Everyone's a ‘winner’: problematising the discourse of regional competitiveness

Since the early 1990s, the concept of regional competitiveness has become a hegemonic discourse within public policy circles in developed countries. However, it is a somewhat chaotic and ill-defined discourse based on a relatively narrow conception of how regions compete, prosper and grow. This paper seeks to problematise the discourse with reference to theory, and to explain how and why it has assumed such significance in policy circles. It is argued that the answer lies within the policy process and the imperative of legitimating certain courses of policy action.