Hugues Jeannerat

Territorial Knowledge Dynamics: From the Proximity Paradigm to Multi-location Milieus

This paper addresses the issue of updating a research agenda about territorial innovation models (TIMs) such as innovative milieus, industrial districts, regional innovation systems, etc. The theoretical shift from innovation studies to the knowledge economy is taken into account by the suggested concept of territorial knowledge dynamics (TKDs). Observable major changes within society are also integrated, especially the huge increase in the mobility of production factors. The thesis developed is that the learning processes in TIMs were mainly cumulative knowledge dynamics that varies according to the scale of the region (the traditional local/global framework), whereas todays combinatorial knowledge dynamics develop in multi-location and multi-scalar ways. Knowledge circulates to a greater extent and is continuously mobilized and combined within interacting firms and regions. In this paper, ideal typical forms of TKDs are formulated from three research perspectives: a relational approach, a circulatory approach and a structuralist approach. This paper presents the theoretical background used by the European research project “EURODITE” on these specific issues.

Non-technological innovation and multi-local territorial knowledge dynamics in the Swiss watch industry

Over the last few decades, territorial approaches have generally tried to explain how regions have specialised their production systems around specific path dependencies and technological innovation; how their specialisation enabled them to compete locally in the global market. Some socio-economic changes and recent theories have addressed new theoretical questions regarding new dynamics of knowledge, new territorial relations and new types of innovation. The case of the Swiss watch industry is used here to illustrate different aspects of this new approach. We propose to look at the present Swiss watch industry as a complex system of production-consummation of authenticity where non-technological innovations have become critical. We also explain the importance of combinatorial knowledge dynamics as well as diffusion and legitimisation processes. Finally, we propose analysing the region within complex multi-local knowledge dynamics, rather than considering it as a specialised local system in a global market.

Staging experience, valuing authenticity: Towards a market perspective on territorial development:

Drawing on particular socio-economic theories, this paper discusses the implications for regional studies of the experience economy approach through the broader question of market valuation. Different forms of market construction are identified and compared with regard to distinct models of regional development. It is observed that most of established territorial innovation models give prominence to a technical form of market valuation driven by technological change, by localized innovative production and by the mobility of goods and services. Conversely, experiential valuation primarily points to alternative models of development focusing on the local capacity to set attractive and engaging stages and to exploit consumer mobility. While the former models have mainly been applied to export-based manufacturing, the latter have essentially been applied to leisure, entertainment and tourism activities. The second part of the paper discusses the limits of technical as well as experiential market valuation in the case of the Swiss watchmaking industry. In such a case, experience in consumption and technology in production appears as strategic economic resources but what is primarily valued is authentic watchmaking. Authenticity is regarded as a third possible form of market valuation revealing specific socio-economic and territorial dynamics. The paper finally argues that market valuation should be considered as a key issue for future understandings of economic and territorial development.

Editorial: From ‘Territorial Innovation Models’ to ‘Territorial Knowledge Dynamics’: On the Learning Value of a New Concept in Regional Studies

In the past decades, knowledge, its various dynamics of generation, use and (re)combination have been scrutinized in ever more detail to explain empirically and theoretically how different individuals, firms, regions and nations compete in a globalized knowledge-based economy (LAGENDIJK, 2006; REGIONAL STUDIES, 2012). However, and surprisingly, scholars have hardly developed a reflection on their own knowledge dynamics. Regional studies have thus extensively, but also restrictively, focused on the knowledge of others. In 1999, a prominent discussion was instigated by Markusen on the role of qualitative research and concepts (MARKUSEN, 1999; REGIONAL STUDIES, 2003). The author made the contention that the multiplication of particular qualitative studies leads to the creation of ephemeral ‘fuzzy’ concepts hardly measurable and generalizable in consolidated theories. Along with a critical debate on methods and research design recalled further in this issue by BUTZIN and WIDMAIER (2015, in this issue), Markusen’s controversy also induced a more general reflection on the place of new concepts in the production of knowledge in scientific communities (LAGENDIJK, 2003). The genesis of the concept of ‘territorial knowledge dynamics’ (TKDs), its exploration in the project EURODITE and its examination in this special issue allow a pragmatic reflection on the learning value of a new concept in regional studies.

Urban and regional studies in the experience economy: What kind of turn?

The paper introduces a special issue on ‘the experience turn in development and planning’. It is argued that the notion of the experience economy is able to challenge established theories of the culture economy in three ways. First, by placing consumption and consumers as point of departure for innovation and valuation. Secondly, by approaching place as valuable for consumption, and finally by turning the lens of planning towards places as destinations, which entails complex quality of place concerns. The papers of the issue contribute from three different but related perspectives. One perspective is to deconstruct economic value and innovation in regional studies and elaborate on the role of consumers and stages of consumption. Another is the actor perspective and the question of how localized networks of innovative actors evolve and engage in experiential staging. Finally the experience economy is seen as an integrated approach in policy and strategic planning on as well as across different scales. Future research should not only trace the evolution of experience offerings, stages and destinations and its possible dependence on specific economic phases and contexts. It should also develop further the potentials of the experience economy approach as a new perspective on economic phenomena as well as on territorial development.

Knowledge, Resources and Markets: What Economic System of Valuation?

Jeannerat H. and Kebir L. Knowledge, resources and markets: what economic system of valuation?, Regional Studies. Exploring in ever more detail learning processes at the root of economic change, main territorial innovation models (TIMs) remain focused on production today. Thus consumption is most often assessed as an abstract demand expressed by exogenous market mechanisms. In a socio-institutional approach, this article conceptualizes an economic system in which knowledge is a constructed resource valued in a market through the co-evolution of a production and a consumption system. From a meta-synthesis of various case studies, the paper draws four ideal types of economic systems and their related territorial knowledge dynamics (TKDs): knowledge marketization, knowledge improvement, knowledge adaptation and knowledge co-development.

Beyond Production and Standards: Toward a Status Market Approach to Territorial Innovation and Knowledge Policy

MacNeill S. and Jeannerat H. Beyond production and standards: toward a status market approach to territorial innovation and knowledge policy, Regional Studies. Current theoretical and policy models of innovation are usually production based and give prominence to producer–supplier relations. Drawing on a socio-economic approach to markets, the paper reconsiders these established models in order to broaden the understanding of innovation and territorial knowledge dynamics. The premium segment sports cars innovated in the UKs West Midlands is examined and the production and standard market of the global automotive industry is contrasted with the status market in which new local innovation embed across specific supplier–producer and producer–consumer relations. A status innovation policy approach is finally proposed to address innovation in developed economies.

Peripheries, Mobilities and e-Technologies: The Rise of Regional Social Network Policies

Abstract The mobility of highly qualified people is a major issue for regional development and represents a matter of particular concern for peripheral regions, which tend to be characterized by the out-migration of their graduates (brain drain). While regional policies have traditionally focused on the labor market and framework conditions in order to foster territorial development, a new kind of instrument is emerging: the regional social network. This approach to policymaking no longer considers highly qualified people leaving their home region as a loss, but sees them as potential resources to be mobilized and capitalized at a distance. Based on six case studies, this paper elaborates a typology of regional social networks and analyzes their governance and management. It situates this new approach in a more general debate on regional innovation policies with regard to the specific needs of peripheral regions in a time of growing spatial mobility and the ubiquitous use of e-technologies.