There is renewed interest in conjunctural approaches within urban studies, human geography and beyond to help interpret the troubles of the political present. Moves have been made to specify and systematise a methodological remit for conjunctural analysis, yet there is a risk of losing the political impulse motivating such approaches. As such, this article brings together different intellectual and political currents informing conjunctural analysis to posit an alternative heuristic attuned towards social and political intervention. We frame this through four key concepts – hegemony, crisis, articulation and praxis – each explored as the ‘causes’ of conjunctural thinking, understood capaciously as purpose, nature, method and form, and not only origin and explanation. In doing so, we offer a practical framework for a conjunctural action-research agenda refocused on generating theory that is useful for place-based struggles. Focusing on how new municipalist politics are transforming the urban political economy of Zagreb, Croatia, we demonstrate how this framing by hegemony, crisis, articulation and praxis can illuminate the shifting balance of forces faced by activists – and how these may be turned to tactical advantage – to, in turn, shed light on conjunctural thinking as a promising theory and method for praxis. Analysing the new municipalist movement, in Zagreb and beyond, as both a product of the current conjuncture – as conjunctural municipalism – and as a deeply conjunctural strategy made in response to crisis conditions and opportunities – as municipalist conjuncturalism – we conclude by suggesting possible ways forward for the kinds of conjunctural methods and politics so urgently needed.

This article conceptualises the circular economy as a space of immaterial, as well as material, metabolic flows mediated by capitalism and planetary urbanisation. World-ecology provides us with the critical lens to view the circular economy as part of an emergent regime of accumulation that may supersede neoliberalism. However, if each regime entails new frontier zones for appropriating cheap natures and dumping wastes, then the circular economy—as a strategy for revalorising waste—presents a possible structural limit to capitalism’s further expansion. Moreover, when combined with notions of degrowth and doughnut economics, the circular economy may provide an imaginary and set of prefigurative practices that point towards a postcapitalist economy. Through a case study of Amsterdam—a city aiming to be fully circular by 2050—we examine this contradictory crossroads, problematising the idea of circularity within capitalism and exploring the potential of postcapitalist alternatives within the circular economy.

This paper explores the local impact of various forms of fiscal and monetary support for UK-based companies in the context of disruption caused by COVID-19 and associated public health restrictions, including support for household incomes (and therefore private consumption) via the ‘furlough’ scheme, the Covid Corporate Financing Facility and various national and local business support schemes. It shows that the economic crisis associated with the pandemic has been construed to justify interventions that preserve the spatially uneven status quo of the UK’s model of economic development, protecting business from harms arising, apparently, from the public’s reaction to the pandemic. To some extent, COVID-19 has been treated as a localised phenomenon that the national economy requires protection from.

The chapter looks at how social and cultural capital are generated through civil society by a study of historical associations on the Outer Hebrides, known as the Comainn Eachdraidh (CE) in 2011–15 and followed up in 2019. This cultural and social capital, involving a sense of local pride, is related to the strong participation in civil society found in these remote places. Digitalisation has helped to further sustain these activities, made them more globally accessible, and produced a new focus of activity for local CEs and their collective representation through the digital platform, Hebridean Connections. However, digitalisation has produced both advantages and threats. The advantages include linking these islands to a wider diaspora and community of interest worldwide and encouraging visitor flow and benefits for the local economy. Threats include the loss of control of information by local associations and the creation of a demand that small groups of older volunteers cannot always fulfil. Furthermore, local authority cutbacks meant that the centralised system developed by Hebridean Connections was not able to manage the volume of demand with a skeletal staff. The chapter illustrates how cultural transmission occurs through technology to link the past with the present and the future. Despite its shortcomings, the CE movement helped to show how local control of digital infrastructures can also help to empower local civil society and thus benefit rural quality of life

Emerging in the mid-2010s, the Foundational Economy has been heralded as ‘a compelling counter-project against neoliberalism’ and ‘an alternative pathway … [for] progressive political renewal’. Grounded in a review of cross-disciplinary debates, this paper introduces the concept of the Foundational Economy and places it in relation to heterodox geographic theories of socio-economic development such as the ‘social economy’ and ‘diverse economies’ literature. Whilst there are clear overlaps, the concept of the Foundational Economy can be distinguished through its commitment to (a) a zonal perspective; (b) a focus on maximalist social innovations; and (c) the reconstitution of citizenship. In radical combination, it is argued that the lens of the Foundational Economy facilitates ‘a trenchant critique and denaturalization of current conditions, in tandem with creative explorations of the political economy of alternatives’. The paper concludes by reflecting on current oversights and future research trajectories for Foundational Economy research.

This chapter addresses the (re-)positioning of civil society within new structures of city region governance. Based on stakeholder mapping and semi-structured interviews with key actors operating across each city region, the chapter illustrates how this has created several significant tensions as well as opportunities for civil society actors. The chapter draws from four UK case study city regions and specifically looks at the ways city and devolution deals have impacted upon the positioning of civil society actors. Chapter 3 provides new insights into how civil society organisations have been seeking to respond to this overtly economic focus around the development of city regions that, to a certain extent, leaves such actors on the outside looking in. Beel et al’s new analysis shows how the institutional mechanisms associated with city regions are dominated by business interests and those that are already elected officials, thereby marginalising civil society. In this way the new governance arrangements are narrowing the interests of the local state towards more market-led interests and largely ignoring issues that are more community oriented and concerned with the social reproduction of the city region.

In this paper, we consider the implications of applying the city region concept to a medium-sized city and whether such an application of a spatial and governmental policy is appropriate when the central city in question is also not necessarily economically dominant or connected to its wider city-region. This gives a deeper understanding to the process of subnational restructuring of the UK state via the production of city regions which has now been in progress since the 2010 Coalition Government. The primary focus governmentally and in academic literature has been on larger (English) city regions, but here we highlight how this has been applied in distinctive ways in devolved nations of the UK. To this end, we focus upon the case of the Swansea Bay City Region, based in South West Wales, looking through the lens of Welsh devolution and through the concept of the city-region as a scalar narrative for the delivery of economic development.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Rich in case study insights, this book provides an overview of city-region building and considers how governance restructuring shapes political, economic, social and cultural landscapes. Reviewing the Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Swansea Bay City Regions, Cardiff Capital Region and the North Wales Growth Deal, the authors address the tensions and opportunities for local elites and civil society actors.

The chapter examines how cultural heritage has helped to create resilient rural communities in Scotland - Portsoy and the Isle of Lewis. A particular focus is the digitisation of this heritage. There is no one model of how cultural heritage can be used just as there is no one form of digital communications and different communities approach their heritage in different ways. We analyse important factors such as local ownership and control of heritage and its repercussions for the wellbeing of the communities. Given the isolation of rural communities, digital communications are particularly important for linking communities with the outside world and community members with each other. We illustrate how cultural heritage provides a sense of identity as well as economic benefits through tourism. In particular, the chapter examines the challenges of community-based research into wellbeing and how best to theorise quality of life in different community settings.