Introduction

Conceptions of sustainable and balanced communities are premised on the formation and retention of functioning labour markets. Labour is a ‘commodity’ unlike any other in that its regulation, control, and reproduction is an inherently social and political, as well as an economic, process (Jessop, 1990; Harvey, 1994; Jones, 1999). On the one hand, labour power represents a factor of production in that it is a core requirement for the accumulation of profit. Workers with the appropriate skills or ‘human capital’ are a necessary element in the production and delivery of goods and services. On the other hand, the reproduction of embodied workers requires that their social needs and their access to certain forms of consumption are adequately met. States need to provide access to a range of services (such as health and education) and commodities (such as housing) in order for citizens to live and work. The absence or presence of different types of labour in particular places is, therefore, directly connected with the processes and spatial patterns of economic development.

Drawing on a range of literature this chapter examines the relationships between labour market-building, place imaginations, citizenship, and mobility. It will assess the wider significance of these relationships for processes of sustainable community-building and policy programmes that seek to enhance both the economic competitiveness and social cohesion of places. It will discuss the ways in which the balance of different types of labour and citizens in defined places becomes converted into a ‘problem’ of government to be addressed through active social policies that define, identify, and mobilise different communities and groups in the wider pursuit of policy objectives. It begins by examining processes of spatial selectivity and the shift from Keynesian to post-Keynesian governance. It then turns to questions of citizenship and identity and links these to broader processes of labour market-building and (dominant) conceptions of essential or key workers (KWs).