Regional Policies for Knowledge Anchoring in European Regions

Abstract

The design of regional policy tools for supporting economic development in the knowledge economy requires an understanding of the links between extra- and intra-regional knowledge interactions. In this paper, we argue that policymakers must shift from focusing primarily on the development of regionalized relationships and institutions, in which knowledge is “embedded”, to a more outward looking approach. We develop the idea of knowledge anchoring which refers to the many ways in which firms (and other actors) incorporate new knowledge into regional economies through interactions and relations that include actors who are located close by as well as at a distance. In this way, knowledge may be “anchored” territorially because it has become part of the routines and activities of many firms in a particular region. Whilst individual firms are concerned to access extra-regional knowledge and secure it within their own organizations, policymakers are concerned with wider knowledge anchoring to tie knowledge into a regional economy. The paper explores the ways in which existing regional policy supports extra-regional knowledge interactions and the subsequent recirculation of knowledge. We suggest that the key features of knowledge anchoring as a policy concept are that it is flexible with regard to the nature and scale of knowledge interactions, and that it focuses on the linking of extra- and intra-regional relations via the combination and “stretching-out” of knowledge interactions across time and space.

Acknowledgements

We thank Henrik Halkier, Jesper Manniche, Lise Smed Olsen, Geert Vissers, Sigrid Hedin and an external reviewer for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. We also acknowledge the assistance of Sara Östberg, Chris Collinge and Stewart MacNeill who helped undertake some of the interviews on which the West Midlands and Skåne case studies are partly based. The analysis and ideas presented here are our own, however, and we remain responsible for any errors or shortcomings.

Notes

The project was funded under the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme (contract number 006187).

Antalya, Turkey; Aquitaine, France; Baden-Würtemberg, Germany; Bavaria, Germany; Bornholm, Denmark; Bratislava, Slovakia; Centro, Portugal; North Jutland, Denmark; North Rhine Westphalia, Germany; NorthWest Switzerland; Skåne, Sweden; Silesia, Slovenia; Southeast Lower Saxony, Germany; Västra Götaland, Sweden; Venice, Italy; Wageningen, the Netherlands; West Midlands, UK.