DO PRODUCER SERVICES INDUCE REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?*

Goods production and services have become increasingly integrated within a flexible, information-oriented system of production organization. In this context, it is argued here that producer services–carried out both within manufacturing firms and by “independent” enterprises–play a pivotal role in expanding the division of labor, productivity, and per capita income. This proposition is supported by results of an empirical analysis of metropolitan areas in major U.S. regions and in the nation as a whole.     

Piloting Regional Innovation or Much Ado about Nothing?—Evaluating the R&D Policy Initiative of Nordland,Norway

This article evaluates the results of almost a decade of experience with regional R&D development and implementation for enhanced innovation in the county of Nordland, Norway. Following a 2002 national devolution initiative, the county of Nordland was the first among Norwegian counties to coin and implement a distinct R&D policy for business-related innovation and development. This was done by setting up a broad regional partnership, framing a regional strategy and by coordinating substantial budgetary resources to implement the strategy. The evaluation describes the results of this process as ambiguous. This article looks at the process from three perspectives. First, we look at the organizational side of how the policy formation and implementation processes have performed. Second, we evaluate the business community response to the policy initiative to see whether any signs of altered behaviour can be found. Third, we look at how the partnership dynamic can explain policy outcomes. Theoretically and policy-wise we then discuss how our findings contribute to new insights in the field of analysing and generating regional innovation policy.     

DANIEL BRUUN: A DANISH TOPOGRAPHER‐ANTIQUARIAN ASTRIDE THE WORLD STAGE

One of the most remarkable contributions to our understanding of the Norse cultures of the North Atlantic was that of Daniel Bruun (1856–1931). A child of an innovative, prominent family from central Jutland, he received a military education and became a skilled cartographer. A dream from his youth to study Norse culture in Greenland was finally realised in 1894 when he conducted an impressive field campaign in the so‐called Eastern Settlement. In the following years, he pursued his observations in Norse Greenland with comparative studies in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway. On his initiative, and to a wide extent based on material collected by himself, the North Atlantic cultures were presented as a section of the Danish contribution to the World Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. His adventurous life, however, was not confined to the North Atlantic, but also included travels in Africa, Siberia, Asia, and North America. In many ways, the energy and curiosity of Daniel Bruun can be compared to that of recently departed Klavs Randsborg, to whose memory this article is dedicated.     

Morgawr: an experimental Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank craft based on the Ferriby boats

This paper reports on the construction of a full‐scale Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank boat based on the Ferriby boats. The boat, which was named Morgawr, was constructed in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, England, during 2012 and the first months of 2013, as part of a larger exhibition in the museum. This paper provides the background and context of the project, describes the process of building the craft, and reflects in particular on differences between Morgawr and the ‘hypothetical reconstruction of a complete sewn‐plank boat’ published in 1990 by Ted Wright and John Coates which formed the basis for this project.     

Linking Up to Development? Global Value Chains and the Making of a Post‐Washington Consensus

Over the last decade, the global value chain (GVC) approach, with its associated notions of chain governance and firm upgrading, has proliferated as a mode of analysis and of intervention amongst development institutions. This article examines the adoption and adaptation of GVCs at four multilateral agencies in order to understand the purchase of value chain approaches within the development field. Mixing GVC perspectives with other theoretical influences and applied practices, these institutions deploy value chain frameworks to signal a new generation of policies that promise both to consolidate, and to advance beyond, the market fundamentalism of the Washington Consensus. To achieve this, value chain development frameworks craft interventions directed toward various constellations of firm and non‐firm actors as a ‘third way’ between state‐minimalist and state‐coordinated approaches. The authors identify key adaptations of the GVC framework including an emphasis on value chain governance as an instrument to correct market failure in partnership with state and development agencies, and upgrading as a de facto tool for poverty reduction. They find that efforts are ongoing to construct a ‘post’ to the Washington Consensus and that the global value chain is enabling this process by providing a new language and new object of development intervention: ‘the chain’ and the local–global linkages that comprise it.