University of Kiel, Germany Evolutionary Economic Geography, B.Sc. Geography

1. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Evolutionary
Economic
Geography
Summer
Semester
2021
3rd lecture
29/04/2021

2. 1) 22-04: Introduction
2) 27-04: Evolutionary Economic Geography within Grand
Societal Challenges
3) 29-04: Industrial Dynamics, Clusters and Niches, Green-
Entrepreneurship and Socio-Economic Transformation of
Industrial Towns/Lagging regions
4) 04-05: Path Development and Path Dependence, Lock-Ins,
Co-Production Processes of Transformation and Regional
Structural Change
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
(Zoom)
> See OLAT for literature <

3. Recap: Geography plays a role

4. Source
Our planet is facing a triple crisis
of Climate Change, biodiversity
loss and pollution taking a
heavy toll on natural resources.
Economic geographers and
Evolutionary Economic
Geography play a role in
addressing grand challenges.
Source
e.g. sources of deforestation
Recap: Econ. Geo. plays a role

5. Recap: Institutions; econ. agents
The revitalisation and sustainable upgrading of old
industrial parks is a key objective of Germany’s National
Sustainable Development Strategy, for achieving the target
of reducing land consumption to 30 hectares per day (The
Federal Government, 2016)
Source,
2018

6. Recap: Operationalization of the SDGs
through EEG
 Sustainable start-ups: how their business and climate performance relates?
 From local to global production networks: in what ways are the transformation
processes in industrial towns related to endogenous or exogenous development
dynamics?
 From fast-pace to slow innovation: to what extent can we use the concepts of
slow innovation to explain the diverse trajectories of sustainable transformation
of industrial areas (towns; cities; regions > real places)?
 Economic growth (SDG 8) – Climate Action (SDG 13) nexus: how to overcome the
trade-offs between strategies to attract business with environmental
sustainability principles?
 Prosperous v.s. lagging regions: How lagging regions that are focused on valuing
their unique and distinctive assets can thrive and shape their own sustainable
development paths?
 Global goals, local actions: how small- or medium-size towns can play a decisive
role in operationalizing some of the SDGs?

7. Source
Source
Source
Individuals’ engagement in the sustainable energy
transition > addressing grand societal challenges

8. Today’s lecture
Firm dynamics, industrial dynamics and spatial
clustering
Niches, Niche markets
Green Entrepreneurship and related policies
Introduction to socio-economic transformation of
lagging-behind regions
Debate
Evolutionary Economic Geography

9. Firm dynamics
We start from the micro level, focusing on
the locational behaviour of firms, and
how firms compete and learn on the basis
of their routines in time and space.
Boschma & Martin, 2010
Firm or enterprises dynamics
New firms will enter the market Other firms stagnate and
eventually will leave the market

10. Firms are typically a collection of
individuals who are organized in a
hierarchy to pursue for-profit activities
Firms are started by one or more
entrepreneurs (known as ‘start-ups’) and
range from single establishment, self-
employed individuals or partnerships to
multi-establishment entities.
Firm dynamics
Territorial development and the location decisions of firms are in
symbiotic relationship, as firms access not only raw materials, but
also labour (availability of workforce) with knowledge and skills
(talent attraction), which in turn are shaped by the location decisions.
Aoyama et al. 2011 > OLAT Lec. 1

11. Availability of workforce/talent attraction
Talent attraction strategies (macro-level)

12. Firm dynamics
 Micro-level of firms > like the
geography of entrepreneurship
These dynamics within an evolutionary context
 Meso-level of industries > like
spatial clustering.
How firms behave, compete and learn in space
Evolutionary economic geography envisages that most
firms innovate incrementally, by taking advantage of
the knowledge they have built up in the past. When
firms diversify and grow, they tend to expand into
related products, that is, into those products that are
technologically related to their current products
(Penrose, 1959).

13. Crucial rationale
Commonly accepted: There is evidence that new firms do
not opt for optimal locations in terms of cost-
minimization.
Evolutionary argumentation: They are affected by local
structures laid down in the past:
 Like the place of residence of the entrepreneur (many
firms start from the entrepreneur’s home),
 The location of the parent firm (spinoffs typically
locate in the vicinity of their parent),
 The social networks of the entrepreneur (which are
very local, and provide access to resources), and
 The regional knowledge base (new firms typically
exploit local knowledge and skills).
Boschma & Martin, 2010

14. ‘How It Started ... How It’s Going’
Source/
 Place of residence of the
entrepreneur
 Existing social networks of
the entrepreneur

15. Walt Disney and his brother Roy
started The Walt Disney Company
in their uncle’s garage in
Los Angeles back in the year 1923.
‘How It Started ... How It’s Going’

17. Definitions essential EEG dynamics
Spinoffs Routines Clusters
Agglomeration economies Startups
What Is a Spinoff?
 A spinoff is the creation of an independent company through the sale or
distribution of new shares of an existing business or division of a parent
company.
 When a corporation spins off a business unit that has its own
management structure, it sets it up as an independent company under a
renamed business entity.
What Is a Startup?
 A startup is a company that's in the initial stages of business.
 The many funding sources for startups include family and friends, venture
capitalists, crowdfunding and loans.

18. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joecornell/2017/01/05/the-top-15-spin-offs-of-2016/?sh=1d1632a0204d
What Is a Spinoff?

19. What Is a Startup?
https://www.startupblink.com/startups/kiel+germany

20. Clusters and agglomeration economies
 Industrial Cluster: A geographic concentration of interconnected firms,
suppliers, and institutions in a particular sector (meso-level). It has the
potential to affect competition by increasing the productivity of the
companies in the clusters, driving innovation, and stimulating new
businesses in the specific field.
Source
 Clusters: Are groups and networks of interdependent firms, knowledge-
producing institutions (universities, research institutes, technology-
providing firms), bridging institutions (e.g. providers of technical or
consultancy services) and customers, linked in a production chain which
creates added value together.
 The concept of cluster goes beyond that of firm networking, as it
captures all forms of knowledge sharing and exchange.
 Agglomeration economy: a localized economy in which a large number of
companies, services, and industries exist in close proximity to one another
and benefit from the cost reductions/routines and gains in efficiency.

21. This literature on industrial dynamics focuses on the
mechanisms that drive the evolution of a population of firm-
specific routines > into industry (several firms). A key issue
concerns the mechanisms through which successful routines
diffuse across firms leading to cluster formation when a new
industry emerges.
 Spinoff dynamics and agglomeration economies may act as
vehicles through which knowledge and routines are created
and diffused among a growing population of firms within a
territory.
Industrial dynamics (meso-level)
Agglomeration economies, people and firms often concentrate in particular
territories. For example, people tend to move to cities where is there is a
greater choice of jobs, social activities or firms have access to a specialized work
force or the specialized reputation of a locality (Porter, 2003)

22. Recap: Industrial dynamics
Geographical concentration of industrial activities can
generate agglomeration economies fostering start-ups and
innovation and, possibly, the birth of new industries.
BUT
Geographical concentration of firms increases the level of
competition and makes exits of firms raise the average.
AND
Geographical concentration of firms can also affect the
opportunities of collective action as such initiatives are
more likely to emerge among proximate agents that can
more effectively control opportunistic behaviour.
Clusters Niches Entrepreneurship

23. Example of Industrial dynamics in the context of a
region’s international competitiveness Varum et al 2020
The study is conducted in an industrial Portuguese micro-region,
Aveiro North, integrated into the NUT III Metropolitan Area of Porto.
Porto
Lisboa

24. Example of Industrial dynamics in the context of a
region’s international competitiveness Varum et al 2020
Through time
Type of industry

25. Examples of industrial dynamics
Rehfeld and Nordhause-Janz 2017
Silicon Valley and the Social Media Industry
Source

26. Spatial clustering > Emergence of
regional clusters
Based on Porter’s (1990) seminal work, the cluster approach has
indicated an important step forward in management studies by
recognizing that a firm’s competitiveness does not merely rely
on its own capabilities, but also depends—sometimes crucially
so— on linkages with suppliers and users and the competitive
environment in the industry.
Utilizes a relational framework to understand the
competitiveness of firms (Delgado et al., 2016) and extends the
analysis of economic action from a corporate to a territorial
perspective, which can be national or regional in character
depending on the specific analytical focus

27. Clusters are geographic concentrations of industries
related by knowledge, skills, inputs, demand and/or other
linkages. (Delgado et al., 2016)
Defining industry clusters
What set of related economic activities constitutes a cluster?
Clusters based on inter-industry
linkages conditional from multi-
region analysis (across regions).
Cluster definitions based on
observed linkages among industries
or firms in a single region.
Region-specific cluster definitions could thus be too narrow (or myopic) in
terms of the linkages captured because they abstract from the linkages that
may be present in other locations. Thus, region-specific cluster definitions
could be complemented by comparable cluster definitions derived from
patterns across multiple regions. (Delgado et al., 2016)

28. Japanese
Industrial
Cluster
Zones
Türkcan et al 2009
Multi-region
analysis.

29. Japanese Industrial Cluster Zones
Source
firms in a single region

30. Industrial Clusters
Source
“routines”

31. Industrial Clusters: Daegu South Korea
Source
single region
Multi-region
Analysis
(across territories)

32. Cluster policies have been popular in many industrialized countries
for a long time. They can be regarded as part of a broader set of
regional innovation polices
Industrial Clusters
Hassink and Fornahl, 2017
Complaints have become flashier > about too standardized cluster
and regional innovation policies, due to benchmarking and
learning from best-practice initiatives (Tödtling and Trippl 2005).
 Regional qualities
 Knowledge
 Assets > narratives
 Place-based factors
 Context-specific
 Path dependence

33. Niches and niche dynamics
Long-term development of regions depends on their ability to
develop new sectors (new industries) or new market niches that
have their roots in the current regional knowledge base.
Frenken and Boschma (2007)
New firms need to identify a fringe/frontier market that is not
well served by old technologies, products or services, in order to
keep themselves alive long enough to develop their own new
technologies, products or services (Malerba et al., 2007).
Local institutions and human resources that have developed as a
result of one industry’s development in a region can also be
critical causes of, and inputs to, the creation of other industries.
Market niches

34. What is a Niche Market?
A niche market is a segment of a larger market that you can
define through its unique needs, preferences, or identity.
e.g. vegan-face wash is a niche market in the face-wash market.
https://www.leftyslefthanded.com/
 Price
 Demographics
 Level of quality
 Psychographics
 Geographic area
 Lifestyle
 Occasion
 Profession
 Style
 Culture
 Activity or habits
 Behavior
 Feature reduction or
addition
(niche market: left-handed people)

35. What is a Niche Market?
(niche market: ethical cosmetic consumers) http://lush.com/
Be critical
(niche market: vegan baking)

37. learn more > Furlow 2010; Delmas et al 2011
Greenwashing is the dissemination of false or incomplete information by
an organization to present an environmentally responsible public image.
Corporations can unethically trick you into thinking their products are
environmentally friendly. They do this because going green or zero waste is
“trendy” and they want your money.
Not to be confused with green marketing, greenwashing is when products
give a false impression of being eco-friendly when they are not.
A growing number of consumers say they’re willing
to pay more for products with a sustainability message.
When something sounds better for the environment than
what actually is > is called greenwashing
‘Greenwashing’ effect
Definition

38. Source
Corporations accused of not being as environmentally
friendly as marketed
There’s nothing clean about
diesel engines that spew
pollutants at levels way over
the legal limit.
Volkswagen/BMW/Chevy/For
d/Mercedes-Benz (‘clean
diesel’ autos)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oetgAZaUFVk
Meat alternative brand Quorn Foods
claims in the YouTube video above
that its Thai Wonder Grains “lunch
pot” is a step in the right direction
to addressing climate change
because it “helps us reduce our
carbon footprint.”
Quorn Foods (carbon footprint claims)
Avoiding deforestation

39. Firms accused of not being as environmentally friendly as
their marketing campaigns convey
Nestle (‘sustainably sourced
cocoa beans’)
2019 class-action lawsuit against
Nestle alleges the food giant’s
“sustainably sourced cocoa
beans” are nothing of the sort.
Not when production of the key
ingredient in the company’s
chocolate products — including
its Butterfinger and Baby Ruth
bars, Nesquik chocolate milk, Toll
House chocolate chips and hot
cocoa mix — is helping drive
massive deforestation in West
Africa. The suit also claims the
cocoa comes from farms that use
child and slave labor, which
Nestle (sort of) responds to here.
Source

40. Banned for greenwashing > several examples
 For using outdated information to
claim it was the UK’s lowest
emission airline.
 The company claimed that the car was
“zero emissions”, but this was
disputed on the grounds that it came
with the option of a small petrol
engine to maintain its charge and also
that it seemed to claim that by buying
the car, customers would be “giving
back” to the environment.
(Source 2020)

41. Conclude: Niche development
Little systematic attention has been given to the topic of niches
in evolutionary theories of technological change
Schot and Geels, 2007
While novelty may be developed in one niche, its further
diffusion usually depends on a process of invading other
niches, gaining momentum and size (scale up processes), and
through this process it begins to compete with the prevailing
sociotechnical regime
Market niche development. Inventions are applied in market
niches, isolated from mainstream markets.
Technological niche development. Inventions are applied in
technological niches. Technological niches are created by a
coalition of actors to test and develop new technologies with
the aim to develop larger market niches.

42. Entrepreneurship
The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities feeds further
opportunities. First, any change by one entrepreneur alters the
economic environment and provides opportunities for
additional adjustments by other entrepreneurs. Second,
entrepreneurial activity is likely to create wealth and in that way
increases the extent of the market. Third, the creation of market
niches that did not previously exist provides opportunities for
new entrepreneurs to enter and expand this market niche.
Entrepreneurial opportunities come into being because of prior
acts of entrepreneurship (see Metcalfe’s, 2002 > Knowledge of
growth and the growth of knowledge)
Entrepreneurship as evolutionary processes

43. ‘Bill Gates could not have made his fortune had not Steve Jobs
seen the opportunity to build and sell computers, and Steve Jobs
could not have built a personal computer had not Gordon Moore
invented the microprocessor’ (Holcombe, 2007; p. 61).
Entrepreneurship
Evolutionary perspective

44. Action-oriented and highly motivated to take a
risk individuals
Entrepreneurship
is the process of
launching,
developing and
running a business
including the
financial risks
associated with it.

45. Green entrepreneurship
Cooney S. (2008) Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur,
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Croston G.E (2008) 75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a
Difference, Entrepreneur Press, Newburgh.
Wüstenhagen R., Wuebker R. (2011) Handbook of Research on Energy Entrepreneurship.
London: Edward Elgar.
Dumaine B. (2009) The Plot to Save the Planet: How Visionary Entrepreneurs and
Corporate Titans Are Creating Real Solutions to Global Warming, Three Rivers Press, New
York.
Mintzer R. (2009) Start Your Own Green Business: Your Step-by-step Guide to Success,
Entrepreneur Press, Newburgh.
Horwitch M., Mulloth B. (2010) The Interlinking of Entrepreneurs, Grassroots Movements,
Public Policy and Hubs of Innovation: The Rise of Cleantech in New York City. The Journal
of High Technology Management Research, 21(1), 23-30.
Warren L. (2009) “Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 15(3), 315-316.

46. Defining green entrepreneurship?

47. Defining green entrepreneurship
 Green entrepreneurship displays differentiated realities
depending on the countries or sectors considered
Hamdouch and Depret, 2012
 Most leading green clusters/networks are located in advanced
regions of developing countries
 Green entrepreneurship phenomenon relies heavily on the
growing support of funding and investment institutions that
are attracted by the economic potential of innovating projects
in the environmental field (UNEP and Bloomberg New Energy
Finance 2011).
 For example, investments in clean technology (i.e. process,
product, or service that reduces negative environmental
impacts ) have increased rapidly during the last years.

48. If we were to define green entrepreneurship we
would define it like so:
 Green entrepreneurship is the activity of consciously
addressing environmental and social problems (linked to
social entrepreneurship), and coming up with innovative
ideas that will bring a solution to them.
 These ideas have a high level of risk which has a positive
effect on the natural environment while at the same time
it helps maintain financial sustainability (niche market).
Source
Green entrepreneurship is businesses and companies
coming up with solutions that have a worldwide application
that could support the natural environment. At the same
time, they must make sure that the solutions will not have a
negative financial effect on the business.

49. Green entrepreneurship and SDGoals
Adpated from Rashid, 2019

50. Green entrepreneurship and SDGoals
Source
Policy reforms should incentivize the creation of green and circular
enterprises that preserve and protect the environment. A focus on
the informal sector, women and youth needs to be mainstreamed.
Measure 57. Initiatives are also in place to incentivize
entrepreneurship towards innovative green, resilient, circular and
inclusive solutions.

51. Green entrepreneurship and SDGoals
Source
Greater focus on green finance for
micro-, small and medium-sized
enterprises.
Source
Teaching vulnerable youth skills for the
green economy, including in the areas of
renewable energy, ecotourism and
integrated water management.
Establishing at least 10 green start-up
businesses in the country
Jordan
Morrocco
Transition

52. Prospects of a transition to green economy
(Swilling, Musango and Wakeford, 2016)
Sustainability transition is only possible if the politics comes
right, that is, a socio-political regime emerges that aligns the
underlying power configuration of interests within and
outside the political systems with an appropriate sustainability
In East Asia sustainability-oriented innovation was driven
centrally by state-linked development institutions (Angel & Rock, 2009)
In South Africa, for example > the growth of the renewable
energy sector seems to demonstrate that > niche innovations
supported > by global investors coupled to realignments within
the socio-political regimes in response to supply shocks > could
foster a just transition.
Key concept: Governance of transitions

53. Social inequality, poverty and lack of access to modern services
such as sanitation or education in low-income economies >
might be considered more important than global
environmental rationales such as climate change.
Concept of sustainability may be more challenging to
operationalize in practice in less developed countries.
All this implies the need to reconcile the divergent place-
specific views of sustainability for the purpose of stimulating
transitions and a better understanding of governance of
transitions in contested and place-specific settings.
Yet, a central reflection requiring further
research from all of us
(Köhlera, et al 2019)
(Romero-Lankao and Gnatz, 2013)
Economic
geography literature
Political economy
literature
Development studies
literature

54. Examples: combining well-being + ecological
improvements > niche innovation > South-South
Global development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) initiatives (Sengers and Raven 2015)
e.g. India, Southeast Asia, and to some extent Latin America and China.

55. 170 cities in the world with BRT systems (node size
proportional to number of passengers served per day).
Innovation process in the South > becomes global > many others could
occur if institutions function better; finances are in place; politics behave
(Sengers and Raven 2015)

56. Combining
climate protection, climate-change mitigation and
economic recovery measures post pandemic
The European Green Deal:
What do you need to know
(Hainsch, 2020)
Requires a tightening of climate targets for 2030 and the
development of an ambitious climate policy pathway,
replacing the current
“business as usual”
Is a comprehensive set of measures aiming at making
Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050

57. The European Green Deal
Source
Green Deal
Take-home message > make Europe
climate neutral by 2050 (ultimate goal)
The deal’s four pillars
Is a > growth strategy < that aims to transform the EU into
a fair and prosperous society, with a resource-efficient
and competitive economy where there are zero-net
emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050.
It must put people first, and pay attention to the regions,
industries and workers who will face the greatest
challenges.
• carbon mitigation,
• sustainable investments,
• industrial policy and a
• just transition.
Green Deal
assumes a
central role
in EU policy
making
(Claeys et al 2019)

58. Economic geography plays a role
Carbon mitigation Sustainable investment
Industrial policy Just transition > funding
Strengthening the EU emissions
trading system
Subsidies for low-carbon exports and
stricter environmental standards
Green investment should be
promoted by shifting current EU
funds
Support green investment, and by
incentivizing private investment
through regulatory measures
Support for green innovation
New product standards via carbon-
based contracts for difference to
ensure competition between
companies for the most efficient
technologies
Focusing on the possible negative
implications that the transition
could have on specific territories
and economic sectors – given their
reliance on fossil fuels or carbon
intense processes – will be hardest
hit by the transition

59. Source
Dimensions of the Green Deal
EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030
Circular Economy Action Plan
Farm to Fork
Strategy
See also Outlook 2020: knowledge for transition to a sustainable Europe

60. Transition towards green … that easy?
 Firstly, green technologies often require the constitution of a critical mass of
knowledge, multidisciplinary competences and human and managerial
resources that are complex, cumulative and difficult to access.
(Muro et al., 2011)
 Secondly, green business requires also a close coordination among a great
number of heterogeneous and territorially dispersed actors. This
coordination often goes through the formation of interest coalitions, vertical
and horizontal partnerships, inter-organizational networks as well as social
and political networks, clusters > power relations to watch out
The leading clusters/networks are located where the green
entrepreneurs have been able to favour and develop efficient
dynamics of interaction and collaboration among them, and with
entrepreneurs located abroad that hold complementary strategic
resources and competences. (Depret and Hamdouch, 2011)
Key critique: global sustainability transitions?

61.  Thirdly, green business implies huge R&D, production and
commercialization costs (Grübler et al., 1999), notably in energy sectors.
Indeed, investing in green technology is usually more costly than investing
in polluting technologies (Jaffe et al., 2002) because “green entrepreneurs”
must face the problem of “double (environmental and technological)
externality” that environmental innovations bear (Beise & Rennings, 2005).
Is that easy?
 Fourthly, get access to differentiated sources of funding depending on the
evolution stage of their project (Ghosh and Nanda, 2011): public subsidies,
seed capital, public equity and venture capital for the first stages of the
project; savings and banking resources during the further development of
the project.
 Fifthly, green entrepreneurs are also confronted with important risks
(scientific or technological, economic and legal) that render their financial
prospects even more problematic. These risks are susceptible to generate
sunk costs (related to the infrastructure, the maintenance of equipment,
the training of workers, etc.) that may prove to be significant. > there is a
risk that “the winner takes it all” (Grübler et al., 1999)

62. Are consumers ready (to pay)?
 Sixthly, a other obstacle confronting the green entrepreneurs is the fact that
the transition toward a green or carbon-free economy generates different
forms of inertia (Smith et al., 2005) and resistance (stemming from the sectors
that should bear the costs for this transition and from their lobbies) that can
slow or block the development of green markets and, as a consequence,
discourage green entrepreneurship.
Hamdouch and Depret, 2012
 Seventhly, extra-economic barriers relate frequently to administrative or
bureaucratic rules and behavior, especially when these are connected to
political / strategic reasons (national security, sovereignty, geo-strategic
bargaining power, etc.). Equally is important the absence or weakness of
adapted regulations and financial public support to green
entrepreneurship and business development.
Clients’ price-sensitivity and their consent to pay for green
products depend greatly on the changes affecting relative prices
(Crifo et al., 2010), which themselves are influenced by many
exogenous factors > many uncertainties regarding the growth

63. Strengths and weaknesses of the green
entrepreneurship environment in the main countries
engaged in green growth strategies
Hamdouch and Depret, 2012
Key issues: lack of money // lobbies

64. Strengths and weaknesses of the green
entrepreneurship environment in the main countries
engaged in green growth strategies
Hamdouch and Depret, 2012
Grand societal challenge

66. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
Small and Medium-Sized Towns
(Servillo et al, 2017; Dijkstra, Garcilazo &
McCann, 2013; ESPON, 2013)
Prosperous or advanced
urban-regions
(Kemeny & Storper, 2020; Hersperger et al. 2019 ; Fratesi &
Wishlade, 2017)
Low-growth and
low-income regions as in
‘The lagging regions report’
(EU Commission, 2017)
Industrial Transition Entrepreneurship

67. Small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) have long been
overlooked in the urban and economic geography
literature. However, in recent years, scholars have started
to pay attention to these types of urban places. This is in
part due to the fact that recent empirical studies have
shown that in industrialized countries, smaller cities (and
even rural areas) have performed better in terms of
population and economic growth than advanced urban
regions (Dijkstra, Garcilazo, & McCann, 2013; McCann &
Acs, 2011).
Why EEG and Socio-Economic Transformation
of Industrial Towns/Lagging regions

68. What are the drivers hampering or advancing the socio-
spatial and spatial-economic conditions of lagging regions?
How these compare to prosperous urban regions?
To what extent can we use the concepts of regional
determinism – embeddedness in a regional, national and
global structure (Phelps & Ozawa 2003) and territorial
autonomy – independent capacity of regions to develop
their own socio-spatial paths (Servillo et al 2017) to explain
trajectories of socio-economic transformation?
How strategic spatial planning processes – identification
of a coherent long-term vision or a spatial development
strategy (+15 years) (Albrechts et al 2017) can play a role in
defining thriving trajectories of socio-economic
transformation in lagging regions?
Possible research questions from EEG
perspectives

69. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
NUTS3 Typology
based on
prevalence of
type of
settlements (2013)
Spatial focus:
Select. SMSTs
Loris Servillo, Rob
Atkinson, Ian
Smith et al 2013
5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants

70. Lagging regions, SMSTs and local communities
within > still matter to secure cohesive regional
development patterns (McCann & Ortega-Argilés, 2019).
*A number of non anglophone sources concur with this argument
Source of economic and social dynamism
for many prosperous urban regions
(Kemeny and Storper, 2020; Rodríguez-Pose, 2018)*
(Torres de Araujo 2020 Rodrigues Carvalho 2018 Pinilla & Sáez 2017)
Why focus on socio-economic transformation of
industrial town and/or lagging regions?

71. Persistent poverty, economic decay and lack of
opportunities, are the corner stone of
dissatisfaction in declining and lagging regions.
(Rodríguez-Pose, 2018)
Rising of populism and
political radicalization
Growing sense of
regional inequalities
(Lee et al, 2018; Broz et al. 2019)
(Bole et al. 2020; Servillo et al. 2017)
Additional research on how
transformation processes play out
in the organization of the economic
landscape of SMSTs is needed
Why focus on socio-economic transformation of
industrial town and/or lagging regions?

72. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
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021
Rodríguez-Pose & Ketterer, 2020 call for development
strategies and territorial policies capable of successfully
addressing short-term problems as well as of putting
lagging regions on a sustainable development track in
the medium to long term;
Bevilacqua et al. 2020 call for flexible approach in
allocating investment > a more strategic, tailored, place-
sensitive approach to regional development policies.
aimed at improving infrastructure, research & development
and innovation with a greater focus on governance and
institutions.

73. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
Balland, Rigby & Boschma, 2015 underline that multilevel
governance approach – that includes a significant
‘bottom-up’ element supported by multi-sectoral territorial
partnerships – to the analysis of territorial contexts
allows sustaining regional economic agents to adapt
and reconfigure their productive sectors (industrial,
technical, service oriented).
Iammarino et al. 2017 reinforce that comprehensive and
well-crafted, place-sensitive policies are needed not
only to address some of the basic problems of lagging
regions in Europe but also to set the bases for a more
sustainable growth and response to shocks.

74. If we understand better the different socio-economic
development paths/trajectories within local
communities and how they value their distinctive
tangible and intangible amenities, then we will be
better prepared to tailored-to-the-context policies.
(Van Assche et al. 2020; Oliveira, 2016)
If we understand better how local communities in
prosperous regions respond to global forces, we can
craft evidence-based policies supporting socio-
economic transformation of lagging regions.
(Servillo, Atkinson & Russo, 2011)
Hypotheses

75. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
Territorial autonomy
(endogenous development dynamics)
Regional determinism
(exogenous development dynamics)

76. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
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Krzysztofik et al. (2016) have shown that the evolution from
industry to services might be over-simplistic. They acknowledge
that although sometimes there is a clear general shift to services,
but certain regions have different transformation trajectories.
Industrialization neo- / post-industrial Failed tertiarization
Plöger & Kohlhaas-Weber
(2014) have shown that
older industrial regions
were also more resilient to
the recent economic crisis
(endogenous forces).
Mayer & Bole, (2020) argue that old
industrial towns hold certain
socioeconomic capacities rendering
them more resilient to economic and
associated social shocks.
Place-specific understanding of resilience

77. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
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Path dependence
(road maps)
Socio-cultural
embeddedness
(spirit; roots; belonging)
Industrial culture
(tangible/intangible)
van Dyck & Van den Broeck (2013) claim that to understand challenges
and frictions at the community level within lagging regions, we would
need to study industrial towns and their transformations in a place-
sensitive context, taking into account spatial and historical trajectories.
Martin & Sunley
(2006)
Bathelt & Gluckler
(2011)
Harfst, Wust & Nadler
(2018)
Lazzeroni (2019) argues that the development of new visions is important,
but that often emotional aspects, the fragility of the places, but also the
struggles of the actors (population, workers, firms, etc.) often depend on
multi-scalar processes;

78. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Thank you
Questions?
See you 04-05 (Tuesday): Path Development
and Path Dependence, Lock-Ins,
Co-Production and Regional Structural
Change (OLAT / Zoom)