Remaking Regional Economies: Power, Labor, and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge EconomySince the early 1980s, the region has been central to thinking about the emerging character of the global economy. In fields as diverse as business management, industrial relations, economic geography, sociology, and planning, the regional scale has emerged as an organizing concept for interpretations of economic change. This book is both a critique of the "new regionalism" and a return to the "regional question," including all of its concerns with equity and uneven development. It will challenge researchers and students to consider the region as a central scale of action in the global economy. At the core of the book are case studies of two industries that rely on skilled, innovative, and flexible workers - the optics and imaging industry and the film and television industry. Combined with this is a discussion of the regions that constitute their production centers. The authors’ intensive research on photonics and entertainment media firms, both large and small, leads them to question some basic assumptions behind the new regionalism and to develop an alternative framework for understanding regional economic development policy. Finally, there is a re-examination of what the regional question means for the concept of the learning region. This book draws on the rich contemporary literature on the region but also addresses theoretical questions that preceded "the new regionalism." It will contribute to teaching and research in a range of social science disciplines. |
From inside the book
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... managers, and, preeminently, a skilled and creative workforce. Regions that provide all the inputs to help “their” firms continuously innovate cannot be guaranteed protection from the unrelenting forces of global competition. The ...
... managers lobby the region to provide, simultaneously, low costs of production, innovative capacity, and access to high-skilled labor. They look to regional policy as an instrumental vehicle to reduce their costs and risks (through firm ...
... managers try to enhance their flexibility (that is, hedge their bets). ... But decentralization of production does not imply the end of unequal economic power among firms – let alone among the different classes of workers who are ...
... managers attempt to use regional resources to improve the firm's competitive position, how regional public and private sector leaders respond to firm demands, and the implications for regional economic sustainability. We begin by ...
... managers' investment and location decisions. A political interpretation necessarily involves asking questions about power. In thinking about firm strategies, power resides both in immediately available resources and in the power to act ...
Contents
Labor markets and the regional project | |
The evolution of the optics and imaging industry | |
media concentration and spatial competition | |
why regional innovation systems produce | |
The learning region disconnect | |
considering scale and combining investment | |
Notes | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Remaking Regional Economies: Power, Labor, and Firm Strategies in the ... Susan Christopherson,Jennifer Clark No preview available - 2007 |