This article is the first of three reviews in which economic geography is viewed through the lens of crises. This article focuses on the resurgence of uneven development as a political problem, which has led to public policy debates and responses in which economic geography is an underpinning construct. The article focuses on the UK where public policy responses have engaged with the problems caused by uneven development. Arguments made over many years about the long-term damaging impacts of geographical inequalities in opportunity and income have broken through into the political mainstream and gained traction. The article explains how this happened, as an already unbalanced regional economy was exacerbated first through growth led by financial services and then austerity-led decline. There are opportunities for economic geography in this public policy conjuncture, although it will require an ability to engage competently and critically with mainstream economics, and a willingness to work with political actors and a challenging, frustrating, and uncomfortable political process. Moreover, it also requires that the problem of uneven development remains adequately defined and attended to, so that appropriate public policy responses may be formulated, and continues to garner sufficient political attention, to allow both time and opportunity for intervention in public policy.

本文是从危机的角度审视经济地理学的三篇评论中的第一篇。本文着眼于不平衡发展作为政治问题的重新出现，这导致了公共政策的辩论和对策，其中经济地理学是基础。本文重点介绍英国的公共政策对策，涉及因发展不平衡而引起的问题。多年以来，关于机会和收入地理不平等的长期破坏性影响的争论已经成为政治主流，并受到了人们的关注。这篇文章解释了这种情况的发生，因为本来就不平衡的地区经济首先通过金融服务带动的增长而加剧，然后由紧缩带动的下降加剧了。在此公共政策环境中，经济地理领域存在机遇，尽管这需要具备胜任和批判性地与主流经济学互动的能力，以及与政治角色合作的意愿以及具有挑战性，令人沮丧和不舒服的政治进程。此外，它还要求对发展不平衡问题保持充分的定义和关注，以便可以制定适当的公共政策对策，并继续引起足够的政治关注，以便有时间和机会干预公共政策。