ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the importance of metaphors and stories in the development of theory for the practice of local economic development. As indicated in the previous chapters, other than Porter’s and Florida’s contributions, very few new theories have been developed in the fifteen years since the publication of Bingham and Mier’s iconic 1993 book. The objective of this chapter is to urge the discipline to move beyond metaphors and to spur scholars on to explore the “potential for thinking differently with respect to the [relationship between] theory and practice” in economic development (Leach and Boler, 1998, p. 150). It will also explain why a poststucturalist or a constructionalist approach is better suited for the development of an explanatory theoretical framework and why a traditionalist or positivistic approach is not.
