London South Bank University (LSBU) is hosting a seminar with Jane Wills, Professor of Human Geography from Queen Mary University, as she provides an overview of developments for localism and presents the key findings of a number of research projects into these different aspects.

There is now growing cross-party support for greater devolution and localism in England. This incorporates the devolution of political power to a range of ‘local’ organisations.

Localism is changing the geography of relationships between parts of the state as well as between the state and the citizen. The rationale is that greater freedoms (that Clarke and Cochrane (2014) describe as ‘spatial liberalism’) will promote innovation and greater engagement will generate better solutions to pressing concerns (couched in the language of efficiency and/or effectivity).

As such, localism is emerging as a new vision for government and it is associated with new practices of statecraft (such as relationship-building, co-production and experiment). Localism is changing the ‘civic offer’ and its outcomes depend on local ‘civic capacity’. Such capacity depends upon a wide range of factors including local history and culture, the nature of civil society organisations, social networks and existing skills, as well as the incentives and motivations to act.

Prof. Wills has research interests in the geography of democracy, focusing on labour and community organising.

To attend please contact Renee Grant on grantogr@lsbu.ac.uk