Abstract
‘Booming’ and ‘lagging’ regions have traditionally been a key area of debate in rural and regional studies; the former being characterised as centres of growth and innovation, and the latter associated with stagnation and/or decline. Recent research has tended to undermine simplistic tropes and emphasise the inter-connectedness of the city and the country. Building on the premise of relationality, this paper further unpicks depictions of winning and losing regions through an exploration of uneven experiences of growth and resilience within mid Wales, UK, and Southland, New Zealand. Attentive to themes of endogenous development, community capital and state-led development policy, we highlight how communities within these settings have bucked regional trends, whilst others have been negatively impacted by shifting patterns of global production. We advocate caution in conflating regional resilience and growth with experiences at the community level, emphasising the need for research which connects the local, regional and international scales.