The developing foundational movement

Abstract

We respond to four critical engagements with our article ‘Geography, the foundational economy, and the fallen-below’. There we sought to differentiate the foundational economy (FE) focus on the socio-spatially uneven crisis of social reproduction from regional studies approaches centred on the uneven crisis of production in European states. The article installed a socio-spatial framework at the heart of foundational analysis. Commentators raised substantive points about the FE's theoretical position(s), its take on place-based policy and politics, and the nature of material versus cultural explanations of discontent. Our reply makes three cross-cutting points to address substantive points raised. First, how the foundational approach sustains a movement not a school. Second, how spatial building blocks and place fit into the foundational concept of provisioning. Third, how the material and the cultural through subjectification jointly drive politics.