Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium
Substantial differences in productivity, accompanied by growing social and political discontent, have widened across UK regions in the last 40 years, creating a dysfunctional spatial equilibrium; a coordination failure that has so far proved resistant to change. In this paper, we link such persisten...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2021
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| _version_ | 1797109215585632256 |
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| author | Collier, P Tuckett, D |
| author_facet | Collier, P Tuckett, D |
| author_sort | Collier, P |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Substantial differences in productivity, accompanied by growing social and political discontent, have widened across UK regions in the last 40 years, creating a dysfunctional spatial equilibrium; a coordination failure that has so far proved resistant to change. In this paper, we link such persistent regional disequilibria with current socio-psychological theories about the role of narrative in decision-making under radical uncertainty to explore how and why ideas held collectively within a social network can become the coordinating device for a range of decisions within networked communities that have extra-market effects (externalities), analogous to the role that prices play within markets. Drawing on findings from a pilot interview study in two UK regions, we show the potential for local leadership to use well-constructed narratives to coordinate fragmented agents to cooperate on a common purpose and more generally propose a framework to understand how low-income equilibria become stable but might be re-set. In this way we bring new insights into the need for an expanded economic theory of knowledge applicable to expectation and preference formation in conditions of radical uncertainty. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:47Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:00d1bfef-0cb5-4be8-9572-dbf0f9104dad |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:47Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:00d1bfef-0cb5-4be8-9572-dbf0f9104dad2023-04-05T08:21:51ZNarratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibriumJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:00d1bfef-0cb5-4be8-9572-dbf0f9104dadEnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2021Collier, PTuckett, DSubstantial differences in productivity, accompanied by growing social and political discontent, have widened across UK regions in the last 40 years, creating a dysfunctional spatial equilibrium; a coordination failure that has so far proved resistant to change. In this paper, we link such persistent regional disequilibria with current socio-psychological theories about the role of narrative in decision-making under radical uncertainty to explore how and why ideas held collectively within a social network can become the coordinating device for a range of decisions within networked communities that have extra-market effects (externalities), analogous to the role that prices play within markets. Drawing on findings from a pilot interview study in two UK regions, we show the potential for local leadership to use well-constructed narratives to coordinate fragmented agents to cooperate on a common purpose and more generally propose a framework to understand how low-income equilibria become stable but might be re-set. In this way we bring new insights into the need for an expanded economic theory of knowledge applicable to expectation and preference formation in conditions of radical uncertainty. |
| spellingShingle | Collier, P Tuckett, D Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title | Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title_full | Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title_fullStr | Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title_short | Narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| title_sort | narratives as a coordinating device for reversing regional disequilibrium |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT collierp narrativesasacoordinatingdeviceforreversingregionaldisequilibrium AT tuckettd narrativesasacoordinatingdeviceforreversingregionaldisequilibrium |