ABSTRACT
Over more than two decades of higher and continuing education in regional economic development (ED), I have always found greater interest in theory among ED practitioners than my ED students. The students, of course, are more interested in the concrete tools that will lead them to their first job in the field: industrial recruitment, impact analysis, and the like. The practitioners, meanwhile, spend most of their professional careers reacting to immediate crises, opportunities, and political demands. For the typical practitioner, it is a luxury to sit back occasionally in a seminar room and reflect on what it all adds up to: how do we make sense of the ED forest amid all the trees? It is when I am discussing theory with a class of professional colleagues that I am most likely to find the “aha!” moment: when the light bulb comes on, and years of professional experience come together in a clearer, more coherent picture.
