Makes correlations between success and geography, explaining how such rising centers of innovation as San Francisco and Austin are likely to offer influential opportunities and shape the national and global economies in positive or detrimental ways.

Drawing on the theoretical resources of institutional economics, The New Industrial Geography opens new perspectives in economic geography. In its focus on historical and geographical context, institutional embeddedness, and tacit rules and formal regulations, institutional economics is shown to be the perfect basis for understanding the profound economic and geographical changes of the last two decades, and on which also to build a new kind of industrial geography. Issues covered include: the retheorization of the geography of industrial districts; the analysis of institutional 'thickness', and the economic-geographical effects of institutional rigidity and sclerosis; the economic-geographical consequences of new regulatory bodies and policies; and the geographically situated character of institutions and regulatory frameworks, and the effects of separating them from their originating context; the development of new strategies for achieving more equitable forms of regional development.

This title provides an overall view of industrial geography in the context of contemporary China and investigates the development processes, research paradigms, and achievements of China’s industrial geography, with a particular focus on the post- reform period. The first two chapters introduce the overall background of industrialization and evolving policies of industrial geography in contemporary China. Based on sweeping literature reviews, empirical data analysis, and case studies, the author then examines key aspects of industrial geography and geographical patterns, dynamics, and the impact of industrial development. The following topics are discussed in detail: the geographical distribution and agglomeration of industries; national industrial parks; urbanization and industrialization; regional evolution of industries and interregional networks; firms and industrial organizations; exports, foreign investment, and trade; labour migration; land supply; industrial innovation; environmental issues and regulations; and industrial planning. In providing a full picture of the industrial geography of contemporary China, the title will be an essential reference for scholars and students studying economic geography, industrial geography, and the industrial and economic development of the People’s Republic of China.

Recent years have seen a lively debate over the role of tacit knowledge and interactive learning in privileging the local over the global. Yet, our continuing inability to answer questions such as 'when and why is the local important in production and innovation processes?' indicates that our understanding of the firm and the forces that shape its managers' choices remains weak. Such a theory ought to be able to answer fundamental questions like: why do firms in particular places adopt particular production and innovation practices, and not others? What forces determine what a firm 'knows' and when it is able to act upon this knowledge? How easy is it to transfer this knowledge between places? This book presents a new conception of industrial practice and firm behaviour. It explains how the cultures that shape the practices of firms and the trajectories of regional and national economies are actually produced. The analysis shows how the internal and inter-firm organization of production, use of technologies, and the industrial knowledge underpinning these practices are strongly influenced by their social and institutional context. Routine forms of behaviour are not simply inherited from past practice. Instead, they are shaped and constrained - though not wholly determined - by a set of institutions that govern how work is organized, workers are deployed, and technology is implemented. Because of the slowly evolving nature of these institutions, distinctive national 'models' are not converging around a single global norm.

This book focuses on the theme of the mutually constitutive relations between geographic space and the economic order. Three principle lines of investigation are identified and explored. First, Allen J. Scott sketches out the general theory of the division of labour and the ways in which it is reflected in geographic patterns of specialization and interaction. He examines, in particular, the role of the division of labour in the formation of large-scale agglomerations of economic activity and the ways in which their internal and external relationships are played out. Second, he considers the structure of geographic space as a fountainhead of creativity, learning, and innovation. A theory of the creative field is presented, and its application to the investigation of entrepreneurship, technological change, and the dynamics of the cultural economy is considered. Third, he offers an account of the regional question in less developed parts of the world. Here, he recovers some of the arguments of high development theory and shows how they can be revitalized in the light of a specifically geographic approach. These three lines of investigation are, of course, tightly intertwined with one another. The argument in general demonstrates that geographic space is not just an inert dimension in which the economy unfolds, but plays an active role in the eventuation of economic outcomes. This state of affairs raises many difficult policy questions about growth and development in both more and less economically advanced countries. Some of the more important of these questions are also broached in the book.

The authors show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on the spatial aspects of the economy—that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools—in particular, modeling techniques developed to analyze industrial organization, international trade, and economic growth—this "new economic geography" has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary economics. The authors show how seemingly disparate models reflect a few basic themes, and in so doing they develop a common "grammar" for discussing a variety of issues. They show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. This book is the first to provide a sound and unified explanation of the existence of large economic agglomerations at various spatial scales.

The first fifteen years of the 21st century have thrown into sharp relief the challenges of growth, equity, stability, and sustainability facing the world economy. In addition, they have exposed the inadequacies of mainstream economics in providing answers to these challenges. This volume gathers over 50 leading scholars from around the world to offer a forward-looking perspective of economic geography to understanding the various building blocks, relationships, and trajectories in the world economy. The perspective is at the same time grounded in theory and in the experiences of particular places. Reviewing state-of-the-art of economic geography, setting agendas, and with illustrations and empirical evidence from all over the world, the book should be an essential reference for students, researchers, as well as strategists and policy makers. Building on the success of the first edition, this volume offers a radically revised, updated, and broader approach to economic geography. With the backdrop of the global financial crisis, finance is investigated in chapters on financial stability, financial innovation, global financial networks, the global map of savings and investments, and financialization. Environmental challenges are addressed in chapters on resource economies, vulnerability of regions to climate change, carbon markets, and energy transitions. Distribution and consumption feature alongside more established topics on the firm, innovation, and work. The handbook also captures the theoretical and conceptual innovations of the last fifteen years, including evolutionary economic geography and the global production networks approach. Addressing the dangers of inequality, instability, and environmental crisis head-on, the volume concludes with strategies for growth and new ways of envisioning the spatiality of economy for the future.