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Abstract
This article is a critical discussion of theoretical and policy issues related to regional development and innovation policy. It draws on the ‘new regionalist’ perspective to examine regions from a strategic perspective and, in particular, the role of knowledge and learning, competitiveness and institutional capacity-building. The article's main argument is that these present day uses of these concepts are based on assumptions that are often overstated, and that in some cases claims have been made that are not sufficiently grounded in empirical evidence.
Notes
1. An earlier version of this paper was published as a working paper in PREST/Manchester Business School. The author wishes to thank Kieron Flanagan, Sally Randles and Jeremy Howells for the feedback and comments given.
2. Other critical views argue that the existing set of official regions represents a ‘hotchpotch of historical accident, local identity and national concern – or lack of concern – for consistency or logic in defining sub-national administrative units’ (Cheshire et al., Citation1996, p. 43).
3. An example is the re-drawing of the NUTS 2 map for Wales in 1999, in order to qualify for Objective 1 status. Tsampra and Palaskas (Citation2002) (quoted in Lawton-Smith et al., Citation2003) also mention NUTS 2 regions in Greece being politically shaped in order to maximize European funding.
4. These different types of knowledge involve different mixes of tacit and codified knowledge, different codification possibilities, different qualifications and skills, reliance on different organizations and institutions, as well as different innovation challenges and pressures (Asheim & Gertler, 2004).
5. Technological regimes are constructed out of the combination of ‘particular knowledge bases, sources and degrees of technological opportunities, conditions of appropiability, forms and degrees of cumulativeness of technological advances’ (Orsenigo, Citation1993, p. 42). Technological opportunity is determined by the level of technological knowledge in industry. Appropiability conditions refer to the likelihood of protecting innovations from imitation, and therefore obtaining a larger share of the returns of the investment. The knowledge base concerns the type of knowledge upon which firms’ activities are based.