ABSTRACT
The Association had an excludable benefit, it was the benefits of social capital and collective action that motivated many members. The Association recognised that so rapid was the evolution of government policy that many decisions were being taken before its members could hope to exchange knowledge and provide research findings. In the contemporary policy environment, the Regional Science Association (RSA)'s founders had placed interaction with policy at the heart of the organisation: It is the most exciting and challenging feature of regional planning that it must effect a fusion between the regional determination of national economic and social needs and the application on a regional scale of the techniques of physical and land-use planning. In the policy context, the steering committee had been 'prepared to expand rapidly in size and influence' and sought to provide the new Association with the financial and administrative underpinnings that would be necessary.
