ABSTRACT
Innovation and knowledge generation are perceived as driving forces in the economy, yet diverse temporal and territorial dynamics condition their effects. Advanced economies have experienced significant structural change in their shift from standardized Fordist mass production to a post-Fordist regime (Jessop 1994). Globalization and the rise of new technologies have been major underlying, complementary forces behind this paradigm shift. Among the key features of this new mode of economic accumulation is an increased emphasis on innovation processes as the prime drivers of capital and welfare gains. In addition, while the Fordist system was supply-side driven, the new system appears more demand-side driven, in particular shaped by worldwide demand structures which call for flexibility in terms of workforce and production. Following this shift, nation states have reorganized themselves into supranational, national, regional and trans-local entities, and these pragmatic changes have initiated widespread research interest in a multitude of disciplines. The accompanying shift away from the Keynesian welfare state towards a Schumpeterian workfare state has led to a reformulation of the primary economic functions of governments (Jessop 1995). However, despite the significance of these changes and the myriad attempts to analyze the corresponding socio-spatial processes, efforts to theorize about questions of scale and territory still leave many questions unanswered (Peck 2002). While there is a contemporary widespread consensus in the academic literature that knowledge, learning and innovation are key elements to economic development and competitiveness, there is less agreement about the nature of socio-economic interactions across different spaces and scales that condition the effects of these elements for firms, regions and nations.
