Global and Regional Dynamics in Knowledge Flows and Innovation

Innovation, which in essence is the generation of knowledge and its subsequent application in the marketplace in the form of novel products and processes, has become the key concept in inquiries concerning the contemporary knowledge based economy. Geography plays a decisive role in the underlying processes that enable and support knowledge formation and diffusion activities and specific geographical characteristics are considered especially important in this context. However, more recently, attention has focussed on external knowledge inputs through innovation networks, and increasingly the evolutionary character of the processes that lead to knowledge creation and subsequent application in the marketplace has been recognised.

This book examines the intersection of the dynamic processes of knowledge production and creative destruction. The first three chapters all discuss the role of global innovation networks in the context of territorial and/or sectoral dynamics, while the following two chapters investigate the evolution of regional or metropolitan knowledge economies. The final three chapters adopt a knowledge base approach in order to provide insight into the organisation of innovation networks and spatiality of knowledge flows.

This book was published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.

Chris van Egeraat lectures economic geography at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland. His research interest and publications focus on global production and innovation networks, multinational corporations, regional clustering and economic development. He is the Chairman of the Regional Studies Association, Irish Branch.

Dieter F. Kogler is a lecturer in Economic Geography at University College Dublin, Ireland. His research focus is on the geography of innovation and evolutionary economic geography, with particular emphasis on knowledge production and diffusion, and processes related to technological change and innovation.

Philip Cooke is University Research Professor in Regional Economic Development (1991) and founding director (1993) of the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK. He was formerly (2005-2010) also Adjunct Professor in Development Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. In 2013 he was appointed Research Professor at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development. He has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Lund, Sweden & the University of Lappeenranta, Finland.