Re-Place Innovative concepts

Regional inequality is a long-term policy concern within the EU. However, ‘left-behindness’ gained traction in public and political discourse in response to the heightened social and spatial inequalities after the 2008 economic and financial crisis. ‘Left-behind’ as an analytical term and spatial imaginary relates to the emergence of populism and hotspots of discontent in places in decline. In parts of Europe and further afield anti-immigration or anti-EU integration support has risen in response to feelings of disenchantment among local communities. On the other hand, spatial mobilities have been imbued with optimism as a possible panacea to the emptying of places. This hope was rekindled with the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in remote work, education, and digital citizenship, which accelerated new lifestyle patterns. Expectations intensified that new spatial mobilities might help to revitalise Small and Mid-sized Towns and Rural Areas (SMTaRA) to reverse outward migration, a lack of economic investment, diminishing social infrastructure and, in some cases, political and public stigmatization. The way in which local communities respond to these challenges will have a huge impact in terms of future local development, community wellbeing and sustainability. Re-Place aims to move beyond ‘left-behind’ discourses and co-produce knowledge and policy that taps into local resources, capacities and diversities to increase wellbeing and quality of life for all residents. By decentring the focus from metropolitan centres, we hope to fill knowledge gaps on the impacts of spatial mobility – in terms of local employment, welfare, culture and community – and its development potential in different types of ‘left behind’ places. This working paper provides our research agenda and a conceptual “compass” for the research team involved in Re-Place. Moreover, we hope to stimulate dialogue with fellow scholars, as well as policymakers and practitioners. The working paper will present Re-Place’s place-based mobility lens as an alternative epistemological approach to study how diverse (im)mobilities, linking different scales, can cumulatively contribute to place-making and different local development outcomes in in non-metropolitan LBAs, or in places facing similar challenges.