Controversies in Local Economic Development: Stories, Strategies, Solutions

ISBN-13: 9780415489683 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 270 str.

Martin Perry

Opis

Efforts to promote the economic development of individual localities engage the attention of academics, students and professionals. Many such analysts argue that competitive advantage can be fostered within local economies, complimenting the advent of a more globalised economy. Intensified efforts to build new economic foundations show no sign of abating despite the apparent increase in the international mobility of businesses and employment. Unpicking the arguments supporting different strategies for promoting local economic development, Controversies in Local Economic Development is an introductory guide to some of the major ideas and policy tools that have influenced academic debate and development practice. Taking the view that economic processes are mechanisms that promote desired outcomes only in particular contexts, the book asks questions of both academic debates and the prescriptions of policy experts.

Alongside the advent of a more globalised economy, there is much debate about the competitive advantage that can be fostered within local economies. However, the tendency for local economic strategies to imitate each other is a well known shortcoming in the activities that occur. The ‘enthusiastic borrowing’ of perceived best practice identifies a weakness in the current state of local economic development. This book presents archetypal local economic strategies as controversies. It highlights the contested nature of the evidence behind economic processes. It offers resolutions to the debates so that reviews are not simply critical accounts. Within the limits of current evidence, the cases examined will offer guidance on how to apply the lessons of existing experience.

The main part of the book will discuss seven controversies in local economic development. These topics encompass issues of importance to the practice of local economic development in that they inform archetypal strategies that have variously been taken up or abandoned and over which there is ongoing debate. These topics include knowledge and learning, the provision of recources to nurture entrepreneurial talent, innovation, clusters of enterprise, inward investment, business-friendly localities and mobile professionals.

Spis treści

1. Local Economic Development as Controversy  2. The Case for Local Economic Development  3. The Learning Region  4. Enterprise and New Venture Growth  5. Innovation and Employment  6. Enterprise Clusters  7. Inward Investment beyond Zero Sum  8. Being Business Friendly  9. Quartering the Creative Class  10. Prospects for Local Economic Development

O autorze

Martin Perry is an associate professor in the Department of Management, Massey University (Wellington). His publications include two books published by Routledge, Business Clusters: An International Perspective (2005) and Small Firms and Network Economies (1999).