An emphasis on the importance of place and locality as arenas through which the forces of capitalism and the state structures that support it are challenged; ‘far from being bounded, homogenous, and stable entities, localities are actively produced through a politics of place that may simultaneously involve political economic processes (capital, and localized modes of political regulation), and cultural processes (contested meanings and senses of place)’ (Elmhirst (2001) Sing. J. Trop. Geog. 22, 3; a clear and helpful paper); see also D. Massey (2005) and (2004) Geografiska B 86. Amin (2004) Geografiska B 86, 1 (unclear and verbose) detects a new politics of place, characterized by demand for localized decision-making; ‘a restricted democracy’. See also Cumbers et al. (2008) PHG 32, 2.