The Periphery as a Complex Adaptive Assemblage: Local Government and Enhanced Communication to Challenge Peripheralising Narratives

Abstract

Despite much time and attention by academia and policy to bring about cohesion between core and peripheral regions, we still have large disparities of wealth and outcomes between them. Recent literature suggests that part of the problem lies in the ways that core regions represent peripheries in discourse and practice (Author. Forthcoming; Willett 2016; Lang et al 2015), meaning that peripheries need to find better ways to challenge negative core representations of place. This paper argues that a critical ontological perspective based on Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) affective assemblages can help to understand this phenomenon better. The paper uses this framework to explore the periphery as a complex adaptive organism – or a periphery-assemblage. Local government is identified as an important structure within the periphery-assemblage, potentially enhancing and facilitating better adaptation to changing environment. Using this perspective and a radical research methodology that uses creative techniques to uncover the meanings underlying performed responses, the study takes a case study of local government in Cornwall in the South West of the UK. The research was conducted between May – June 2016. The paper claims that one way for peripheries to challenge core representations more effectively would be for enhanced communications within local government, which can better channel and develop information flows within peripheral regions.