The knowledge economy appears to be problematic for old industrial regions, as lock-in and restructuring remove assets for innovation from their territories, as well as for the kinds of policy which can stimulate their economies. In this paper we explore whether universities can provide points...

Science policy in England is determined within a governance system in which regional interests and perspectives are over-looked in favour of short term national excellence. Regional policies and the creation of the new Regional Development Agenciesboth are critically dependent on central...

In this paper, we examine how devolution has affected local sustainable development. We focus on attempting to gauge how devolution will affect the promotion of sustainable development in the English regions through an analysis of the changes to date in Scotland, Wales and London. This...

The English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were established in April 1999 as part of the wider package of devolution measures. One of the first tasks undertaken by the RDAs was the preparation of Region al Economic Strategies (RESs). These strategies were intended to be a means of securing...

The Siemens plant in North Tyneside, England gave the pretext for a range of local agencies to act together, to modernise part of the regional institutional infrastructure. This improvement meant that when the investment closed, and technological, organisational and skill modernisation by the...

Universities are important players in the global development of knowledge economy, alongside being significant contributors to the economic development of their host cities. They are both significant knowledge enterprises and the suppliers of the human and intellectual capital on which the...

This paper explores whether entrepreneurship can help less successful regions to improve their regional economic situation, without all the benefits that entrepreneurship brings when being ‘stripped out’ to more successful regions. The paper uses the idea that peripheral regions possess...

In the past decade, the literature on transitions toward sustainable socio-technical systems has made a considerable contribution in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional shifts considered necessary to adapt societies and economies to sustainable modes of production and consumption....

Barnes has argued that (new) economic geography has moved in to a phase of theory development that he describes as 'hermeneutic' theorising. This epistemological position is characterised by an interpretive, reflexive and open-ended mode of inquiry that recognises the diversity of sources...

This paper examines the institutional impacts of the new English regional sustainability framework and highlights the tension between the need for regional involvement and the central desire to control the debates and intentions of the regional actors. The paper argues that the regional...