ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to answer the question: what is new regionalism? The empirical research presented in this volume adopted new regionalism as a lens through which to explore recent trends in Canadian regional development policy and practice. Central to this research was the extent to which new regionalist ideas, largely emerging from Europe, the United States, and in part Asia Pacific, were applicable in the Canadian context. The purpose of this chapter is to lay the foundation for this inquiry through a review of the origins and key elements of the new regionalist framework. In this chapter, we introduce five core themes of new regionalism identified by the team (see Chapter 4), which form the basis of our research. In addition, we present common critiques of new regionalism as well as responses drawn from the literature.
