Smart Specialization in Australia: Between Policy Mobility and Regional Experimentalism?

abstract

This article describes and analyzes the transfer of smart specialization (S3) from Europe, where it originated, to Gippsland, Australia. It identifies factors that are likely to enhance and, on the other hand, diminish the contribution of S3 to development in this region, and, more generally, to peripheral regions around the world. The policy mobility literature provides the analytical framework. It is used to explore how the validity of assumptions that underlie the efficacy of S3, in a destination site, and the institutional and political factors that must be accounted for through adaptation and reflexive policy learning, impact on the viability of policy transfer. This discussion demonstrates the links between geography, and entrepreneurship and innovation, and the challenges of linking the originally more or less homogenous framework to one concerned with development in heterogenous regions. An action research, constructivist approach is adopted. It yields fine-grained ethnographic data that reflects the importance, for effective evaluation of such transfer, of conceiving of a region as a relational space, where social interaction and connectivity drive and define the nature of change. The concomitant focus on process reveals that the intertemporal interchange between the means and ends of policy makers, must be carefully observed before proceeding to ex post evaluation of outcomes. Consequently, the article adds to the theoretical understanding of the complex processes involved in transferring regional policy approaches across spatial contexts. It provides valuable insights relevant to economic geographers, scholars, and practitioners concerned with regional development and innovation policy, and those exploring concepts and ideas associated with the policy mobility literature.

Key words:

• policy mobility
• smart specialization
• innovation
• regional development
• experimental governance

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, State of Victoria, for financial support, and colleagues at the Latrobe Valley Authority, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and RMIT for our collaboration. We are also greatly indebted to those who have reviewed and provided feedback on previous drafts of the article.