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
7th lecture
18/05/2021

2. 5) 06-05: Recap > Path creation > Resilience Thinking and
Strategies focused on Urban-Rural areas
6) 11-05: Recap > Constructing Regional Advantage, Related
and Unrelated Variety (google drive for recordings)
7) 18-05: Recap with examples > Place-Based approach, the
Entrepreneurial Region
8) 20-05: Strategic Thinking in Regional Development, Strategic
Spatial Planning and Regional Attractiveness Strategies
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
OLAT

3.  CRA is a theoretical concept impacting regional
development policies related to transition to the
knowledge based economy (exchanges with
traditional economic activities).
 The key notions of related / unrelated variety within
knowledge bases enable to understand the
knowledge flows between industries in the
innovation processes (across territories e.g. regions).
 Based on these flows > we can observe the shift to
endogenous regional policy based on innovation and
knowledge > place-based & smart specialization.
Recap
Constructing Regional Advantage (CRA)

4.  Knowledge tends to accumulate mainly at the firm
level >the more diversified a regional economy is >
the higher regional growth/processes of innovation.
 Knowledge spills over more intensively when regions
are endowed/equipped with related industries that
share a common knowledge base.
Recap
Constructing Regional Advantage (CRA)
This makes regional economies to diversify into new
directions and start up new growth paths (path
creation), ideally for long-term regional development…
However,

5.  Knowledge creation and knowledge spillovers alone
will not lead to innovation.
 Regions require a critical mass of organizations that
provide necessary inputs to the innovation process,
such as knowledge (institutions), skills and capital.
 Organizations need to connect and interact, to enable
flows of knowledge, capital and labor force.
Identify regional potentials
and
bottlenecks accordingly
To avoid/overcome regional lock-in,
it is crucial that public policy is
open to newcomers and
new policy experiments.
Recap
Constructing Regional Advantage (CRA)

6. Recap
Constructing Regional Advantage (CRA)
Experimentalism
Territorial thinking
Innovation policies Assets/narratives

7. Recap
I shared one example from N. Portugal-Galicia
Oliveira 2015
Sciences
&
textile
Agro-food
&
health
Constructing Regional Cross-Border Advantage
Flows/cooperation
Regional
development
implications
Regional
identity
Regional
Positioning

8. Recap
This examples will be from Euro-region NPT-Galicia

9. Evolutionary Economic Geography

10. Constructing Regional (cross border) Advantage
Northern Portugal – Galicia (NW Spain)
Examples
https://earth.google.com/web/@0,0,0a,22251752.77375655d,35y,0h,0t,0r
Goal of this slide
 Geographical illustration
of the case study area
 Porto
 Braga
 Hinterland
 Atlantic Area
 Vigo
 Santiago de
Compostela
 A Coruña

11. Bear in mind that there are multiple
Exchanges/ knowledge flows beyond economic landscape
 Cross border urban system
Source

12. CRA > knowledge flows > policy platforms
Common urban systems Unified tourism destination

13. Cross-border tourism (example)
 Role in regional
development
 Socioeconomic
support at local

14. Cross-border tourism (example)
 Improvements
 Collective
services
 Information

15. Cross-border tourism (example)
Additional info

16. Evolutionary Economic Geography

17. Related and unrelated variety: Industry and R & D
https://earth.google.com/web/@0,0,0a,22251752.77375655d,35y,0h,0t,0r
Goal of this slide
 Geographical illustration
of the case study area
 INL (PT/Galicia)
 Citeve (PT)
 CeNTI (PT)

18. Related and unrelated variety
Wines
Sea economy
Textile
Textile
Food
Fish
farming

19. Related and unrelated variety: support by R &D
The INL International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory,
located in Braga (North of Portugal)
Portuguese Textile Cluster (CITEVE)
Knowledge
flows

20. Related and unrelated variety
Knowledge
flows

21. Focused on regional potential (key strategic areas)
Heart of CRA > boosting/taking advantaged of
regional/local assets

22. Renewal process of traditional sectors
Traditional know-how on textile > technical textile
Supply
Market/
respond to
demand

23. Path creation > regional advantage
Innovate industry

24. Path creation > regional advantage
Supply industry

25. Examples
https://www.ertgrupo.com/en/

26. Examples
https://www.lavoroeurope.com/safetyshoes/home

27. Examples
https://www.nomadtech.pt/

28. Evolutionary Economic Geography

29. Related and unrelated variety
The INL International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory

30. Related and unrelated variety
Source
This project will contribute to the
competitiveness of microalgae-based
industry in the Atlantic Area through
the transfer of technological and
economic expertise to the commercial
sector.
The Nanovalor Project’s mission is the
consolidation of institutional links
between the key actors in the field of
Nanotechnology in the North of
Portugal-Galicia Euroregion through the
creation of a competitiveness pole
(next slide)

31.  The focus of the project is the aquatic ecosystems related to aquaculture
(breeding, raising, and harvesting fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants.), a sector
of high economic relevance in the Atlantic Area, and specifically organisms used
for human consumption (cultured fish, mollusks, seaweed, sea urchins, etc.).
 The collaboration of all the participating centres is essential
to ensure a wide range of industrial (aquaculture
professionals) and scientific profiles (analytical chemists,
physical chemists, molecular biologists), as well as providing
infrastructure to run the analysis and deliver real samples.
http://nanoculture.ciimar.up.pt/
NANOCULTURE will investigate the effects of engineered nanoparticles on
aquaculture products, their bioaccumulation, and assess its impact on humans

32. Related variety > sea-based research >
fish farming industry
Stolt Sea Farm, La Coruña
source
From R & D
To
Productions
Distribution
Consumption
certification

33. Part of cross-border development strategies
Source
Source
Source

34. Evolutionary Economic Geography

35. The Barca Report, An Agenda for
a Reformed Cohesion Policy
(2009), firmly put place-based
policy at the heart of the
European agenda and elevated
place-based policy on the global
stage.

36. Place-Based development approach
Source
Source
(Barca report, 2009)
2020

37. Definition: Place-Based
Is a policy concept
Paradigm of regional (development) policy
Its objective is to reduce persistent inefficiency >
underutilisation of resources resulting in income below
potential in both the short and long-run and persistent
social exclusion > primarily, an excessive number of
people below a given standard in terms of income and
other features of well-being > in specific places
Overall goal is to support income generation (e.g.
employability) distribution, reinforcing
quality of life and well being
Source

38. Why a place-based approach?
A place/region can be trapped in a vicious circle of
inefficiency or social exclusion because the appropriate
economic institutions intentionally fail to be chosen by
local elites (that being against their interests), or because
the less a place has effective institutions, the less likely it
is to have them in the future (path dependency).
The goods and services concerned need to be tailored to
places by prompting and aggregating local preferences
and knowledge and by taking account of linkages with
other places.
Territorial dimension of cohesion is particularly relevant.
Source

39. Why a place-based approach?
Raising the quality of services can directly affect the
productivity of business investment and the quality of
life of those living in an area, which can influence
inflows and outflows of skilled labour and innovators
Source

40. Why a place-based approach?
 The process of improving public goods and services in
a place creates the context for changing institutions
and encourages the commitment of people necessary
to do this. The provision of public goods and services
reduces uncertainty and helps to provide a focal point
around which coordination and cooperation are more
likely to take place.
Source

41. Why a place-based approach?
 Public goods and services can promote
entrepreneurship and innovation by providing “real
services” to small firms – by improving the business
environment through facilitating access to external
markets, managerial training, ensuring technical
standards and access to credit and so on.
Source

42. Source
The rationale for place-based
interventions
Local knowledge is needed to determine the institutions for a
particular place. Since institutions capable of supporting a
“healthy, sustainable market-based system” are “highly specific to
local conditions” and “contain a high degree of tacitness”
Place-based approach aggregates knowledge with global
knowledge (the routines and engineering know-how embodied in
the provision of any public good or service).

43. Summary: What Is Place-based Policy?
 Place-based policies are one way that governments and
institutions look to respond to economic and social challenges,
bringing together a package of measures that seek to meet
regional needs in their totality.
 Place-based policies embody an philosophy about, and an
approach to, the development of economies and society that
acknowledges that the
 Spatial context of each and every city, region and rural
district offers opportunities for advancing well-being.
 It advocates for a development approach tailored to local needs.
 There is also a growing movement towards place-focused
industry policies.

44. Summary: Place-based core elements
Specifically
 Improving service
provision
 Water supply
 Broadband access
 Improving
infrastructures
 Roads
 Train systems
 etc
 Facilitating
administrative
procedures
 Attract labour
 Attract investment
 Startup creation

45. Summary: Place-based core elements
Place-neutral
Whilst place-neutral advocates promote the role of aspatial
‘people-based’ policies > place-based approaches highlight
the importance of the :::interactions between place-based
communities:::, institutions and geography, which requires
researchers and policy-makers ‘to explicitly consider the
specifics of the local and wider regional context’
Assets
of the local
Place-based

46. Summary: Place-based core elements
Source
Place-neutral Place-based

47. Place-based policies: examples
Source

48. Place-based policies: examples
The Cluster Offensive Bavaria
initiative (the “initiative”)
includes regional platforms in
high-tech industries and
traditional key branches of the
Bavarian economy;
 to strengthen the entire
value chain from research
to final product;
 to promote
competitiveness through
cooperation;
 to implement research
results into new products
and services; and
 to increase innovation
dynamics
Place-based
Source/
CoR_Industry

49. Place-based policies: examples
The initiative is structured around
17 cluster platforms covering:
https://www.cluster-bayern.de/
Draws on
economic
strengths in
the region
Regional
advantage
supporting
dialogue and
networking
between cluster
stakeholders
sharing information
on market trends,
research,
technology and
funding
opportunities

50. Place-based policies: examples
Source
 Place-based approach
requires a lot of efforts
for negotiation,
compromises and
managing trade offs
among the engaged
partners;
 To reach alignment of
different policies and
interests
Several case studies

51. Place-based policies: examples
Source
 The Handbook of Sustainable
Urban Development Strategies
aims to develop methodological
support to augment knowledge
on how to implement integrated
and place-based urban
strategies under cohesion
policy
 Having an explicit territorial
focus means that needs,
challenges and opportunities
for development must match
the appropriate spatial scale
and territorial context
Place-based

52. Place-based policies: examples > Australia
‘Support civic engagement
Place-based approaches focus our effort and intention on communities and their strengths.
By working in place, we can:
 unlock the knowledge and passion of local people
 provide a meaningful forum for local agency
 enable communities to apply their skills and knowledge and have a sense of ownership
over the decisions that are made
 build community connectedness and resilience.’
Victorian Government
Source

53. Place-based policies: entrepreneurship
European Green Deal mobilises
systemic innovation, where new
solutions emerge from the
combination of technologies,
infrastructure, skills,
entrepreneurship, and local
administrative capacity.
Source
The design of policy actions and
interventions focuses on the
fostering of local bottom-up
entrepreneurial discovery
processes aimed at promoting
diversification in and around
domains in which a locality already
has significant potential
Place-based innovation
Entrepreneurial region
Place-based innovation policies are policies
that promote entrepreneurship development
with region-specific challenges in mind.

54. Evolutionary Economic Geography

55. Entrepreneurial Region: key
Regional grow due new firms.
 Entrepreneurship-led growth is the supposition that entrepreneurship can be stimulated
at the regional level by policy intervention:
 Place-based innovation policies > intended to foster entrepreneurship
 Build an entrepreneurial ecosystem with context-specific policy objectives in
mind.
 Support local institutions in their efforts to address community needs. Often,
local institutions providing a sense of ‘place’ and services for entrepreneurship
help to create more opportunities for entrepreneurs to build a network.
 Have shown to be especially impactful in smaller, rural and peripheral cities
that do not presently have an established entrepreneurial hub. Given its
bottom-up approach, place-based policies can better address the economic
development needs of such communities.
Entrepreneurial region Source.

56. Entrepreneurial Region: key
Silicon Valley is often seen as the architype of success because of its sheer scale and the
technological diversity of its activity. It remains unique. It is the home of companies e.g.
Google, Apple, Facebook and so on > with total revenues equivalent to some countries’
GDPs.
OLAT (Lecture H_18-05 - Lect. 7)
Between San Francisco
and San Jose – has been
the world’s premier
high-tech hotspot for
innovation and
entrepreneurship.
It houses more startups
than any other region
on the globe.

57. Entrepreneurial Region: definition
 Are defined by their increasingly high levels of entrepreneurship and innovation, and as
regions with outstanding entrepreneurial visions (EU, 2013). To be more than this, they
must also be where coordinated entrepreneurial activity, designed to put those visions
into practice, takes place.
 In such regions (and smaller places such as city-regions), it is presupposed that a
necessary condition for growth is a commitment by local triple helix actors –
universities, industry and government – to work together (Etzkowitz & Klofsten, 2005).

58. Entrepreneurial Region: definition
The three defining elements of the entrepreneurial region concept.
skills, knowledge,
physical
infrastructure,
finance and
networks
the process by which a
collective vision of the
elements which need to work
together to support the
trajectory of growth
the willingness of
assumed stakeholders to
put that vision into
practice through
coordinated activity
Agency of universities
and the extent to which
they become directly
involved in local
economic development
as regional innovation
organizers (Etzkowitz &
Klofsten, 2005).

59. Entrepreneurial Region: example
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL REGION
Path development and
technological catch-up
In regions on the knowledge
periphery
The conceptual framework emphasizes
the fundamental role of extra-regional
scientific and technological knowledge
for promoting structural change in the
economy in regions located on the
knowledge periphery
Source

60. Entrepreneurial Region: example
The Case of Ruta N Medellín
Medellín has since the early 2000s transformed itself
into an “urban miracle” (Brodzinsky, 2014;
Fukuyama & Colby; Maclean, 2014; Romero, 2007).
For The Guardian, Medellín has transformed “from
murder capital to model city” (Brodzinsky, 2014).
For the New York Times, “Medellín’s Nonconformist
Mayor Turns Blight to Beauty” (Romero, 2007).
Medellín has greatly integrated itself in
the global economy. Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) increased by tenfold
between 2002 and 2009 and Medellín
became one of the top Latin American
cities for doing business (Moncoda,
2016).

61. Entrepreneurial Region
 The Entrepreneurial Region is not the ‘magic potion’ for regional economic
development, but it provides some interesting policy concepts for
policymakers to experiment with.
 The success of its implementation depends on regional actors’ capabilities,
willingness, and legitimacy to carry out regional economic development and
structural change.
 In many countries, it will require national governments to devolve additional
powers to regional governments to design and implement their Science,
Technology, and Innovation Plans and support them to act more
entrepreneurial.
Neo regionalism Neo municipalism

62. Entrepreneurial Region
 Regions in the Global South often lack the institutional, financial, and/or
technological capabilities to foster new regional technological trajectories,
and thus promote the technological catching-up process.

 Due to their entrepreneurial nature, regional innovation agencies (RIAs)
have the flexibility, the independence from political influences, the
managerial autonomy—particularly regarding personnel and financial
management—and the institutional capabilities that can substitute a
weak regional innovation system in order to strengthen it.
 Due to their flexibility and legitimacy to design and implement place-based
policies, regional innovation agencies have more leeway to break
evolutionary mechanisms and promote regional economic development than
traditional intermediary organizations

63. Evolutionary Economic Geography

64. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Thank you
Questions?
See you 20-05: Strategic Thinking in Regional
Development, Strategic Spatial Planning and
Regional Attractiveness Strategies (OLAT /
Zoom)
Evolutionary Economic Geography