Senior Fellow Jean Ball asks us to consider the meaning of ‘Place’ and ‘Local’
In this timely and thought-provoking piece, Jean Ball SFIPM explores the evolving - and often contested - meanings of the words ‘Place’ and ‘Local’ in the context of placemaking, devolution, and civic participation. Drawing on recent IPM roundtable discussions and her own reflections, Jean challenges us to consider how language, scale, and democratic structures shape people’s sense of agency and connection to where they live. With local governance reform high on the agenda, this piece asks critical questions about the future of civic life and community influence across the UK.
A rose by any other name
We are all aware of words and phrases that get overused to the point that their meaning becomes lost or altered. In the place making industry the list of such words is long including; consultation, engagement, regeneration, partnership, and transparency, but today I want to look at ‘Place’ and ‘Local’.
At a recent online round table discussion with a dozen or so IPM colleagues about the implications of the Devolution White Paper, I was struck by the very different meanings of ‘Place’ and ‘Local’ depending on the perspective of the speaker and decided to take a bit of a deeper dive. My dictionary is not very helpful, defining ‘Place’ as ‘a geographic point, such as a town or city, or a particular part of a space’. The Thesaurus is slightly more useful suggesting; ‘city, town, quarter, village, district, neighbourhood, hamlet, vicinity, locality, locale, site, venue, whereabouts.’
In our industry we often use ‘Place’ to refer to everything in and about a particular location, e.g. ‘taking a whole place approach’ regardless of scale. Would it be helpful to reference the scale, e.g. ‘taking a whole place approach to providing services in our city’? Central government strategists may use ‘place’ to refer to the whole of a region, county, or even country. A local Councillor in a rural market town may refer to ‘place’ as their town, while a County Councillor would probably perceive ‘place’ as their county. The context of scale makes a real difference to the use of the term, and could contribute to misunderstandings.
When I look at the meaning of ‘Local’ it gets even more subjective. In my own life I think of local as the places that I can walk to from my home, as in ‘the local shops, station, or library’. The dictionary tells me that Local means ‘an inhabitant of a specific locality’ and Locality is ‘a neighbourhood or area, the site or scene of an event’ and Locale ‘the place where something happens or has happened’. The Thesaurus suggests; community, provincial, neighbourhood, small town, and inhabitant.
When looking at devolution and the reorganisation of local government these words and their meaning really matter. In a country made up of large unitary authorities representing 500,000 to 800,000 people each, what does ‘local’ mean? How will devolving budgets and strategic decisions from Westminster to Mayors of combined authorities and the leaders of new unitary authorities secure or preferably increase the influence of people in a town or village of less than 30,000 people? If by local I mean the place where I live, what will the mechanism be to allow me to influence what happens in and to my town? Indeed can these larger strategic authorities be called ‘local authorities’? I suggest that these strategic unitary authorities are too big to be called ‘local’ and there is a real need to provide genuine local agency to empower local communities.
The decline in voter turnout at both local and national elections is a symptom of the growing distance between ‘ordinary people’ and the legislators and politicians who shape the way that we live. Is part of the answer to this worrying trend to reignite grass roots civic action through reinvigorating the lowest level of public authority – the town or parish council? Or is there a better option that avoids the pitfalls of adversarial party politics? Is a ‘coalition of the willing’ different to ‘the usual suspects’? Would People’s Assemblies with participatory budgeting powers work for communities?
Without a sense of civic agency people turn their attention to their individual wellbeing, often resulting in selfish inconsiderate behaviours. Where people see themselves as part of something bigger, like their neighbourhood or town, they are much more likely to be active in voluntary activity, feel supported, take part in local governance, and gain satisfaction from seeing the impact of their efforts. How do we reverse the decline in voter turn out and engagement in place based choices?
These are thorny questions that I do not claim to have the answers to. I remain concerned about the direction of travel and hope that collectively we can resolve these issues to allow the potential of every person and place on the UK to realise our potential.
IPM Thought Piece
Jean Ball SFIPM
May 2025
About the author
Jean Ball
Jean Ball is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management and a High Street Task Force Expert. She has lived in Buxton in Derbyshire for over 30 years and started her place management career there in 2002 after an earlier career in retail and the arts. Since then Jean served as City Centre Manager in Stoke-on-Trent for over 5 years, before returning to her first love, events, as a freelancer trading as Eventful Places. Still, an active member of her local community Jean continues to bring her professional expertise and passion for place to her adopted hometown amidst the Derbyshire hills.