Progress in Economic Geography最新文献

Planetary boundaries set the limits within which human societies can operate and thrive. Given that planetary boundaries are severely being exceeded at the moment due to anthropogenic activities, while human development is fundamentally dependent on the state of the environment, we argue that the research agenda within economic geography needs to be reconsidered with this in mind. In light of this, we offer several constructive ways forward for economic geography.

This paper investigates different enterprise types as potential agents of transformative change in the wood-processing industry. To do so, it combines the concept of transformative enterprise with recent accounts of agency in evolutionary economic geography. We examine small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the wood-processing industry because by using a renewable resource that stores CO₂ and has the potential to replace polluting materials, they could become frontrunners in sustainability transformations through a wood-based bioeconomy. Empirically, we draw on a qualitative case study with 24 wood-processing SMEs in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. Based on the concept of transformative enterprise, we identify five enterprise types: silent ecologists, social pioneers, visionary nonconformists, ambitious entrepreneurs, and pragmatist traditionalists. The first four types show many characteristics indicating transformative firm-level agency while only the ambitious entrepreneurs seem capable of inducing changes at the system-level. This is due to several limits of change agency, which we also illuminate. Overall, our study sheds light on the heterogeneity of firms as change agents in the context of sustainability transformation.

It is often assumed that crises are important catalysts for structural change. In this vein, ‘build back better’ programs are sought to tackle acute crisis and, at the same time, catalyze paths towards less carbon-intense production and consumption. However, little is known about how crises affect ongoing decarbonization efforts in different industry sectors and how this might differ in a variety of regional contexts. The building sector has been identified as one of the largest global contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption. That is why a faster uptake of low-carbon building materials such as green cement and wood is a key goal. Based on a qualitative content analysis, which includes expert interviews, this paper traces the uptake of low carbon products in the building materials industry in the Lower Austrian region. To better understand the regional decarbonization pathway and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, this paper explores key events, processes and related stakeholders that may accelerate or decelerate the dynamics of regional decarbonization pathways. The analysis shows that the industry’s decarbonization efforts have continued, but no significant catalysing effects from the crisis could be identified.

Research on the geography of innovation (GeoInno) has become a well-established scientific field, including heterogeneous but complementary theoretical approaches. We reflect upon its evolution in light of an emerging “normative” turn in innovation and regional policy, which is challenging established approaches and providing opportunities for developing new ones. In this discussion paper, we explore how an imminent normative turn impacts three foundational notions of the field: innovation, institutions, and well-being, and then outline three research avenues that would allow GeoInno research to address them in a broadened and policy-relevant manner.

This paper develops a multilayer statistical model to examine geographical patterns of different types of interregional flows within the European Union (EU). The results first reveal the success story of the EU regarding the goal of territorial cohesion in the flow of people. Next, they capture a differential level of each type of interregional flows contribution to the overall market, where flows of capital prevail and knowledge flows lag. The analysis also reveals a diversified degree of cohesion in the interregional flows market describing Germany, the United Kingdom, the “blue banana” regions, the Central and West Europe’s coastal regions, and the East Europe’s regions. Although the EU’s path to regional development looks in the right direction, there is evidence that “borders still matter”, equipping economic geographers and policymakers with an instrumented approach for modeling and evaluating the integration of spatial economies.

This study contributes to understanding the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems by examining changes in industry composition and business locations within a specific ecosystem from its inception to 2020. Using longitudinal data from Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, we investigate shifts in industries within the region and the location decisions of individual entrepreneurs within the city. By integrating these factors, we assess whether the ecosystem consists of distinct, industry-specific sub-ecosystems. Our findings highlight the significant role played by the 'social media and advertising' sector in shaping the ecosystem. Furthermore, we identify a trend of entrepreneurs clustering their businesses in a concentrated area within the city, suggesting enhanced communication and collaboration among entrepreneurs across different industries. However, we note an exception in the 'digital health and medical technologies' industry, where proximity to research institutions, multinational corporations, and hospitals holds greater significance than proximity to entrepreneurs from other sectors.

Economic Geography is a (very) diverse field. To some, this pluralism is, or has been, worrying. In this paper, we however track the discussion about Economic Geography as a field that would gain much from ‘engaged pluralism’. We argue that this requires some agreement on the central role of ‘geography’ and ‘the economic’ in economic geography, but also a catalog of ‘boundary concepts’. We discuss four candidates: (1) crisis and resilience, (2) innovation and diffusion, (3) path dependence and (4) sustainability. We believe that the idea of ‘trading zones’ in economic geography has the potential to modify disciplinary practice and solve some of the tensions between increasing research focus and specialization, and the mounting complexity of contemporary societal issues. We think that the presence of vivid trading zones under conditions of pluralism would make our discipline even more interesting, dynamic, and, we would say, fun.

Over the last years, economic geography has witnessed a growing interest in the role of imaginaries, narratives, visions, and similar ideational concepts. This article sketches the contours of what might be seen as an emerging ideational turn in economic geography by discussing how ideational concepts have been retheorized and applied in the field. The article elaborates on open questions about the state of research on ideational concepts in economic geography and related fields and lays out avenues for future research that an ideational turn could enable.

The national blue economic system is a complex system formed by the correlation of different agents, such as related blue industries, blue products, blue firms and blue provinces in a country. Its essence can be regarded as a complex system formed by the interconnection of a variety of heterogeneous networks. The supernetwork is an important method for studying such multilevel, multidimensional and multiagent correlation problems in network science. This method can effectively assess the intra- and interrelationships of each element entity. This paper incorporates the multielement entities in the national blue economic system into this multilayer network framework for systematic analysis and decomposes the development issue of the blue economy into the development issues of blue industries, blue products, blue firms and blue provinces. On this basis, this paper analyzes the conceptual model of the national blue economic system space, qualitatively describes the intra- and interexport relationships among multifactor entities in national blue economic development from the perspective of the multilayer network, and expounds the modeling principle of the national blue economic system space. This supernetwork approach provides effective new methods and tools for countries to study the development of the blue economy and formulate corresponding policies to achieve blue growth.

In this short paper, we introduce sequence analysis methods to economic geography. Sequence analysis is a rich set of research methods that is widely used to analyze temporal variance in several disciplines in the social sciences, including sociology, demography and employment research. However, the toolbox of sequence methods has yet to gain significant attention among economic geographers. Sequence analysis methods can be used to analyze and understand patterns and structures of various phenomena over time. It employs mathematical and statistical techniques to study the sequential order, duration, and transitions between temporal conditions. We argue that sequence analysis holds great potential for advancing research in (evolutionary) economic geography. In the paper, we explain how to use sequence analysis, we ponder on empirical applications for research in economic geography, and we demonstrate its applicability in a use case. We also provide a reproducible R script and manual for the use case in the online appendix.