Uncovering Denied Agency and Imaginative Exclusion in Local and Regional Development

Abstract

This commentary advances the concept of denied agency to rethink how agency is understood in local and regional development research. Although agency has become a central concern in regional studies, the interpretive and emotional dimensions through which individuals understand, narrate and imagine regional change remain underexplored. Denied agency draws attention to actors whose perspectives and aspirations remain marginal or unheard, yet whose experiences may reveal alternative developmental possibilities absent from dominant policy and planning debates. By integrating individuality into structural and agentic perspectives, the commentary develops conceptual and methodological strategies to capture narratives, emotions and imaginative capacities that shape engagement with regional futures. Focusing on neglected voices, hidden discourses and fragile expressions of aspiration, the commentary calls for an interpretive turn in economic geography that recognises the diversity of lived experiences and the unrealised futures that denied agency can illuminate.