Planning in the Era of Regional Divergence

Abstract

Planners tend to think and work at the scale of the neighborhood and city. We argue that a wider analytical lens focusing on extralocal economic forces—specifically, growing inequality between regions—is essential to understanding contemporary urban problems. The growth of interregional inequality is stimulating a national dialogue on place-based policies that would benefit substantially from planning expertise. We point to three ways that planning can, and should, shape this conversation: 1) by applying a truly place-based approach; 2) by advocating for a multiscalar lens in addressing spatial inequality; and 3) by advancing holistic models of development.

Keywords:

• economic development
• inequality
• place-based policy
• regional divergence

Acknowledgments

We thank Susan Fainstein, Michael Storper, the editor of this journal, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on this article.

Notes

1 In the terms “regional divergence” and “regional convergence,” the region is generally conceptualized as a geographic area that is functionally and economically integrated through wage and land price interdependency. In most scholarship in the United States, this concept is operationalized as metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), commuting zones, or—more crudely—counties or states. We draw on all of this scholarship, though our argument generally builds on the MSA as the unit of analysis.

2 Planners’ experience with business improvement districts, for example, provides important lessons for implementation of policies like that proposed by Neumark (Mallett, 1994; Schaller & Modan, 2005).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory F. Randolph

GREGORY F. RANDOLPH ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in urban planning and development at the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy and founding partner at the Just Jobs Network in New Delhi. His research applies a comparative perspective to analyze urbanization, migration, and economic development, with a particular focus on the interregional inequalities that shape and are reinforced through urbanization processes.

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett

ELIZABETH CURRID-HALKETT ([email protected]) is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of public policy at the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on the arts and culture, the American consumer economy, and the role of cultural capital in geographic and class divides.