The Social Regulation of Uneven Development: ‘Regulatory Deficit’, England's South East, and the Collapse of Thatcherism

Abstract

The evolving methodology of regulation theory is explored, with particular reference to the problematic of uneven development. With a concentration on the subnational scale, the notion of localised modes of regulation is critically examined. With a view to operationalising some of these regulationist concepts, an analysis of the geographical contradictions of Thatcherism is presented. Thatcherism, it is suggested, should be interpreted as a failed or failing regulatory experiment, the contradictions of which are manifest in a variety of ways, including in the geographical sphere—in the collapse of the economy of the South East of England (Thatcherism's ‘heartland’ region) and in Britain's continuing crisis of uneven development. There is scope, it is argued, further to spatialise regulation theory through methodological refinement, and through analyses of regional restructuring and crisis.