ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores what is required to promote innovation that rebalances an economy, foster corporate diversity and create regional resilience. It points to the increased significance of resilient regions. Like economic balance and economic diversity, resilient regions are to be seen as national assets in the context of global competitive pressures. The book provides collaborative investigation into the policies and practices that have sustained local communities in the context of the global economic threat which exploded in the economic and financial crisis of 2008-2009, and which offer routes towards building or rebuilding secure models of economic development. Case analyses and policy appraisals carrying us through the issues facing local economic development in the wake of the crisis, married with empirical and conceptual overviews of policy strategies, including strategies for innovation and less fragile forms of economic development.
