Olivier Crevoisier

The Innovative Milieus Approach: Toward a Territorialized Understanding of the Economy?

Abstract Space has always been more or less present in economic theories. Nevertheless, traditional approaches, as well as the so-called new economic geography, introduce space subsequently. Economic theories are first built independently of spatial and temporal contexts, for example, through costs varying according to distance. The innovative milieus approach is based on the ideas that space—or, more precisely, territory—is the matrix of economic development and that economic mechanisms transform space. This article describes innovative milieus as an ideal type that articulates three paradigms: the technological paradigm, which stresses innovation, learning, and know-how as the most important competitive advantages; the organizational paradigm, which emphasizes the role of networks, competition, and rules of cooperation, as well as relational capital; and the territorial paradigm, which accounts for the role of proximity and distance and stresses the idea that competition occurs between regions. The originality of the innovative milieus approach is that it considers these three paradigms as a whole, thus providing a stabilized set of concepts that allow for an understanding of economic development processes in their space and time contexts.

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.

The Expansion of the Finance Industry and Its Impact on the Economy: A Territorial Approach Based on Swiss Pension Funds

Abstract A new economic geography of finance is emerging, and the current “financialization” of contemporary economies has contributed greatly to the reshaping of the economic landscape. How can these changes be understood and interpreted, especially from a territorial point of view? There are two contradictory economic theories regarding the tangible effects of the rise of the finance industry. According to neoclassical financial theorists, the finance industry’s success is based on its positive effects on the real economy through its capacity to allocate financial resources efficiently. An alternative approach, adopted here, posits that finance does not merely mirror the real economy and that the financial economy, far from being a simple instrument for the allocation of capital, has its own autonomy, its own logic of development and expansion. A series of complex, and sometimes contradictory, connections link financial markets and the real economy, and there are some tensions between them, calling into question the coherence of the regional and national economies that follow from them. Moreover, the territorial approach shows how the mobility/liquidity of capital and the changing dimensions of new regions and countries are central to the finance industry’s functioning. This article builds an understanding of the financial system through the lens of pension funds and highlights the impact of such a system on the real economy and its geography.

Increased Capital Mobility/Liquidity and its Repercussions at Regional Level

The most significant structural change undergone by the British and Swiss economies during the past 25 years (1975-2000) is indisputably the development of their financial systems. From this point of view, the two countries show a number of similarities: the presence of one or more international financial place(s), large enterprises which expanded greatly on the international front during that period, the decline of their industrial regions, a monetarist-type monetary policy that involved floating their currency on the external market, a more or less enthusiastic policy of liberalizing their financial markets, etc. In these two countries, the development of international financial centres and the decline of the industrial regions took place in parallel. The question that remains is: are these developments linked? There have been many studies dealing with the relationship between finance and industry. But this article is original in that it approaches the question principally from the spatial angle (by contrasting the evolution of the financial centres with that of the other regions) and from the sectoral angle (by making a distinction between finance and the industrial activities).

Financing Regional Endogenous Development: the Role of Proximity Capital in the Age of Globalization

Abstract Today, financial activities become more and more integrated at a global scale. Nevertheless, SMEs have no access to these circuits. Consequently, one can ask how do they find their equity capital? This paper presents the concept of ‘proximity capital’ which articulates informal capital and proximity relations between demander and supplier of capital. A typology of spatial forms of financial circuits of industrial activities is built by contrasting proximity capital and financial cores which link the largest firms and banks together.

Innovation Networks and Territorial Dynamics: A Tentative Typology

This chapter has been written within the framework of the GREMI (European Research Group on Innovative Milieux). The purpose of that Group’s investigations and reflections is to develop a territorialized analysis of innovation by highlighting the role of the environment and, more specifically, that of the milieu in technological creation processes (Aydalot, 1986; Camagni, 1991; Maillat, Quevit and Senn, 1993). The object of this chapter is specifically to understand how the milieu is transformed through multiple interactions, to highlight the various networks involved in the innovation process and, more generally, to show how relations between the productive forces on the one hand and the urban and regional milieu on the other are transformed and what the result is. This general problem hinges principally on three fields of inquiry: the innovation network: how does it come into being (federative project), what is its architecture and strategy, how does it work and, finally, how does it evolve? We shall seek to show how interactions between the various players develop, to study the rules and principles that govern their relations and, finally, to understand the way in which learning processes develop within the innovation network. relations between the milieu and the innovation network: what is the function of the milieu in the organization of the innovation network and what is its impact on its development? the effects of the innovation network on the milieu: what is the impact on the local milieu of the learning processes that are developed by the innovation networks? More specifically, how do the innovation networks help to increase the milieu’s creative abilities?

Sustainability and the Anchoring of Capital: Negotiations Surrounding Two Major Urban Projects in Switzerland

Theurillat T. and Crevoisier O. Sustainability and the anchoring of capital: negotiations surrounding two major urban projects in Switzerland, Regional Studies. This article deals with the anchoring of mobile financial capital in the city and urban sustainability. Illustrated by a case study in the Swiss context, it develops the theory that new forms of negotiation are appearing around urban projects. Development/construction firms are playing a central role: they are capable of evaluating and translating the multiple dimensions of a project and certain sustainability challenges into financial terms, in a way that permits the anchoring of capital in the city. In parallel, the issue of sustainability depends greatly on the capacity of the local actors to negotiate with the promoters of urban projects.

Cultural Resources and Regional Development: The Case of the Cultural Legacy of Watchmaking

Cultural resources are today the object of considerable attention in regional economics. Ground for new forms of innovation these resources have given rise to numerous works aiming at understanding the emergence and organisation of culture based economic activities and at identifying the role of these activities in regional development and urban planning. The objective of this article is to explore the way in which resources, and in particular cultural resources, are incorporated into production processes on the one hand, and the consequences on the resources of doing so on the other hand. Becoming an economic resource, a cultural “object” (symbol, image, cultural heritage, traditional know-how, etc.) becomes embedded within commercial relationships. The question we address here is what are the causes and consequences of this commodification of culture for the production systems, the customers and for the local communities which put a certain number of their constitutive elements into play.

Spatial shifts and the emergence of innovative milieux: the case of the Jura region between 1960 and 1990

The idea of ‘regional innovative milieux’ allows us to understand how certain regional actors innovate and manage to create new industrial activities. After this idea has been made more precise, it can be applied to the case of the Jura region. This provides an interesting picture of the numerous industrial transformations of this region. Innovative milieux are compared with some other views about regional development. The implications of this view on the interactions between industry and space are discussed.

The territorial economy: a general approach in order to understand and deal with globalization

Today many contributions are dedicated to the role of industrial districts, clusters and other such networks in local economic development, or to local innovation dynamics (innovative milieus, technopoles, regional innovation systems, learning regions and so on). In our opinion, the crucial question at present no longer consists of providing new notions and concepts. We believe that it is time to develop a more ambitious, theoryoriented research programme that aims to take space and time in socioeconomic theory fully into account. The objective of this chapter is to give a first account of what we believe to be the upcoming issues and theoretical questions in research about territorial economic dynamics. Indeed, a better understanding of the territorial economy is central to greater understanding of the roles that networks play in local economic development processes.