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
4th lecture
04/05/2021

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 Dependence, Lock-Ins, and path creation
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
(Zoom)
> See OLAT for literature <

3. Recap of our 3rd lecture
“Green”
transitions
Governance
Power relations
Go beyond
the North

4. 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.

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. 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
?

8. 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

9. Transition towards green … is that easy?
 Firstly, green technologies require 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 consider seriously
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?

10.  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 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
 Venture capital for the first stages of the project;
 Savings and banking resources during the further development of the
project.

11.  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)
Is that easy?

12. Are consumers ready (and 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
Gherhes et al 2020; Wyrwich et al 2018

13. 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

14. Hamdouch and Depret, 2012
Key issues: Aging of population > maybe more opportunities?
Strengths and weaknesses of the green
entrepreneurship environment in the main countries
engaged in green growth strategies

15. Source 2017
Let’s do a break
 Scheduling when you take breaks or switch tasks encourages
creativity and helps you find more insightful answers to
problems you are solving.

16. Today’s lecture
The place of path dependence in an evolutionary
perspective
 Path dependence
 Lock-Ins
Path creation
 Recap
 Debate

17. The positive sides of geographical clustering of industries, by
emphasizing the positive effects they have on networking and
innovation > negatively affects innovativeness and renewal
Source
Source
Build-up of a local pool of specialised
labour, local knowledge spillovers, the
development of a local inter-firm division
of labour, various traded and ‘untraded’
inter-firm dependencies, and so on.
Martin 2010

18. Path dependence in an evolutionary perspective
The term of path dependence has been attributed to several
economists. Gartland (2005) suggest that Schumpeter was an
innovative researcher in this respect when arguing that
history was one important aspect when studying economics.
Magnusson and Ottosson, 2009
Within the field of technology, path dependence has been
used as a tool of understanding processes of lock-in and
changing technologies. Initially, this was used as alternative
explanations of choices of technology which differed from
standard neoclassical explanations.

19. Path dependence in an evolutionary perspective
Path dependence and lock-in are important notions of
evolutionary economics that have been used by economic
geographers to explain the negative sides of economic
clusters, particularly the decline in old industrial areas
(Boschma and Lambooy, 1999b; Hassink and Shin, 2005a;
Martin and Sunley, 2006).
According to Saxenian (1994, p. 161), ‘spatial clustering alone
does not create mutually beneficial interdependencies. An
industrial system may be geographically agglomerated and
yet have limited capacity for adaption > to change or to
respond to shocks/”unforeseen” events.

20. Geographically concentrated clusters can become insular, inward-
looking systems, as many old industrial areas, both resource based
mono-structural areas, dominated by for instance steel, coal-mining
and shipbuilding industry, and areas specialized in consumer goods
(textile for instance) have shown us (Hamm and Wienert, 1989;
Hudson, 2005).
Examples

21. Frequent across old industrial areas > locked in

22. Lock-in: core concept of the path
dependence

23. Lock-in
(Martin 2009)
Captures the idea that the combination of historical
contingency and the emergence of self-reinforcing
effects, steers a technology, industry or regional
economy along one ‘path’ rather than another. It is
the idea of ‘lock-in’ that does the ‘evolutionary’ work
in the path dependence model.
(Hassink 2010)
e.g. Grabher (1993) emphasized the role of path
dependence and lock-ins as concepts explaining the
lack of renewal in old industrial areas in general
(Grabher’s work focused on Ruhr area in Germany).

24. comprise; enclose; surround; contain; include; lock in; close in; seal
up; pen in; lock; shut up; lock up; put away; lock away; shut away;
seal in.
Lock-in: day to day examples
Writing
Language skills
IT skills
Sporting skills

25. ‘The initial strengths of industrial clusters – their industrial atmosphere,
highly developed and specialized infrastructure, the close interirm linkages,
and strong political support by regional institutions – turned into stubborn
obstacles to innovation’ (the ‘rigid specialization’ trap)
(Grabher, 1993, p. 256).
Regional lock- ins in old industrial areas
Grabher, G. (1993), ‘The weakness of strong ties; the lock- in of regional
development in the Ruhr area’, in G. Grabher (ed.), The Embedded Firm:
On the Socioeconomics of Industrial Networks, London & New York:
Routledge, pp. 255–77.
Grabher (1993) has defined these obstacles as three kinds of lock- in

26. Defining lock-in (Grabher 1993)
 A functional lock-in refers to hierarchical, temporary
relationships, particularly between large enterprises and small
and medium- sized suppliers, which may eliminate the need for
suppliers to develop so-called boundary spanning functions,
such as research and development and marketing.
The lack of these functions hinders suppliers in switching
to new markets in times of a structural crisis.
 The Credit Crisis of 1772.
 The Great Depression of 1929–39.
 The OPEC Oil Price Shock of 1973. ...
 The Asian Crisis of 1997. ...
 The Financial Crisis of 2007–08.
 The COVID-19 related Crisis of 2019/2020/21….
The handbook of evolutionary
economic geography

27. 5 of the World’s Most Devastating Financial Crises
The Great Depression of 1929–39
Lock-ins > not able to advance
--
Look at the past to learn and
overcome crisis/shock/structural
change
--
New concepts/approaches
emerge

28. Strong ‘experimentalism’ e.g. during COVID-19
Acuto et al 2020
Responding to shocks > sustainability
transitions (only example) (Lars Coenen)
Pop-up bike lines Eco-friendly means distribution
Boosting social relations
Reject business as usual Integration across platforms
Job
Market
--
Privacy
--
Democrac
y
--
Ecological
foot print
of online
shopping
Critique
Alternative business models > niche products > innovation

29. Different ways of responding to shocks

30. Defining lock-in (Grabher 1993)
 A cognitive lock-in is regarded as a common world-view or
mindset that might obstruct innovation.
The handbook of evolutionary economic geography
 Closely related to cognitive lock-ins is the notion of political
lock- ins that might come up in a production cluster.
 Political lock-ins are thick institutional tissues aiming at
preserving existing traditional industrial structures and
therefore unnecessarily slowing down industrial restructuring
and indirectly hampering the development of indigenous
potential and creativity

31. Drivers of lock-in situation (Hassink 2010)
Institutional tissues consist both of networks of organizations,
such as political administrations at all spatial levels, trade
unions, large enterprises and business support agencies, and
things that pattern behaviour, such as norms, rules and written
and unwritten laws (or routines).
Why this happens? Incumbent interests
--
Power relations
--
Political radicalism
--
Competition

32. Drivers of lock-in situation (Hassink 2010)
 Large corporations – multinational firms

33. Drivers of lock-in situation (Hassink 2010)
 Large firms might not want to give up sites for the attraction of inward
investment, as they are afraid to lose qualified employees to competitors.
 Local authorities might not see the point of attracting inward investment or
promoting restructuring in another way, as large tax incomes are paid by
traditional industries.
 In some regional production clusters, the spirit of the Schumpeterian
entrepreneur might decline because of increasing industrial concentration
and the domination of large companies.
Political lock- ins
winner takes
it all

34. A regional lock-in refers to a set of interrelated lock-ins that
manifest themselves at the regional level, but are influenced and
affected by both intra-regional and extra- regional factors.
Spatial context: regional lock- ins
Regional lock-ins explain why we can find in
some mature industry clusters
adjustment a lack of renewal
enabling / disabling the cluster to sustain its prosperity
innovation and diversification
cost reduction and copying strategies
(Hassink 2010)

35. Restructuring of a regional economy
Regional lock- ins
Lock-ins hindering of restructuring processes.
Lock-ins > adjustments or renewal > setting up new industries

36.  Mono-structural regional economies with a high degree of
specialization, in particular, are most prone to regional lock- ins
Regional lock-ins and why EEG things about
 They might explain the structural economic problems some
old industrial areas face, as well as the related persistence of
regional economic inequalities in industrialized countries.
 A sound understanding of the emergence of negative lock-ins
might enable geographers to draw policy lessons on how to
avoid their emergence.
(Hassink 2010)
Useful concept to understand the negative
consequences of path-dependent development
and the importance of regions’ capabilities to adjust

37. Regional lock-ins and why EEG things about
(Hassink 2010)
 Industrial mono-structure region (dominant industrial type): e.g. mining
 A specific leading industry: capital- intensive, high entry and exit barriers, above
average company size, oligopolistic market structure, and influential trade unions.
 An institutional tissue at the
regional level, consisting of
local, regional policymakers
 A national-political system,
which enables regional actors
to influence political questions
 Supra-national institutions
that strongly affect the
conditions of industrial policy

38. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
Germany and South Korea
 Economic-structural context and political-institutional context lead to
the following expectations: compared to the textile industry, the
shipbuilding industry clearly is expected to have stronger tendencies
towards regional lock-ins, given its stronger spatial concentration and
mono-structure, high entry and exit barriers because of its capital-
intensive characteristics and its oligopolistic market structure.

39. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
Location of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and
Westmünsterland (Steinfurt
and Borken) in Germany
Location of Gyeongnam and Daegu in
South Korea

40. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
The shipbuilding region of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, Germany
 Regional industrial policy in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern is very much
focused on preserving the existing shipbuilding complex, rather than
focused on developing new products and industries. That is not only
shown by the large amount of subsidies made available for the
shipbuilding industry, it is also shown by the successful lobby of the
consensus group of actors to release the EU capacity limitation and to
sue the South Korean government at the WTO for supposedly illegally
supporting Korean yards
Strong regional lock-in, which can partly be explained by the
clear mono-structure and the lack of alternative industrial
activities and by the specific characteristics of the leading
industry (capital-intensive large enterprises, so only a few main
actors in the region).

41. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
The shipbuilding region of Gyeongnam, South Korea
Korea’s seven main shipbuilding companies have their manufacturing facilities in
the region (including Ulsan and Busan), the largest being in Ulsan (Hyundai Heavy
Industries) and Geoje (Daewoo and Samsung); other large yards can be found in
Ulsan (Hyundai Mipo), Busan (Hanjin) and Jinhae (STX).
The shipbuilding cluster, which mastered the financial crisis in 1998 remarkably
well, is enabling regional growth. However, the growth-enabling lock- in in
Gyeongnam might turn into a constraining one in the future, if external
conditions negatively affect the cluster and at the same time lock-ins hinder the
ability of the cluster to react to the changing conditions.
 Conflicts with the European Union on unfair competition
 The expected cyclical downturn in the industry because of over- capacity
combined with the increasing competitiveness of low-cost shipbuilder China

42. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
The textile region of Westmünsterland, Germany
Because of a strong increase in competition from emerging economies in
East Asia combined with automation and rationalization of the production
process, textile employment decreased by 25 per cent during the 1960s. In
the subsequent 1970s and early 1980s Westmünsterland’s economy hence
suffered from a crisis.
The restructuring process has led to a relatively heterogeneous regional
production structure. Instead of dominating the regional production
structure, the textile industry is now only one of a few large industries.
The remaining textile companies have been successful in re-orientating
themselves towards technical textiles, the high value-added segment of
the textile market.
 Medical technology, the car supplier industry, construction instead of
adjustment through copying and cost reduction.
This region has been going through ‘quiet’ restructuring processes,
which, in turn, led to renewal and a diversification of the production structure

43. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
The textile region of Daegu, South Korea
The high rate of automation in the 1980s brought about problems of
overcapacity and overproduction, which in turn led to financial difficulties in
the textile business. Moreover, textile companies were faced with increasing
competition from low-cost neighbouring countries, China, in particular, and a
shift of Korean producers to China in the 1990s.
Forty years of path-dependent evolution led to specialization in the narrow
low value added and low tech middle stream of the textile value chain
 Daegu’s textile production system is based on hierarchical cost-
cutting and subcontracting networks
 Local clientelism gives rise to passive and captive behaviour of local
entrepreneurs to exogenously imposed conditions for textile
production; they are not interested in improving their learning
capability and act merely as a self- sustaining coalition that resists a
progressive reshaping of the existing industrial structure.

44. Regional lock-ins: examples > Hassink 2010
 The shipbuilding industry clearly has stronger tendencies towards regional lock-
ins, given its stronger spatial concentration and mono-structure, high entry and
exit barriers because of its capital- intensive characteristics and its oligopolistic
market structure.
 The German associative model leads to a stronger involvement of local and
regional actors involved in lock-ins than in the Korean developmental model.
Why the intensity of lock- ins differs >
regional settings, contingent path dependence and context specific factors

45. Escaping regional ‘lock-in’: some possible
scenarios
Lester (2003)

46. Path dependence in an evolutionary perspective
Douglas Puffert listed Thorstein Veblen (1915), Frankel (1955),
Kindleberger (1964) and David (1985) as especially important
scholars in terms of emphasizing early aspects of path
dependence, especially interrelatedness of the technology
and economic history (Puffert, 2003; see also Hodgson, 1998,
on the early influences on path dependence).
Pioneering role of Paul David and Brian Arthur, who were the
first to initiate a discussion of the relevance of path
dependency, in the 1980s and 1990s. They used path
dependence in their original works as a description of lock-in
effects in terms of technology.
Magnusson and Ottosson, 2009

47. Path Dependence by Douglas Puffert, University
of Warwick, UK
Path dependence is the dependence of economic
outcomes on the path of previous outcomes, rather
than simply on current conditions.
In a path dependent process, “history matters” — it
has an enduring influence. Choices made on the basis
of transitory conditions can persist long after those
conditions change. Thus, explanations of the outcomes
of path-dependent processes require looking at history,
rather than simply at current conditions of technology,
preferences, and other factors that determine outcomes.
Magnusson and Ottosson, 2009

48. Path Dependence by Douglas Puffert, University
of Warwick, UK
From small-scale technical standards to large-scale institutions and
patterns of economic development (continued prior practices)
Market share > standard > locked in
or locked out

49. Paul David concluded that our choice of a keyboard is governed
by history, not by what would be ergonomically and
economically optimal apart from history.
Path Dependence
Locked in
Locked out
David’s (1985, 1986)

50. Path dependence in economic geography
 Why do some regions (cities, nations) prosper
while others do not?
 Why is there regional specialization and how are
such patterns reproduced?
 How is the performance and competitiveness of
a firm affected by the conditions that prevail in
its immediate environment?
 Why do similar and related firms tend to
agglomerate in certain places (clusters)?
The importance of spatial proximity between
firms that interact in various ways (competition,
collaboration, transactions) is a key factor here.
Lagerholm and Malmberg, 2009

51. Path dependence in economic geography
The capabilities of a region often date back in history as
combinations of chance events, natural endowments and the
effects of previous human activity. Some specific feature in
the local environment may determine the locational choice
of a firm, but the presence of the firm will also affect this
environment.
Lagerholm and Malmberg, 2009
The ‘evolutionary turn’ in economic geography has assigned particular
theoretical and empirical meaning to the place-specific dimension of
path-dependence processes, with regard to the evolution of the
economic landscape in space and time (Martin and Sunley, 2006).

52. Path Dependence: Key Features and
Problems
 ‘historical accidents’, have significant long-run effects on the technological,
industrial and institutional structure of an economy. This immediately
distances the notion from standard equilibrium economics, where the past
has no influence on outcomes, and the economy is assumed to converge
(typically instantaneously) to a unique equilibrium;
Martin 2009

53. Path Dependence: Key Features and
Problems
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

54. Nature of regional path dependence
 Local industrial evolution would attempt to provide some
explanation of why and how new local industrial and
technological paths emerge where they do
One variant focuses on the spatial
evolution of a given industry across
different locations or regions (Boschma
and Frenken, 2003). (across)
 Klepper’s (2002a,b) studies of the
locational dynamics of the US
automobile industry, and
 Boschma and Wenting’s (2005)
analysis of the spatial evolution of the
automobile sector in the UK.
Why path-dependent
processes within a
given industry emerge
in
certain locations or
regions but fail to
materialize in others;
(across regions)
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

55. Nature of regional path dependence
Another is concerned with the path-
dependent evolution of a particular
industry in a specific region (within)
typically deployed in studies of highly
specialized economic spaces such as
Porter-type business clusters, industrial
districts and high-technology localities:
 Kenney and von Burg’s (2001) account
of the evolution of Silicon Valley, and
 Bathelt and Bogg’s (2003) analysis of
the evolution Liepzig’s media cluster
typify this approach to regional path
dependence.
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).
While some of a region’s
industries, technologies or
institutions may well be path
dependent this does not
necessarily mean that others
will also show the same type
or degree of path-dependent
change (witness the case of
QWERTY and the typewriter,
mentioned above).

56. Possible sources of regional path dependence
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

57. Possible sources of regional path dependence
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).
Geographers have shown how regional path dependence in specialized clusters
also occurs through such mutually reinforcing co-evolution of local economic,
technological and socio-institutional ‘arenas’, as in Kenney and von Burg’s (2001)
study of Silicon Valley’s creation and growth.

59. Final part of today’s lecture
Path creation Co-production
 Path-dependent development in a region may also involve the co-
evolution, or mutually reinforcing interaction, of local and non-local
arenas. Economic agents and developments in one region can thus
shape developments in another, so that the ‘lock-in’ of a particular
path in one region may result in the ‘locking-in’ (or, indeed ‘locking-
out’) of a particular path elsewhere.
This is because
 Diverse economies may have higher rates of firm start-ups as a
consequence of attracting a wider range of entrepreneurial
individuals—and, one might add, offering more scope for the
creation of new markets – creating new paths
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

60. Path creation
How do technological, industrial and regional paths come into being?
Typically, these events are described as being
‘chance’, ‘serendipitous’ or simply as
‘historical accidents’.
1st: Paths originate in purely or mostly random events
Krugman (1991, 2001) has also argued that the process of
industrialization in the United States has been characterized by small
accidents that have led, via processes of localized increasing returns
and cumulative causation, to the establishment of persistent centres of
production
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

61. Some evolutionary economic geographers have proposed a second
account of industry emergence and path formation in the economic
landscape, termed a ‘window of locational opportunity approach’.
Storper (1995) argues that new technologies begin as generic assets and
then only subsequently evolve into specific assets.
To break with path dependence and create new growth paths, regions
will have to rely more on knowledge and resources residing in other
regions. Hence, the presence of multinationals, the immigration of
entrepreneurs, and a targeted government policy are all elements that
come into play in explaining new path creation (Binz et al., 2013;
Dawley, 2014; Neffke et al., 2017).
Path creation
How do technological, industrial and regional paths come into being?
(Martin and Sunley, 2006).

62. New green industries through path
creation implies the rise of totally
new green industries.
 Path creation often rests on
academic spin-offs and new green
firm formation.
 Examples of such processes include
the formation of the photovoltaic
industry in Norway and Germany
(Dewald and Truffer, 2012).
Path creation: for example Trippl et al 2020

63. Path creation (also referred to as new path
development)
Trippl et al 2020
New paths are created by knowledgeable
inventors and innovators who mindfully
deviate from past practices and engage in
the introduction and diffusion of new
technologies.
Institutional entrepreneurship (Battilana et
al., 2009; DiMaggio, 1988) to explain how
institutional change processes, which are
often necessary for new path development,
take place (Boschma, 2017; Boschma et al.,
2017).
Role of entrepreneurs

64. Recap: Three major theoretical frameworks for
evolutionary economic geography
The handbook of evolutionary economic geography

65. Recap: Phases of economic evolution of an
industry or technology
Path creation varies both in terms of whether past
trajectories are enabling or constraining and in
terms of whether origins are intended and
deliberate or accidental.
we should not
underestimate the role of
purposeful, deliberate
and strategic action

66. Recap: Varieties of path creation
The handbook of evolutionary economic geography
There is much evidence that local conditions continue to be important to processes of
firm spinoff and to the emergence of radically new technological and innovation
trajectories. While there is undoubtedly an unpredictable and uncertain dimension to
path creation, this should not be exaggerated so as to completely obscure the
deliberate selection of promising entrepreneurial ideas and the creative deployment
of preexisting resources, ideas and relationships.

68. 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)
Socio-Economic Transformation of Industrial
Towns/Lagging regions

69. 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

70. 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

71. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
Low-growth regions
Experienced a persistent lack
of growth. They are less-
developed or transition regions
(regions with a GDP per head up
to 90% of the EU average) that
did not converge to the EU
average between 2000 - 2013.
Source; EU Commission, 2017
≈ 83 million inhabitants
Low-income regions
Remain far below the EU
average GDP per capita. They
cover all regions with a GDP per
head below 50% of the EU
average in 2013.

72. 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

73. 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?

74. 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?

75. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
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.

76. 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.

77. 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

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

79. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
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

80. Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
021
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;

81. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Thank you
Questions?
See you 06-05 (Thursday): Resilience
Thinking and Resilience Strategies in a
Spatial Context, Economic Dynamics along
the Urban-Rural Gradient (OLAT / Zoom)