Turbulence characterises the current global scene. This book uses complementary theoretical approaches to understand and help prescribe policies to ‘re-frame’ the regional development problem in turbulent times. These approaches are: evolutionary complexity; evolutionary economic geography; emergence theory; and resilience theory. From below, they address the four major crises creating a ‘perfect storm’ for societies and economics involving: the climate change crisis; the energy crisis; the banking and financial crisis; and the global economic crisis. This book analyses and proposes ways in which regional economies, in particular, are having to be ‘reframed’ to address these crises. First, many must evolve in new ways, possibly moving back from the ‘service economy’ towards a new, greener form of manufacturing of goods as well as services. Accordingly, regional economies are innovating in new ways. Amongst these are the quest for ‘relatedness’ within their own regional orbits, and promoting ‘modularity’ as a mode of analysis and a policy stance to stimulate innovation across industry and geographical borders. Finally, regional economies and societies are discovering that, from a ‘resilience’ perspective, they must find answers to the higher levels of governance with which they increasingly struggle. In this respect regional economies are in ‘transition’ and regional processes are ‘emergent’. The transition seeks to address the four crises, involving re-balancing, re-directing and re-framing future policy and practice. This book describes many of the novel ‘framings’ involved in understanding the new ways in which this major task is being addressed in theory, policy and everyday practice.

Local and regional development is an increasingly global issue. For localities and regions, the challenge of enhancing prosperity, improving wellbeing and increasing living standards has become acute for localities and regions formerly considered discrete parts of the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. Amid concern over the definitions and sustainability of ‘development’, a spectre has emerged of deepened unevenness and sharpened inequalities in the development prospects for particular social groups and territories. Local and Regional Development engages and addresses the key questions: what are the principles and values that shape definitions and strategies of local and regional development? What are the conceptual and theoretical frameworks capable of understanding and interpreting local and regional development? What are the main policy interventions and instruments? How do localities and regions attempt to effect development in practice? What kinds of local and regional development should we be pursuing? This book addresses the fundamental issues of ‘what kind of local and regional development and for whom?’, frameworks of understanding, and instruments and policies. It outlines what a holistic, progressive and sustainable local and regional development might constitute before reflecting on its limits and political renewal. With the growing international importance of local and regional development, this book is an essential student purchase, illustrated throughout with maps, figures and case studies from Asia, Europe, and Central and North America.

Throughout the world today former nation-states, as disparate as Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Canada, have either disintegrated or threaten to splinter into regions. The conflicts are economic, social, ethnic, linguistic, religious, political, and cultural. Higgins and Savoie analyze the reasons for these conflicts and show why attempts to eliminate regional disparities within nations have been largely unsuccessful. This volume is a highly readable, comprehensive survey of the literature and current debates in the fields of regional economics, development, policy, and planning.

Meeting the aims of sustainability is becoming increasingly difficult; at the same time, the call for culture is becoming more powerful. This book explores the relationships between culture, sustainability and regional change through the concept of ‘territorialisation’. This new concept describes the dynamics and processes in the context of regional development, driven by collective human agency that stretches beyond localities and marked-off regional boundaries. This book launches the concept of ‘territorialisation’ by exploring how the natural environment and culture are constitutive of each other. This concept allows us to study the characterisation of the natural assets of a place, the means by which the natural environment and culture interact, and how communities assign meaning to local assets, add functions and ascribe rules of how to use space. By highlighting the time-space dimension in the use and consumption of resources, territorialisation helps to frame the concept and grasp the meaning of sustainable regional development. Drawing on an international range of case studies, the book addresses both conceptual issues and practical applications of ‘territorialisation’ in a range of contexts, forms, and scales. The book will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduates in sustainable development, environmental studies, and regional development and planning.

To what extent can regions diverge from established paths of economic development? Are their futures determined by institutional and industrial structures that may be hundreds of years old or do innovations, transfers, and adaptations of knowledge, technology, learning systems, and policy mechanisms offer realistic opportunities for regional development? Rethinking Regional Innovation and Change: Path Dependency or Regional Breakthrough? brings together papers from leading international scholars in the field of regional development and policy. The contributors examine the interactions between path-dependent developments, institutions, and governance structures that influence regional innovation capacity. Using cases from both highly developed and less developed regions, they explore the complex relationships between technical and industrial development paths and regional institutions. They assess the extent to which regional innovative capacity can be increased by strengthening, re-orienting, or creating institutions and policies, and they examine opportunities for reflexive practice at the regional level as a critical tool in orienting regional development. Up-to-date case studies present diverse theoretical perspectives from economics, political science, geography, planning, and public policy. This volume will be of particular interest to researchers, analysts, and policymakers in the fields of regional development, innovation policy, and institutional and organizational change, as well as faculty and students in public policy, public administration, planning, geography, regional economics, and economic development.

This book examines the need for a new way of describing sustainable tourism and also looks at the frameworks needed to rethink how to apply this to communities, private operators and protected area managers. It makes it clear that tourism is just one of many human activities that affects host communities. The work includes informative and provocative case studies with realistic applications. References included in the book will help graduate students formulate new hypotheses and suggest literature for them. Tools and techniques useful to tourism practitioners suggest innovative approaches to marketing, management and community development.

The existence and persistence of regional disparities between European regions require context-tailored policies to promote structural change. This book explores the congruence between place-based development and regional competitiveness in the EU context. Drawing on a range of social science disciplines, this book unpicks the complexity of regional transformation processes, aiming to enhance the applicability and transferability of theoretical approaches to innovation and place-based regional development in diverse European territorial settings. The contributors have a particular focus on less-favoured regions and on the application of Smart Specialisation – a strategic approach to innovation-based regional development – to the issues at hand. The book comes at a critical moment, meeting the growing demand of academics, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in promoting regional economic growth and well-being.

Published in 1998, Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century examines a number of related themes including: the traditional approach of local and regional planning initiatives developed within the context of national goals; the current decline of bi-polar political and ideological blocs; political decentralization and concurrent economic centralization including the growth of multi-national corporations; devolution of centralized planning powers to regions and localities, and the rise and acceptance of sustainable development concepts. The book is divided into five parts addressing: 1 - adjustments to political, economic and social change; 2 the problems of urban housing and housing and health; 3 - adjustments to environmental change, development policies and sustainability; 4 - the problem of rapid urban growth and mega cities; 5 - adjustments of changing urban networks. The contributors are from several countries worldwide and the chapters examine the issues at a global level.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism presents a collection of readings that represent an essential and authoritative reference on the state-of-the-art of the interdisciplinary field of tourism studies. Presents a comprehensive and critical overview of tourism studies across the social sciences Introduces emerging topics and reassesses key themes in tourism studies in the light of recent developments Includes 50 newly commissioned essays by leading experts in the social sciences from around the world Contains cutting-edge perspectives on topics that include tourism’s role in globalization, sustainable tourism, and the state’s role in tourism development Sets an agenda for future tourism research and includes a wealth of bibliographic references

This book discusses the latest theoretical advances in regional innovation research, presents empirical cases involving the development of regional innovation systems (RISs), and explores regional innovation policy approaches. Grounded in the extensive literature on RISs, it addresses state-of-the-art developments in light of recent theoretical advances in economic geography and related disciplines. Written in honor of Bjørn Asheim's seventieth birthday, the book includes novel and carefully selected chapters prepared by collaborators, colleagues and former PhD-students of one of the founding fathers of RIS research. Further, it makes a significant contribution to the academic debate on regional innovation and growth and offers valuable insights for scholars and policymakers alike.