New free to access virtual issue on ‘Devolution and the Geographies of Policy’ in The Geographical Journal

In two weeks time Scottish people will be taking to the polls to answer the question, “Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes/No”

The Geographical Journal has published a new virtual issue on ‘Devolution and the Geographies of Policy‘. Papers will be free to access for a limited period.

Ben Clifford, the editor of the virtual issue, says:

“On 18th September, the Scottish people will vote in a referendum whether to become an independent nation-state or not. Whatever the result, the political geography of the United Kingdom will never be the same again. The referendum is, however, just part of a broader process of change to the UK’s political geography ongoing ever since the implementation of devolution under the Blair government. The collection of papers in this virtual issue form a special issue of the Geographical Journal on ‘devolution and the geographies of policy’ due to be published in 2015. Devolution has created a changed policy landscape in the UK, with new spaces of policy-making and questions emerging as to the relationships between these new (and existing) spaces. Many of the issues raised, such as the future of the nation-state, the influence of supra-national institutions such as the European Union, the role of state actors (and others) in mobilising policy, and the drivers/inhibitors of policy divergence, are of great relevance not just with regards to Scotland’s future but in light of devolutionary processes seen across the world”.

The Devolution and the Geographies of Policy Virtual Issue contains six papers which are free to access for a limited period:

 Clifford, B. and Morphet, J. (2014), Introduction to devolution and the geographies of policy. The Geographical Journal. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12113

 Pemberton, S., Peel, D. and Lloyd, G. (2014), The ‘filling in’ of community-based planning in the devolved UK?. The Geographical Journal. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12075

 Clifford, B. and Morphet, J. (2014), A policy on the move? Spatial planning and State Actors in the post-devolutionary UK and Ireland. The Geographical Journal. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12064

 McGuinness, D., Greenhalgh, P. and Pugalis, L. (2014), Is the grass always greener? Making sense of convergence and divergence in regeneration policies in England and Scotland. The Geographical Journal. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12090