Abstract
This chapter focuses on recent changes in the structure and practices of geographies of global economic governance that have become more influential in response to the financial crisis of 2008. At their core is a ‘smart specialization strategy’ aimed at revitalizing core economies and flexibilizing regional development pathways through targeted research and innovation investments. While ostensibly directed at regionally and locality sensitive development strategies, the paper argues that these smart specialization initiatives intersect in important ways with the growing economic and political dominance of large cities, especially capital cities. Such primate city concentration of wealth, political influence, and social capital poses real political risks in shaping future political and economic agendas, and efforts to manage regional inequalities.
The regional problem is not a problem of the region…. Not a problem of lack….
The regional problem is a problem of London!.
Doreen Massey (1979).
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Pickles, J. (2020). Smart Geographies and the Political Economy of Innovation and Inequality. In: Nedkov, S., et al. Smart Geography. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28191-5_3
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