The meta-governance of regions and the need for a political geography of planning

摘要

The aim of this paper is to explore a recently neglected aspect of the mainstream planning approach to natural resource regions and 'the rural': the role of the state and other powerful meta-governance actors. I address this issue by drawing on developments from planning and development theory, political geography, political science, and resilience studies. After discussing the different ways in which natural resource regions can be understood according to these strands, I explain the challenges confronting these approaches and introduce some of the ways in which these strands have attempted to overcome them. I argue that a renewed focus on the meta-governance of natural resource regions will both challenge and enrich future planning and development scholarship and practice. A political geography approach to understanding the role of meta-governance in planning natural resource regions is central to this agenda.