[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/lucirc/2019_012.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trinity of Change Agency: Connecting Agency and Structure in Studies of Regional Development

Author

Listed:
  • Grillitsch, Markus

    (Lund University)

  • Rekers, Josephine

    (Lund University)

  • Sotarauta, Markku

    (Tampere University)

Abstract
The promise of connecting agency and structure in studies of regional development is to disentangle causal effects and to better understand to what extent and how individuals, groups of individuals, and organisations can shape regional trajectories. This is not without challenges because agency and structure are deep theoretical constructs, which are not easily translated into empirical research. We have devoted a research project to study how agency and structure are connected in the context of regional development and have faced many difficulties on the way. Here, we would like to share our experiences and proposed solutions grouped into six challenges, which were present in all of the 12 comparative case studies in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The challenges refer to the ontology of agency and structure, the research design, the time period of study, the spatial scale, the research instrument, and the data collection.

Suggested Citation

  • Grillitsch, Markus & Rekers, Josephine & Sotarauta, Markku, 2019. "Trinity of Change Agency: Connecting Agency and Structure in Studies of Regional Development," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2019_012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wp.circle.lu.se/upload/CIRCLE/workingpapers/201912_grillitsch.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raghu Garud & Arun Kumaraswamy & Peter Karnøe, 2010. "Path Dependence or Path Creation?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 760-774, June.
    2. Michael Storper, 2011. "Why do regions develop and change: the challenge for geography and economics," Post-Print hal-03417606, HAL.
    3. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver of regional diversification: a research agenda," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 351-364, March.
    4. R. Shearmur & Christophe Carrincazeaux & D. Doloreux, 2016. "Handbook on the Geographies of Innovation," Post-Print hal-03152373, HAL.
    5. Michael Storper, 2011. "Why do regions develop and change? The challenge for geography and economics," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 333-346, March.
    6. Elvira Uyarra & Kieron Flanagan & Edurne Magro & James R Wilson & Markku Sotarauta, 2017. "Understanding regional innovation policy dynamics: Actors, agency and learning," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(4), pages 559-568, June.
    7. Markus Steen, 2016. "Reconsidering path creation in economic geography: aspects of agency, temporality and methods," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(9), pages 1605-1622, September.
    8. Meric Gertler, 2010. "Rules of the Game: The Place of Institutions in Regional Economic Change," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-15.
    9. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), 2010. "The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12864.
    10. Richard Shearmu & Christophe Carrincazeaux & David Doloreux (ed.), 2016. "Handbook on the Geographies of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16055.
    11. Grillitsch, Markus & Martynovich, Mikhail & Dahl Fitjar, Rune & Haus-Reve, Silje, 2019. "Why bother about region-specific growth patterns and how to identify them?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/10, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Grillitsch, Markus & Sotarauta, Markku, 2018. "Regional Growth Paths: From Structure to Agency and Back," Papers in Innovation Studies 2018/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Markku Sotarauta & Nina Mustikkamäki, 2015. "Institutional Entrepreneurship, Power, and Knowledge in Innovation Systems: Institutionalization of Regenerative Medicine in Tampere, Finland," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(2), pages 342-357, April.
    14. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2006. "Path dependence and regional economic evolution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 395-437, August.
    15. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver behind regional diversification: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1702, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2017.
    16. Markku Sotarauta & Riina Pulkkinen, 2011. "Institutional Entrepreneurship for Knowledge Regions: In Search of a Fresh Set of Questions for Regional Innovation Studies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(1), pages 96-112, February.
    17. Poole, Marshall Scott & Van de Ven, Andrew H. & Dooley, Kevin & Holmes, Michael E., 2000. "Organizational Change and Innovation Processes: Theory and Methods for Research," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195131987.
    18. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine V Rekers, 2016. "How does multi-scalar institutional change affect localized learning processes? A case study of the med-tech sector in Southern Sweden," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(1), pages 154-171, January.
    19. Markus Grillitsch, 2015. "Institutional Layers, Connectedness and Change: Implications for Economic Evolution in Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 2099-2124, October.
    20. Ron Boschma, 2004. "Competitiveness of Regions from an Evolutionary Perspective," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9), pages 1001-1014.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Samson Afewerki & Asbjørn Karlsen, 2021. "Policy mixes for just sustainable regional development in industrially overspecialized regions: the case of two Norwegian petro-maritime regions," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_02, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Anna Herzog & Rüdiger Hamm, 2021. "A masterplan for urban resurgence: The case of Mönchengladbach, Germany (2008–2019)," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 644-658, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grillitsch, Markus & Asheim, Bjørn & Nielsen, Hjalti, 2019. "Does long-term proactive agency matter for regional development?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/16, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    2. Danny Mackinnon & Stuart Dawley & Andy Pike & Andrew Cumbers, 2018. "Rethinking Path Creation: A Geographical Political Economy Approach," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1825, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jun 2018.
    3. Jolly, Suyash & Grillitsch, Markus & Hansen, Teis, 2019. "Agency in regional path development: Towards a bio-economy in Värmland, Sweden," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    4. Grillitsch, Markus & Martynovich, Mikhail & Dahl Fitjar, Rune & Haus-Reve, Silje, 2019. "Why bother about region-specific growth patterns and how to identify them?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2019/10, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    5. Grillitsch, Markus & Sotarauta, Markku, 2018. "Regional Growth Paths: From Structure to Agency and Back," Papers in Innovation Studies 2018/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    6. Robert Hassink & Arne Isaksen & Michaela Trippl, 2019. "Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1636-1645, November.
    7. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Global Value Chains from an Evolutionary Economic Geography perspective: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2134, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    8. Markus Grillitsch & Bjørn Asheim & Arne Isaksen & Hjalti Nielsen, 2022. "Advancing the treatment of human agency in the analysis of regional economic development: Illustrated with three Norwegian cases," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 248-275, March.
    9. Markus Grillitsch & Mikhail Martynovich & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Silje Haus-Reve, 2021. "The black box of regional growth," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 425-464, July.
    10. Joan Crespo, 2021. "Agencies, scales and times of path creation: The case of IoT in Toulouse," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1527-1545, October.
    11. Michaela Trippl & Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer & Alexandra Frangenheim & Arne Isaksen & Jan Ole Rypestøl, 2019. "Green path development, asset modification and agency: towards a systemic integrative approach," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_01, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    12. Alexandra Frangenheim & Michaela Trippl & Camilla Chlebna, 2018. "Beyond the 'single path view': Inter-path relationships in regional contexts," PEGIS geo-disc-2018_06, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    13. Maximilian Benner, 2021. "System-level agency and its many shades: How to shape the system for path development?," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_10, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    14. Hassink, Robert & Gong, Huiwen, 2017. "Sketching the Contours of an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    15. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine Rekers & Franz Tödtling, 2019. "When drivers of clusters shift scale from local towards global: What remains for regional innovation policy?," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_03, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Han Chu & Robert Hassink, 2023. "Advancing spatial ontology in evolutionary economic geography," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(3), pages 391-404.
    17. Grillitsch, Markus, 2018. "Place-based entrepreneurship and innovation policy for industrial diversification," Papers in Innovation Studies 2018/3, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    18. Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer & David Doloreux & Richard Shearmur & Michaela Trippl, 2021. "When history does not matter? The rise of Quebec’s wine industry," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_05, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Kroll Henning & Neuhäusler Peter, 2020. "Recent Trends of Regional Development in China – Technological Portfolios and Economic Growth," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 64(1), pages 14-27, March.
    20. Trippl, Michaela & Asheim, Björn & Miorner, Johan, 2015. "Identification of regions with less developed research and innovation systems," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    agency; structure; regional development; research design; comparative case study; critical junctures; key events;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2019_012. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Torben Schubert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/circlse.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.