Evolution and conflict in local economic development

Mike Geddes is Principal Research Fellow in the Local Government Centre, Warwick University, and Co-Editor of Local Economy. Ines Newman is Head of Policy at the Local Government Information Unit and Reviews Editor of Local Economy. When Sam Aaronovitch launched Local Economy, he saw it as an intervention in the debate over the direction of government policy, particularly urban policy, which under Thatcher administrations "has itself become part of the problem ... and not just part of the solution" (Aaronovitch, 1986, p 3). This article attempts to trace and analyse that debate, in order to ask "where we go from here" as the journal passes to a new editorial regime. In doing so we look at the conflict between new right and new left approaches in the 1980s and the "New Centrism" that has emerged from this struggle in the 1990s. This division is over-simple: elements of all three strands have co-existed throughout the history of the journal, and there are debates and disputes within the different camps. But the interpretation does help to focus on the dynamic of change and its reflection in Local Economy, and provides a background to current debates which are the theme of the second half of the article.