1,721,072 research outputs found
Malecki, E.J. and Oinas, P., editors, 1999: Making connections: technological learning and regional economic change. Aldershot: Ashgate. xiii + 282 pp. £39.95 cloth. ISBN: 1 84014 550 1
No full text[Book review] Rutten, R. (2003) Knowledge and Innovation in Regional Industry: An Entrepreneurial Coalition
No full textWorlds of welfare: understanding the changing geographies of social welfare provision
No full textThroughout the world welfare systems have been experiencing a period of unprecedented change. Understanding these changes is difficult, not only because of their diversity, but also because they vary so much from place to place.Worlds of Welfare provides a clear and concise guide to these changes. The first part of the book examines the range of different welfare states around the world, describing the various reforms - such as privatisation and commercialisation - which have been introduced in recent years. The second part of the book tests the many theoretical perspectives for understanding such social change. The book concludes with an exploration of the future of the welfare state in multicultural societies.Clearly written, with an extensive glossary of key terms, the book demonstrates how a geographical perspective is crucial to understanding the diversity of welfare reform. Worlds of Welfare will be of interest to all concerned for the future of welfare services. <br/
[Book review] Scott, A.J., The cultural economy of cities: essays on the geography of image-producing industry
No full textEconomic restructuring: geographical aspects
No full textGeographical studies of economic restructuring seek to explain geographical variations in economic development. Although a series of foci, rather than a single integrated approach, these perspectives share a common desire to understand the geographical complexities of economic restructuring without recourse to universal ‘laws’ of economics that are assumed to work in all places at all times. Instead, economic behavior is seen as dependent upon the cultural norms and institutional practices manifest in particular places at specific points in the history of capitalist development. The spatial divisions of labor approach examines the tendency for different types of work to be undertaken in different places. The new industrial spaces approach examines the phenomenon of industrial agglomeration and tendency for geographical clusters of firms to be world leaders in a range of manufacturing sectors. Other studies focus upon globalization and the influence of transnational corporations upon economic development. The rapid growth of services is another focus, as are the feminization of the workforce and the restructuring of the public sector. The most recent restructuring approach has examined the development of so-called knowledge economies and the effects of new telecommunications technologies (or telematics) on economic development
Financing social enterprise: social bricolage or evolutionary entrepreneurialism?
No full textThis paper examines the extent to which urban social enterprises (SEs) have diversified their funding sources and shifted towards loans and development finance in recent years. The paper considers the underlying reasons for a limited demand for loans by comparing two theoretical perspectives on SE development. The concept of 'social bricolage' implies SEs do not seek conventional loans or equity finance because they survive in resource poor environments by improvising and re-using redundant capital. A second evolutionary approach implies SE financing will be dominated by reliance on habits and practices learnt from the context in which social entreprenerurs have operated
[Book review] Short, J.R. and Kim, Y.-H. (1999) Globalization and the City
No full textNo description supplie
Knowledge communities
No full textA knowledge community is a group of people, typically a professional, technical or scientific group, unified by a common set of values, norms and working practices, producing knowledge for a given purpose. The concept draws upon recent work on the sociology of scientific knowledge which argues that knowledge is product of a context-dependent social process. It is related to the concept of a community of practice but involves less direct contact between the members of the group concerned. The concept of the knowledge community has been used to explain a number of features of the emerging space economy, but especially the continuing dynamism of industrial agglomerations (i.e. urban and regional grouping of firms, often in the same sector). There is a lively debate in human geography over the extent to which knowledge communities, and the knowledge they generate, can be traced to, and confined within, bounded spaces such as cities, regions and nations. Many would argue that with the development of modern telecommunications systems knowledge communities and their activities are spread throughout the world in extensive networks. Others argue that certain types of knowledge are socially embedded in particular places and are difficult to transfe
Explaining industrial agglomeration: The case of the British high-fidelity industry
No full textThis paper examines the insights into debates about regional agglomeration provided by the British high-fidelity industry (BHFI). This geographical cluster of small specialist companies displays world leadership in the sphere of high-quality sound reproduction but only weak elements of institutional thickness, and limited inter-firm interactions. There is, however, some evidence in this industry of collective learning, untraded interdependencies and indirect institutional support in the form of government infrastructure in previous decades. Localised interdependencies, both of the traded and the untraded kind, play an important role in fostering clustering of these hi-fi companies but much of the propinquity can be attributed to inertia effects as founders establish new businesses near their old companies and, or, their place of residence. The clustering of hi-fi companies in the south-east is therefore largely a reflection of the concentration of elite technical personnel in this region. The analysis suggests that, in the case of the BHFI, the key elements of institutional thickness are constituted by the firm and the labour market. <br/
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