Rediscovering Spatial Inequality in Europe: Building Blocks for an Appropriate ‘Regulationist’ Analytical Framework

Abstract

Regulation theory is of Marxian inspiration, has been strongly influenced by historical analysis and institutionalism, and can be applied to the study of accumulation in and regulation of societies in all eras, of capitalism. But these features of the theory have not prevented many geographers from applying it primarily to the study of the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. Moreover, many of them have narrowed the research agenda even more by focusing on the feasibility of fashionable but economistic ‘flex spec prof high-tech’ production models for the development strategies of privileged areas. Research efforts have drifted away from the study of ‘undefended cities and regions’. This evolution is, I believe, all the more deplorable given the creation of the Single European Market, with its permissive social charter and the spatially biased reorganization of the structural funds of the Commission of the European Communities. In this paper a methodological viewpoint is defended which contends that progress in the social sciences can be accomplished only through the confrontation of experience and action-orientated research needs with existing theoretical frameworks capable of leading the research in the right direction. Then, an examination is made of the research needs of agents (policymakers, planners, academics, and so on) involved in action which is orientated towards achieving greater intraspatial and interspatial equality in Europe. The extent to which regulation theory is capable of guiding such research, given the ideological influences as well as theoretical refinements it has undergone, is discussed, and it is concluded that further improvements to regulation theory could make it more appropriate for action-orientated research in socioeconomic geography. This conclusion is illustrated for the application of the analysis of socioeconomic development in depressed areas.