Getting the territory wrong: the dark side of development corridors

ABSTRACT Development corridors bring transport infrastructure together with regulatory reforms and other measures to produce regions that are functional in the sense that they can plug into global value chains. They promise regional development by ‘getting the territory right’. Yet, numerous studies show that the outcomes are mixed. Some corridors are marked by serious shortcomings. Contributing to our understanding of the dark side of corridors, this research note outlines how corridors may fail to meet economic goals, give rise to disarticulations, suffer from institutional deficiencies, and have environmental and social shortcomings. Instead of trying to get the territory right in a top-down manner, bottom-up approaches to development ought to receive more attention.