Capitalism divided? London, financialisation and the UK’s spatially unbalanced economy
Capitalism divided? London, financialisation and the UK’s spatially unbalanced economy
The UK economy is one of the most geographically unequal among OECD countries, with London's lead having increased since the mid-1980s. The UK is also one of the most centralised, in terms of the overwhelming concentration of economic, financial, political and institutional power in the capital, London. A key question, therefore, is whether the latter feature is a cause of the former. This paper focuses on one aspect of this question, namely London's dominating role in the UK's financialised, neoliberal-globalised growth model that has held sway for the past forty years. It is often argued that London's pre-eminence in finance acts as an engine of national growth, delivering benefits to all regions through ‘trickle down' effects. We argue that these claims are exaggerated and that much more need to be known about London's negative impacts on other regions and cities, about the geographical dimensions of what some have labelled the ‘finance curse'. We argue that such negative effects are integral to the growth of regional inequality in the UK. The Government's new ‘Levelling Up’ policy, though innovative in some respects, remains subordinate to the promotion of London and finance, and is unlikely to decentre and spatially rebalance the economy.
London, Spatially unbalanced economy, decentring, finance curse, financial growth model, levelling up
381-405
Martin, Ron L.
10e16335-e9c7-4a7b-ba28-b65f1f3fe81e
Sunley, Peter
a3efb579-965f-4f39-812e-9e07caf15afd
24 June 2023
Martin, Ron L.
10e16335-e9c7-4a7b-ba28-b65f1f3fe81e
Sunley, Peter
a3efb579-965f-4f39-812e-9e07caf15afd
Martin, Ron L. and Sunley, Peter
(2023)
Capitalism divided? London, financialisation and the UK’s spatially unbalanced economy.
Contemporary Social Science, 18 (3-4), .
(doi:10.1080/21582041.2023.2217655).
Abstract
The UK economy is one of the most geographically unequal among OECD countries, with London's lead having increased since the mid-1980s. The UK is also one of the most centralised, in terms of the overwhelming concentration of economic, financial, political and institutional power in the capital, London. A key question, therefore, is whether the latter feature is a cause of the former. This paper focuses on one aspect of this question, namely London's dominating role in the UK's financialised, neoliberal-globalised growth model that has held sway for the past forty years. It is often argued that London's pre-eminence in finance acts as an engine of national growth, delivering benefits to all regions through ‘trickle down' effects. We argue that these claims are exaggerated and that much more need to be known about London's negative impacts on other regions and cities, about the geographical dimensions of what some have labelled the ‘finance curse'. We argue that such negative effects are integral to the growth of regional inequality in the UK. The Government's new ‘Levelling Up’ policy, though innovative in some respects, remains subordinate to the promotion of London and finance, and is unlikely to decentre and spatially rebalance the economy.
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Capitalism divided London financialisation and the UK s spatially unbalanced economy
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Capitalism divided London financialisation and the UK s spatially unbalanced economy.(accepted) docx
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 May 2023
Published date: 24 June 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This paper is based on a presentation given by Ron Martin at the Annual Conference of the Irish Branch of the Regional Studies Association in honour of Professor James Walsh, in September 2022. He wishes to thank the organisers of that conference for their invitation to give that talk, and for their perceptive comments in the discussion that followed. We are also grateful to two referees, and a number of colleagues, who made useful suggestions which helped to improve the argument.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
London, Spatially unbalanced economy, decentring, finance curse, financial growth model, levelling up
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 479956
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/479956
ISSN: 2158-2041
PURE UUID: 6fd4f0b2-4596-4507-9931-a051b5deb2a3
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Date deposited: 31 Jul 2023 16:42
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:58
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Author:
Ron L. Martin
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