2023/12/21 by Stefania Fiorentino, Amy Glasmeier, Linda Lobao +2 · 1 voice · 4 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/cjres/rsad044
openalex publication_date 2023/12/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Over the past decade a new neologism has entered the academic, political and popular lexicon, namely that of ‘left behind’ places. In a very short time, the notion has assumed widespread usage. Indeed, the term has quickly taken on an almost generic quality, in that it is used to denote any place—a region, a city, a town, a local community, a neighbourhood—that is deemed to suffer from one or more economic, social or cultural disadvantages, especially when compared to other places—regions, cities, towns, local communities, neighbourhoods—that do not suffer from such disadvantages. The notion is thus at once both multi-scalar, in that the descriptor ‘left behind’, is used at a whole variety of geographical scales, and comparative or contrastive, in that the very label itself implies certain places have, for one reason or another, not ‘kept pace with’ or have ‘failed to share in’ the social and economic progress, prosperity and opportunities that characterise other (‘more successful’, or ‘pulling ahead’) places. To some extent this neologism is but a new term for an old problem that has long attracted academic research and policy intervention, namely the existence and persistence of spatial inequalities in socio-economic prosperity and performance, or the problem of ‘geographically uneven development’. So why this renaming, and what does it signify? The use of the notion ‘left behind’ in a societal context is not in fact new. It has been used for decades in social and political discourses as a way of invoking a collective moral responsibility for helping disadvantaged groups and families in society. It signals a commitment to ensure that those who are disadvantaged or marginalised in some ways are not abandoned or neglected. In the 1960s, the title of the initiating report of Johnson’s push to end poverty through the Great Society Programs was titled ‘The People Left Behind’. The focus was on a set of well known, and some newly discovered, locations in the USA that lacked the elements of modern life: clean water, paved roads, electrification, access to health care, education and habitable housing. Several areas where these problems were acute were identified, including the Appalachians, the Mississippi Delta, the Native American Lands of the Southwest, the Great Lakes Upper Peninsula and the North Atlantic Sea Coast (Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965, 36th President of the United States: 1963–1969, Special Message to the Congress: America’s Unfinished Business, Urban and Rural Poverty). Others were emergent. For example, the idea was used explicitly in the United States’ No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the aim of which was to target Federal assistance to raise the educational attainment of children in economically and socially deprived (‘left behind’) families, in every part of the USA.1 Similarly, the notion has often been invoked to refer to the cumulative problems experienced by those immobile individuals—typically the elderly and the unskilled—‘left behind’ in places that have seen substantial population outmigration, as exemplified by many rural communities. Such left behind groups and places often face a vicious cycle of declining public services, shrinking job opportunities and increasing poverty (see, for example, Lichter and Schafft, 2016; Ulrich-Schad and Duncan, 2018). In recent years, however, the ‘left behind’ idea has been extended into new debates and used as a sort of short-hand label for a much broader variety of disadvantaged and deprived places and communities (see Hendrikson et al., 2018; Martin et al., 2021; Pike et al., 2023). The context is one in which the economic and social distance between prosperous areas and those ‘left behind’ has widened considerably. In almost very advanced economy, and in several of the emerging or newly developed countries, spatial socio-economic inequalities have increased. Although the specifics obviously vary from one country to another, most witnessed a significant ‘turning point’ around the early- to mid-1980s, from a situation in which many had experienced a slow narrowing of spatial inequalities in the post-war period to one in which this process of regional convergence has since been replaced by growing inequalities, or regional divergence (Iammarino et al., 2019; Odendahl et al., 2019; Kemeny and Storper, 2023). As the OECD has commented: Within their own borders, OECD countries are witnessing increasing gaps in GDP per capita between higher performing and lower performing regions… The gaps within countries between the top 10% regions with the highest productivity and the bottom 75% has grown by about 60% over the last two decades (OECD, 2016, p. 26). And focussing on Europe, Rosés and Wolf have argued that: It is remarkable that the emerging picture on regional inequality in the long-run is also similar to the pattern of inequality in terms of personal income and wealth distribution … the pattern of regional inequality [in Europe] over the last 110 years follows a U-shape, just like the pattern of personal income inequality… after 1900 we find a spread of economic activity across regions and convergence until about the 1980s, and divergence as well as geographical re-concentration thereafter (Rosés and Wolf, 2021, pp. 35–36). A common trend across countries has been for a group of highly successful regions and cities, those in the top 10% or the top quartile of a country’s distribution, to pull strongly ahead of, and away from, those below the national average level of prosperity, and especially those in the bottom 10–25%. It is these latter areas that are typically referred to as having been ‘left behind’. They go under different names in different countries—the ‘left behind places’ in the UK, ‘La France peripherique’ (peripheral areas) in France, the ‘abgehängte Regionen’ (suspended regions) in Germany, the ‘Aree Interne’ (inner areas) in Italy, the ‘Kimpgebieden’ (shrinking areas) in the Netherlands, the ‘La Espana vaciada (the hollowed out) in Spain and the ‘legacy cities’ and ‘rustbelt regions’ in the USA. But the underlying concern is similar, namely, that in each country there are substantial numbers of regions, or cities, or localities, that have failed to experience the growth in incomes, jobs and productivity that other places have enjoyed. In most of the OECD countries the ratio of the average GDP per capita in the top 20% of regions is twice that of the bottom 20%, and in a third it is more than two and half times (Figure 1). Whether it be for regions, cities or for localities, several countries have experienced a similar steady widening of spatial economic (see and for the of the the and Italy, GDP per capita in OECD ratio of top of regions to bottom 20%, regions, and OECD OECD regions and cities at a per capita for top 10% and bottom 20% of United of for top 10% and bottom 20% of capita GDP in the and regions of Italy, and the in spatial economic inequalities since the is well the use of the notion of ‘left behind’ to refer to growing and prosperous places is not are several For one the term ‘left behind places’ is not well just economically or socially disadvantaged does a have to be to the does it for a to be as having been ‘left is or set of by which such places be different have their different often on It is of this very that the idea has to and and there is of the of the by which certain places to economically as as why into lower growth or in vicious of incomes, job opportunities and slow It is that there are different of ‘left behind’ with different of with different et al., But what is thus is a to the notion of ‘left behind’ places in their the is that the notion a To this the ‘left behind’ the that places ‘left behind’ it is to their own local or which their to economic, and this such places had more more policy and economic for example, be more and to behind in terms of economic growth and The for more that has in many countries and policy as the OECD to be on such and there is a certain to this sort of and the for more But the fact is that the of many ‘left behind’ have in their and social in way been by the policy on and that have in different in many of the advanced since the It to to that the of ‘left behind’ places over the past years or has had to do with the that have or those have to certain cities and regions but have left many the economic have widened the between the economic of top and bottom go as to that such have many places As there is of a ‘left behind’ or set of that be used to when a to be in this Several economic and have been and to areas of from to the the is that the who in a ‘left behind’ do not share the economic social or of as in the areas around or in the taken as a this is and when it is that the of is such as to label an ‘left behind’, is to To and more on the of the ‘left behind’ problem some have to characterise different of ‘left behind’ areas a variety of economic and social often into a In the of the UK, for example, and use on health and education at the local such as to and different be and their over of the problems that ‘left behind’ areas experience from their economic or in some of ‘left behind’ areas thus to economic and refer to that economic like and Although the economic is of it is also that economic per is also and often of socially disadvantaged in a often with access to public social As in the the of the there are and those in ‘left behind’ places also experience of a higher of and social compared to in areas around also be a of social and a on the for income and social The of ‘left behind are and have in their once old and many that once had or into that and rural areas be other But the fact that spatial inequalities in economic and prosperity have almost over the past years, an increasing of ‘left behind places’ in the is with the that have in the over this as most have experienced long-run in jobs since the to and and the of by in the advanced with the of such as have to the economic prosperity and opportunities in those areas in which had been In such advanced there are of successful cities and that have been in this the time, these countries have experienced growth in (Figure in have been in new jobs in including and some regions, cities and have to and their around these new growth many have it to this we about this from to services, in as an of it is that this has been from in geographical with those areas that have the of the of ‘left behind’ to those who have most from the of the spatial of these and The The ‘The economic of the past years has the of from a of to more activity of and convergence has long since or in p. 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In their research also two other the areas that experienced the economic in the were not to there is in both the and the USA that this for persistence to have more of a problem from the by economic in this had to be more quickly in the of the and for persistence has the fact that and have been to the of the ‘left behind’ areas and of the more economically and has a cycle of vicious by and a In the has commented: one are the cities such as and with who are the most and on the the other are which are jobs and The of go For the past years, the have been growing at an and this divergence is the very of p. new has been by the of and research is the extent to which this has the of the and and economic It is to more about a of and opportunities for of variety have been in why ‘left behind’ areas have not been to more and have often the of and to And many ‘left behind’ areas have an that was to the of that are past has the to new and new economic has also economic such that some of the most ‘left behind’ areas are from economic around in the areas have been by increasing on public and the of population on the and In many ‘left behind’ areas have disadvantaged the of the or have been to new and and their A ‘left behind’ is that once a region, or for economic and behind other much more successful it for the ‘left behind’ region, or to and growth and have to that such ‘left behind places’ are to or the especially and to growth and prosperity, and that such are to to the growing regions, cities and The problem of ‘left behind places’ is in this one of and uneven geographical development’. Whether one to an or a of this the is much the namely once geographical inequalities in economic prosperity and growth are of to be but and to The and especially of ‘left behind’ places thus for economic, social and political The economic are those of both local and The behind of local economic of and that the of that and is not developed and with for local job opportunities and of It also that national economic is to be lower than it that economically ‘left behind’ places be on a more growth with higher productivity and higher national and prosperity be the are the between successful or ‘pulling on the one and or ‘left behind’ on the the more of the or are end having and for example, the of in and are more to and families in and prosperous regions and cities than those in economically or ‘left behind’ Similarly, the or of social much more on regions, cities and localities, these more on such public social In to economic left behind places also raise social The of job opportunities in ‘left behind places’ is socially not of that and of the lower per capita that characterise such places compared to but also these of to problems of of educational and other of social in to be to new and as well as in and local on and social To on to or the of ‘left behind’ places is also socially not the and to be the but also on the social public and the in the growth regions, cities and localities, of itself to the of the that are left behind in the It is not that those which in ‘left behind’ places marginalised and by especially when the latter are often in and their political from the prosperous regions and in ‘left behind’ places have from the economic and social by those in political over the past As social of an that a for And it is that this certain places and regions, the communities and a that some and places of prosperity is what the end of pp. And this of has of social and political 2018). It is that many of those in ‘left behind’ places have their political in of political that have an policy at economic prosperity and to economically and regions, cities and has to the social and of such places. As in the in part to to the of places’ and the of their with of economic to of and to jobs to the country’s economically cities and in the the in and the especially the of the by not a to the in political of the in the economically cities and in the of and political have other To be social in ‘left behind’ has not been the reason for the and of political but it has a significant In the of the several countries and as the and the have the to to their around a more socially and of the widespread problem of ‘left behind’ places be to this especially the of to of economic growth and the to ensure that the of are socially and and And not the prosperity and gaps between places be to societal in and for the of a that not just The policy to the ‘left behind’ is and the focus of this of the is on the of the ‘left behind’ places the focus more on the policy