Place-based resources as a means for local economic development – local planning in shrinking rural areas

This article examines how local planning in shrinking rural areas navigates emerging global economic demands that are integral to sustainable transformation. By applying Beauregard’s four analytical activities of planning, we contribute to the literature on new-materialist planning, reconceptualizing local planning as a proactive and socio-materially distributed practice, rather than merely a reactive response to external global pressures. Using the municipality of Pajala in northern Sweden as a case, we illustrate how local planning played a decisive role in the establishment of an iron-ore mine, engaging through a socio-materially distributed agency that shaped both spatial and economic development.