ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with local growth 'practise' assembles empirical evidence of local growth stories grounded in technological innovation, internet-based economic activity and tertiary-type activities. The paradox of the emergence of the region and the locality as the main arenas for growth in a globalising world is widely recognised, though it is implicit that the processes of re-scaling associated with globalisation have changed the circumstances of local growth. The vocabulary of 'embeddedness', 'learning regions', 'social capital 'and 'industrial districts' used to invoke processes of growth is critically examined and anchored to the more basic concepts of the lexicon of growth viz, 'development', 'welfare' and 'power'. While local growth is both time and place-specific, a critical mass of solid empirical work can suggest generic factors that appear time and again in different contexts.
