Regional knowledge capabilities,embeddedness of firms and industry organisation: Bioscience megacentres and economic geography

Changes in epistemology in biosciences are generating important spatial effects. The most notable of these is the emergence of a few 'Bioscience Megacentres' for basic and applied bioscience medical and clinical research (molecular, post-genomic, proteomics, etc.), biotechnology research, training in these and related fields, academic entrepreneurship and commercial exploitation by clusters of 'drug discovery' start-up and spin-off companies, along with specialist venture capital and other innovation system support services. Large pharmaceutical firms that used to lead such knowledge generation and exploitation processes are becoming increasingly dependent upon innovative drug solutions produced in such clusters, and megacentres are now the predominant source of such commercial knowledge. 'Big pharma' is seldom at the heart of megacentres such as those the paper will argue are found in about four locations each in the USA and Europe, but remains important for some risk capital ('milestone payments'), marketing, and distribution of drugs discovered. The embedding of these processes also creates major new regional disparities, which some regional governances have recognised, causing them to develop responsibilities for regional science policy and funding to offset spatial biases intrinsic in traditional national (and in the EU, supranational) research funding regimes. Responses follow a variety of models ranging from market-following to both regionalised (decentralising by the centre) and 'regionalist' (ground-up); in each case, the role of megacentres is justified in health terms. But their role in assisting fulfilment of regional economic growth visions is also clearly perceived and pronounced in policy terms.     

Re-engaging with rationality in economic geography: behavioural approaches and the importance of context in decision-making

Behavioural approaches have become mainstream in economics,supported by the research of cognitive scientists and psychologists,yet their findings have attracted little attention from geographers.This article argues for a renewed behavioural economic geographythat builds on research in behavioural economics but also addressesone of its main shortcomings: a lack of engagement with thesocial context of decision-making. I outline a research agendathat bridges the gap between the disciplines in the area ofpension decision-making, using the example of choice in UK occupationalplans to argue for a mixed methodological approach to meet thechallenge of taking context seriously.     

The economic geography of the impacts of climate change

Our ability to understand the geographical dispersion of theimpacts of climate change has not yet progressed to the pointof being able to quantify costs and benefits distributed acrossglobe along one or more climate scenarios in any meaningfulway. We respond to this chaotic state of affairs by offeringa brief introduction to the potential impacts of a changingclimate along five geographically dispersed portraits of howthe future climate might evolve and by presenting a modern approachto contemplating vulnerability to climate impacts that has beendesigned explicitly to reflect geographic diversity and uncertainty.Three case studies are offered to provide direct evidence ofthe potential value of adaptation in reducing the cost of climateimpacts, the versatility of thinking about the determinantsof adaptive capacity for specific regions or sectors, and thefeasibility of exploring both across a wide range of ‘not-implausible’climate and socio-economic scenarios. Three overarching themesemerge: adaptation matters, geographic diversity is critical,and enormous uncertainty must be recognized and accommodated.     

Innovation in knowledge intensive industries: The nature and geography of knowledge links

Knowledge has become a key source of competitiveness for advanced regions and nations, indicating a transformation of capitalism towards a “knowledge economy”. Knowledge intensive sectors in production and in services have a lead in this respect, they can be considered as role models for the future. The innovation process, the mechanisms of knowledge exchange and the respective linkages in those industries differ quite markedly from those in other sectors. Clustering and local knowledge spillovers are frequently stated phenomena, although it is still unclear as to what the nature and geography of those knowledge links are. The aim of this paper is to examine the character of the innovation process and the type of interactions in those industries, in order to find out how strongly they are related to regional, national and international innovation systems. We will analyse the sources and the mechanisms of knowledge exchange and their relevance for innovation. The paper develops a typology of innovation interactions and provides empirical evidence for Austria based on data from a recent firm survey.     

The geography and economic sociology of recent immigration to Italy

This article provides an overview of the geography and economic sociology of recent immigration to Italy. Its main purpose is to offer a contextual framework for the mainly place‐ and nationality‐specific studies which follow and make up the main contributions to this special issue of the journal. Throughout our account, stress is laid on the regional diversity of the immigrant experience within Italy, and on the diversity of migratory types and nationalities which have entered the country over the last twenty‐thirty years. In the final part of the article we make a brief analysis of the Italian political response to the country's relatively new status as a receiver of large‐scale immigration.     

An economic and financial geography of the Australian superannuation industry

The Australian superannuation industry has grown enormously over the past 30 years. Whereas working people are automatically enrolled at their workplaces, the head offices of many industry funds are in Melbourne rather than Sydney. Melbourne’s dominance of the superannuation industry is explained, in part, by happenstance—the location of major unions and employer groups and their initiatives in response to the enabling legislation. Other factors identified include opportunism, cooperation, and the advantages of growth. Government-prompted mergers and acquisitions have also reinforced the dominance of Melbourne, notwithstanding attempts by Sydney-based superannuation funds to out-compete their Melbourne rivals. Whereas the geographical bifurcation of the Australian superannuation industry has been mediated by the formation of a Queensland-based superfund “champion,” it is suggested that it faces numerous challenges. In conclusion, avenues for future research are sketched, focusing upon the future of Melbourne as the centre of the superannuation industry, the role of digital platforms in service delivery, pension adequacy, and the increasing importance of Australian funds in global financial markets.     

Positional issues, valence issues and the economic geography of voting in British elections

A body of research has built up in recent years linking thechanging geography of party support in British elections tovariations in the country's economic geography. Consistent withthe economic vote model, government support has been shown tobe higher than average in affluent areas and lower than averagein poorer areas. However, the great majority of such studieshave concentrated on elections between 1979 and 1997, a prolongedperiod of one-party rule. This article argues that this meansexisting research cannot differentiate between the very differentpredictions of positional and valence approaches to economicvoting since both suggest identical outcomes during Conservativeadministrations. By contrasting a period of Conservative rulewith a period of Labour rule, however, the article providesa test of the competing claims of the positional and valencearguments for an understanding of Britain's electoral geography.     

Cultural geography and the inner dimensions of the quest for knowledge

In North American cultural geography, intellectual curiosity has motivated most scholarship directed to learning about the world. Two aspects of that curiosity, epistemic inquisitiveness and wonder, work together to drive the pursuit of knowledge that has the potential to reach an ecstatic consciousness. A great exemplar of intellectual curiosity as a powerful motivational force was Carl O. Sauer (1889–1975), who considered pure inquiry based on intrinsic interest as the foundation of geographical scholarship. That research can also have a euphoric dimension is described in three vignettes of past projects in Highland Peru, the Mascarene Archipelago, and equatorial Brazil, which make explicit how wanting to know and wondering about what might be known prompt ideas and drive them forward. With introspection, cultural geographers are in a position to inform the discipline about how scholarship that conjoins thought and feeling can lead to an understanding of motivation and an appreciation of the intellectual virtues and peak experiences that accrue from scholarly endeavor. To do that requires a willingness to get beyond the reticence that has kept the affective dimension out of research reports.     

Veblen goods and urban distinction: The economic geography of conspicuous consumption

A fundamental observation of 21st century cities is that they have become great centers of consumption. In this paper, we seek to understand the geographic variation in consumer behavior. Using Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), we analyze how consumption differs across 21 major U.S. metropolitan areas, and the association between urban characteristics and consumption. We extend previous geographic analysis of consumption to include luxury goods that are socially visible (conspicuous consumption) and luxury goods that are relatively less visible (inconspicuous consumption). Our analysis shows that conspicuous consumption is more sensitive to an urban context than is inconspicuous consumption.     

Codification, patents and the geography of knowledge transfer in the electronic musical instrument industry

Recent research in economic geography has emphasized tacit knowledge as the basis of industrial learning. In contrast, codification and the practices of industrial writing have received little attention for the roles they play in mobilizing knowledge across space. This paper offers insight into the geographies of codification through an examination of technology transfer in the electronic musical instrument industry between 1965 and 1995. The research draws on a variety of primary and secondary data that include interviews with inventors, biographical accounts and patent analysis. These sources offer perspective on the career trajectories of three U.S. inventors who transferred knowledge from various contexts in California's high-tech industry to the Japanese firm, Yamaha. Conceptually, the paper draws on the actor–network theory and Latour's idea of translation to highlight the detours inventors must take to register novelty. The analysis reveals the problematic nature of codified knowledge and its transfer; in this case codified knowledge was mobile internationally but not locally, at least until it reached Japan. The paper argues for the need to understand how texts such as patents are produced—the context of their authorship, the geographies of their circulation and their efficacy for shaping further innovative practice.     

Renewing the purpose of geography education: Eco-anxiety,powerful knowledge,and pathways for transformation

Concerns about the decline in uptake of secondary geography education continue despite arguments supporting the value of geography education, the power of geographical thinking, and geography’s critical role in preparing students to deal with complex challenges. Already constrained by neoliberal politics of disadvantage, young people must plan and prepare for chaotic futures. Consequently, young people are becoming distressed and worried about their futures and feeling powerless as society fails to adequately address these issues. In this article, we ask what schools and universities can do as place-based public institutions to serve young people to effectively respond to eco-anxiety and build capacities to surf the unrelenting waves of change. We draw on journeys that brought three young doctoral candidates to study geography. From their stories, we sketch what a geographical education could offer in terms of relevance, practicality, and engagement with transformative system change. We think that under current world conditions, this is a moment to revive geography education and give it renewed purpose to encourage young people to develop skills and competences to tackle wicked problems.     

The context of the Venice Charter (1964)

Abstract

The Venice Charter has been the benchmark for principles governing architectural conservation/restoration for over thirty years. We asked Jukka Jokilehto to comment on the context in which it was drawn up. Now often referred to simply as the ‘Venice Charter’, the correct full name of this document (of which we print the text in an appendix) is: ‘The International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites’, adopted by the IInd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, Venice, 1964.     

Friedrich Ratzel and the nature of (political) geography

It is impossible to understand Ratzel's Politische Geographie without placing the figure of its author in the perspective of the critical bourgeois geography of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. From this point of view, Ratzel is the last representative of this bourgeois movement born in the first part of the eighteenth century in Germany with the name of “pure geography” or “natural geography”, and developed in the following century thanks to the great works of Karl Ritter and Alexander von Humboldt. The purpose of bourgeois critical geography was to create a geographical discourse (a reasoning) able to transcend the identification between geographic knowledge and cartographic representation that was maintained by the Staatsgeographen—that is by the state geographers who defended the feudal aristocratic regime. But it is precisely this identification that German bourgeois geographers appropriated in the second half of the nineteenth century, after the bourgeoisie came into power through a compromise with its ancient political opponent. Only Ratzel, direct heir of the Erdkunde tradition of Ritter and von Humboldt, was an exception by opposing the new bourgeois state geography with his own state-based geography.     

Italian cultural geography,or the history of a prolific absence

This article focuses on a group of buildings that form the site for a Steiner school in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It examines the ways in which an environmentally friendly, ‘ecological’ structure was (and is) constructed such that the building and its accompanying practices might be seen as ‘performed art’. By more critically examining the school's geographies through ethnographic material, the paper moves away from the buildings' symbolic meanings to demonstrate how art and nature intersect in various ways, in the school's life. Art and nature were crucial to the type of education there, the physical process of building the school, and daily uses of the buildings. The paper also explores how the art-nature intersection is involved in the construction of ethical discourses and practices constitutive of ‘childhood’ and ‘education’.     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Reconsidering path creation in economic geography: aspects of agency,temporality and methods

The emergence of new industrial development paths is an important topic in economic geography. However, current perspectives emphasizing the constraining forces of historical trajectories on innovation and change have shortcomings in accounting for how and where new industries arise. This article argues that more attention needs to be paid to agency, and that agency must be seen as inter-temporal in the sense that actors’ activities and strategies are framed by combinations of experiences and expectations. As such, the article combines insights from economic geography, transitions studies and the sociology of expectations (SoE) literature to expand extant theory on path creation. A brief analysis of the emerging Norwegian offshore wind power (OWP) sector serves to illustrate how experience (the past) and different types of expectations (the future) have tangible effects on agency, and in effect on path creation processes. These insights have methodological implications, essentially favouring qualitative approaches over quantitative ones to understand formative phases in industrial development.