OECD for their summary of the report, and the participants at the launch for planting the seed for this paper. Follow-up conversations with Chuck Fluharty, Sam Cordes, David Freshwater, David McGranahan and Anil Rupasingha helped improve earlier drafts, as did comments from participants at the 2013 Southern Regional Science Association meetings. David Nulph produced the original map in this article and Kathryn Dotzel produced the original map referenced in this article. All remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the author. The ideas expressed are those of the author and are not attributable to the Economic Research Service or USDA.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Timothy R. Wojan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9863-1457

Notes

1. Deichmann, Gill, and Goh (2010, p. 371) provides a reality check for academia:

The World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography […] was written to inform policy debates about urbanization, lagging areas, and globalization. During almost two years of consultations and dissemination, the report met with broad acceptance among government officials, development professionals, and researchers. Policymakers grappling with difficult spatial development issues have found the report’s analytical framework compelling. An exception to this generally favorable reception has been the reaction from a number of economic geographers.

Although academic economic geographers on the side of the WDR have not published defences of the report, arguments for ‘space neutral’ policy that emphasize the importance of agglomeration are very much in line with the World Bank’s recommendations (Nathan & Overman, 2013).

2. It is important to note that the WDR is not the first use of the ‘cities as engines of growth’ metaphor. The metaphor has been used in the regional development literature since 1990 (Wegelin) and is still commonly invoked.

3. Bromley (2008, p. 8) explains why empirical evidence of itself is often inadequate:

If the proffered justification by the experts is regarded as deficient, we have not yet been presented with valuable belief. […] If we project this idea into the legislative halls or the courts, we see immediately a source of consternation among many economists. Having offered up discipline-based analysis and policy prescriptions to those engaged in public policy – and being quite sure that those policy prescriptions represent warranted assertions – most economists evince dismay, indeed contempt, when their warranted assertions are ignored in favor of other considerations. […] Pragmatists would suggest, instead, that the scientific experts have failed to offer sufficient reasons for their confident analyses and prescriptions.

4. For the experiment, see http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/wason/.

5. Wicked problems are those that (1) cannot be adequately understood until after a solution to the problem is formulated, (2) are characterized by stakeholders as having radically different perspectives regarding the very nature of the problem, and (3) whose solution does not emerge from a linear progression but which are characterized by failed or aborted attempts that provide opportunities for learning and reorienting interests.

6. In Barca’s (2009, p. 41) description of multilevel governance:

it is up to the top levels of government to set general goals and performance standards and to establish and enforce the ‘rules of the game.’ It is up to the lower levels to have ‘the freedom to advance the ends as they see fit.’