Regionalisation of Globalised Innovation Locations for Advanced Industrial Development and Disparities in Participation

In recent years there has been growing discussion about the role that regions play in global processes of innovation and advanced economic activity. Regions have come to be seen as actors, searching for enterprises, investments and new firms. The move towards globalisation and networking has also intensified both the regional concentration in the advanced industrialised countries of Europe and in the US and the orientation of these locations towards global networks. While processes of innovation are increasingly realised globally, they can also take a highly regionalised expression. This book sets the global networks that link regions against the the local aspects of innovation in order to show how and why this happens. With contributions from international experts based on a rich source of research data, the book examines local 'Islands of Innovation' where research and industrial expertise are concentrated, along with areas where traditional industrial regions have passed through a process of innovative restructuring. There is also a discussion of the innovative development of old industrial regions and the centripetal forces of networking innovation in Europe against a peripherisation of both southern and eastern central European countries. The critical role of government policies and the different paths for innovation is highlighted in order to develop an understanding of the opportunities for old and traditional regions and for peripheral regions. This book will be essential in our understanding of current processes and their roots in earlier periods of development. It also shows how innovation and advanced industrial development are not merely economic processes by considering non-economic conditions in government and society.Hilpert, Ulrich is the author of 'Regionalisation of Globalised Innovation Locations for Advanced Industrial Development and Disparities in Participation' with ISBN 9780415217309 and ISBN 041521730X.