Challenges to local economic development in an era of climate change and peak oil

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Other oil and gas)
Not Energy Related
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Economics and Econometrics)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Business and Management Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Dr P North
Geography
University of Liverpool

Standard

ESRC

31 October 2006

30 April 2009

24 months

£13,466

No relevance to Underpinning Sectors

North West

ESRC Oil

Dr P North, Geography, University of Liverpool

Dr P Benneworth, Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Professor I Hardill, Social Sciences, Northumbria University
Prof H Lawton Smith, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
Professor S Marvin, Geography, Durham University
Dr A Southern, Management, University of Liverpool
Dr A While, Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield
Dr S Wilks-Heeg, Department of Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology, University of Liverpool
Professor CC Williams, Management School, University of Sheffield

Objectives not supplied

Seemingly there is now a consensus about local economic development which focuses on growth through place marketing, infrastructure and communications development; identifying the local economys specific advantage within the global division of labour; and culture. However this as yet uncontested paradigm takes no cognisance of two of the major threats that all local economies will have to deal with over the next twenty years. The first is climate change, leading to extremes of and greater instabilities of weather, or economic activities which fit current climatic conditions becoming no longer viable. The second threat is the end of the era of cheap and plentiful oil, with the knock on that will have for carbon-fuelled economies, cheap transport, less long-distance tourism, and the need to focus more on local production of that which can be produced locally. The seminar series therefore looks to identify the major threats to prosperity and social justice for localeconomies inthe UK from climate change and resource depletion; what threats will require hard choices to be made and which might provide new opportunities; and what contribution can local authorities, NGOs, citizens and academics meaningfully make, and which require more structural change.

20/09/11