Regional Development in the Knowledge Economy

Regional Development in the Knowledge Economy examines the distinctive ways in which regional actors, institutions and organisations deal with the exigencies of the rise to prominence of the knowledge economy. The collection derives etymologies for many key concepts in the '¬~knowledge economy' and '¬~new regionalism' debates. The international contributions examine a range of theoretical and empirical approaches to explain contemporary regional development processes from a knowledge economy/new regionalism perspective. The book examines the idea of value creation from the interaction of knowledge upon knowledge. This applies clearly in science-based or creative industries but also in established industries that utilise more scientific or creative knowledge as a matter of course, but with frequent barriers among technical '¬~communities of practice'. Otherwise comparable to professional '¬~epistemic communities' these are practitioner groups that must reduce cognitive dissonance to build up interactive innovation capabilities. The evidence mobilised in the book shows this is more tractable at regional level where social capital may be high and where firm inter-domain professional networks form. Policies both to build and take advantage of these capabilities are elaborated, discussed and assessed.Piccaluga, Andrea is the author of 'Regional Development in the Knowledge Economy', published 2006 under ISBN 9780415365536 and ISBN 0415365538.