ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide a comparative analysis of some of the institutional responses for innovation and technology (I&T) in two European localities. They are South-West Wales in the UK, and the eastern part of the Ruhrgebiet situated in North Rhine Westphalia in Germany. Both of these localities continue to face economic problems associated with the decline of traditional industries and have attempted to address these issues through the introduction of new growth strategies based in part on innovation and technology (see DTI 1998b; National Assembly for Wales 1999). Commentators claim increasingly that regional or local institutions, particularly those of the public sector (Gregersen 1992), are central to the effective provision of such strategies (see, for example, Landabaso 1995; Callon 1995).
