Regional Economic Development

The second edition of this book represents a re-editing and in some cases signi- cant rewriting of the original book published in 2001. Substantial editing occurred and new material has been included in the introductory chapter and in Chap. 10, the concluding chapter. The reason for this was to bring forward to 2006 the ori- nal thesis of the book about the need for regions to be prepared to experience - creasingly greater shocks and to have increasingly less time to respond in adju- ing their economic development to achieve sustainability. Events that have occurred over the past five years - such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, continuing the rapid advances in technology, the rise of sustained economic growth in China and beginning to unfold in India, the Indonesian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina devas- tion in New Orleans, the invasion of Iraq and continued unrest in the Middle East represents on-going and unforeseen risks and new challenges which continue to confront and impact nations around the globe and the regions and localities within them. Regions need to be fast and flexible and agile in order to be not only expe- tiously adaptive to change, but also to be proactive in developing strategies to - dress and shape their futures. In addition, some significant new material has been added to the other chapters to reflect recent advances in thinking and approaches to regional economic dev- opment analysis and planning strategy.

The second edition of this book is completely reedited making the book even more valuable for graduate students, reflecting recent advances and adding insightful new material.

The book is about the analysis of regional economic performance and change, and how analysis integrates with strategies for local and regional economic development policy and planning. First, the book provides the reader with an overview of key theoretical and conceptual contexts within which the economic development process takes place. However, the deliberate emphasis is to provide the reader with an account of quantitative and qualitative approaches to regional economic analysis and of old and new strategic frameworks for formulating regional economic development planning.

The second edition brings to the present its original thesis about the need for regions to be fast and flexible, but also to be proactive in order to be prepared to experience increasingly greater shocks while having less time to adjust their economic development to achieve sustainability. This is underscored by events that have occurred since 2001: 9/11 terrorist attacks, continuing rapid advances in technology, the rise China and India, the Tsunami, and all the known on-going and unforeseen risks and challenges that confront nations around the globe and the regions and localities within them. The book presents strategies and the traditional and expanded methods used to create and implement them.