Teaching and Learning Guide: Rethinking Economic Geographies of Knowledge
Authors: Vallance Paul 
Published: August 2009

Introduction

Knowledge, learning and innovation are now accepted as central features of the contemporary post‐industrial economy, leading to their study across a range of academic disciplines including economics, business and management studies, and the social sciences. Economic geographers have made distinctive contributions to these wider debates by highlighting the uneven spatial distribution of knowledge‐intensive production activities in certain regions of the global economy. Explanations for these patterns have usually relied on arguments about the embeddedness of economically valuable, predominately tacit forms of knowledge in local inter‐firm and social networks based on geographic proximity, and a common regional culture of shared institutions. However, more recent work in economic geography has increasingly begun to move away from this established focus, challenging the precedence given to the local or regional scale. The article examines this potentially important development by reviewing a series of literatures that, in different ways, represent alternative ways of understanding economic learning processes, often involving the movement of knowledge on a transnational scale.

Author Recommends

The first two entries here aim to position a novice reader in the wider field of knowledge and economic geography. The remaining recommendations are for key texts that reflect different perspectives covered in the Geography Compass article.

1. Mackinnon, D. and Cumbers, A. (2007), An Introduction to Economic Geography: Globalization, Uneven Development and Place. (Pearson Education Limited, Harlow).

Chapter 10 of Mackinnon and Cumbers’ undergraduate textbook supplies a solid introduction to the place of knowledge and innovation in recent economic geography debates, although the focus is heavily weighted towards localised learning processes in clusters and learning regions. Emerging research exploring distanciated learning relations, by contrast, is given very short shrift.

2. Cooke, P. and Morgan, K. (1998), The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions and Innovation. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

This theoretically sophisticated but accessible, empirically grounded book is a good resource for students looking to deepen their understanding of regional theories of learning and innovation. Chapter 1 outlines a nonlinear, interactive model of innovation that underlies their argument for expanding the relevant level of study for these processes from the firm to the region. The book also contains four chapter‐length regional case studies, of which the first, on Baden–Württemberg is particularly valuable as an account of how the institutional structure of a classically innovative manufacturing region adapted to change in the global economy.

3. Bathelt, H., Malmberg, A. and Maskell, P. (2004), ‘Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation’, Progress in Human Geography 28 (1), pp. 31–56.

DOI: 10.1191/0309132504ph469oa

A much cited paper that extends the cluster model to encompass firms’ strategic linkages with select external partners. These linkages are conceptualised as ‘global pipelines’ through which firms can access new information and knowledge, and import it into the cluster where it spills over to become freely available as ‘local buzz’. It may also be a useful exercise for students to consider how this view of extra‐local relations compares with other positions in the literature covered in this Guide.

4. Amin, A. and Cohendet, P. (2004), Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities, and Communities. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

Chapter 5 of this book is one of the strongest statements on distanciated learning in the economic geography literature. The authors develop the basis for a primarily relational instead of territorial understanding of the spatiality of knowledge, by recasting the focus of their analysis from firms located in regional ‘islands of innovation’ to the more globally connected network spaces of modern corporate organisation. Students may also find chapter 4 on Practices of Knowing rewarding, as this is where much of the theoretical groundwork for the subsequent reimagining of space is done. Here, they draw on bodies of literature including communities of practice, epistemic communities and actor‐network theory to develop an interpretation of organisational learning based on social connectivity and alignment.

5. Faulconbridge, J. R. (2006), ‘Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms’, Journal of Economic Geography 6 (4), pp. 517–540.

DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lbi023

One of the best empirical applications so far of distanciated learning in relational spaces as outlined theoretically by Amin and Cohendet (2004). Faulconbridge uses research on professional networks in advertising firms to highlight the forms of interpersonal communication involved in the ‘global stretching of learning’, and the corporate knowledge‐management strategies that support these.

6. Coe, N. M. and Bunnell, T. G. (2003), ‘“Spatializing” knowledge communities: towards a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks’, Global Networks 3 (4), pp. 437–456.

DOI: 10.1111/1471-0374.00071

Coe and Bunnell provide a useful literature review of different concepts that are based on a knowledge community metaphor, and effectively summarise the distinctive insights offered by each. In the resulting discussion, they identify the presence of types of transnational innovation network other than those formed by large corporations, and particularly emphasise the agency of migrants and internationally mobile individuals in circulating embodied forms of tacit knowledge.

7. Gertler, M. S. (2008), ‘Buzz without being there? Communities of practice in context’. In Amin, A. and Roberts, J. (eds), Community, Economic Creativity, and Organization. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

This is a more balanced appraisal of the relational proximity/communities of practice debate in economic geography than previous critiques by sceptics of the argument. Gertler examines the conditions under which communities of practice may create the social affinities that enable knowledge transfer over distance. From reviewing the findings of previous research studies in this area, he concludes that the potential for extra‐local learning will vary between economic sectors dependent on the type of knowledge that underpins innovation in that production context.

8. Grabher, G. (2004), ‘Learning in projects, remembering in networks? Communality, sociality, and connectivity in project ecologies’, European Urban and Regional Studies 11 (2), pp. 103–123.

DOI: 10.1177/0969776404041417

This is the paper in which the full implications of Grabher’s analysis of project forms of organisation for the study of learning are developed. He uses research on the contrasting learning logics in advertising and software project ecologies to identify the diverse modes of social and communicative relations that are dominant in each of these settings. The paper is also notable in that it employs a relational understanding of space without privileging either the local or global scales: the different forms of learning practice discussed are seen to be a product of network relations of varying length and duration.

9. Law, J. and Hetherington, K. (2000), ‘Materialities, spatialities, globalities’. In Bryson, J. R., Daniels, P. W., Henry, N. and Pollard, J. (eds), Knowledge, Space, Economy. (Routledge, London).

This clearly written chapter is a very good entry point for students wishing to gain an understanding of actor–network theory, and how it can be applied to the topics of knowledge and economic geography. Unconventional ways of thinking about the materiality and performativity of knowledge, when this is considered as a ‘relational effect’ of the interactions between heterogeneous materials in networks, are introduced in the chapter and coherently summarised in the conclusion. The chapter also develops a position on the spatiality of knowledge that is based on the intersection of network and geographical forms of proximity and distance, from which students should be able to make connections to arguments elsewhere in the literature concerning relational proximities.

10. Swain, A. (2006), ‘Soft capitalism and a hard industry: virtualism, the ‘transition industry’ and the restructuring of the Ukrainian coal industry’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31 (2), pp. 208–223.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2006.00212.x

This empirical paper is a good way into the strand of work that explores the circulation of theoretical forms of economic knowledge. The opening section neatly defines concepts including virtualism and the cultural circuit of capital, which are then developed through a strongly narrative empirical case, describing an attempt to restructure the coal industry in post‐socialist Ukraine following a neoliberal economic script. This account allows for detailed examination of the articulation between a ‘transition industry’, consisting of international economists and financial institutions, and the more local state forces that determined how successful the spread of the transition script was in this case.

Sample Syllabus

The series of lectures or discussion‐based sessions proposed below are conceived as part of a specialised module on economic geographies of knowledge for advanced undergraduates or postgraduates, in which the background for the topic and more established regional positions have been covered in an earlier stage of the course. The sessions are intended to reflect a mix of more theoretically and empirically orientated topics.

Topics for lecture or discussion

Week 1: Beyond regional learning

This session introduces the teaching strand by examining arguments that address the potential limits of localised learning. Some of these arguments are concerned with reinterpreting existing concepts such as clusters or innovation systems to accommodate extra‐local linkages, whilst others emphasise that innovation is a multiscalar process, involving network relations that stretch across regional or national boundaries.

Reading

Amin, A. and Cohendet, P. (1999), ‘Learning and adaptation in decentralised business networks’, Environment and Planning D 17 (1), pp. 87–104.

Bathelt, H., Malmberg, A. and Maskell, P. (2004), ‘Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation’, Progress in Human Geography 28, (1), pp. 31–56.

Bunnell, T. G. and Coe, N. M. (2001), ‘Spaces and scales of innovation’, Progress in Human Geography 25 (4), pp. 569–589.

Oinas, P. and Malecki, E. J. (2002), ‘The evolution of technologies in time and space: from national and regional to spatial innovation systems’, International Regional Science Review 25 (1), pp. 102–131.

Week 2: Transnational knowledge communities

Arguments both for and against the possibilities of effective knowledge exchange taking place over distance have focused around the associated notions of knowledge communities in transnational corporations and relational or organisational proximities. A parallel strand of work examines the transfer of embodied knowledge in transnational communities formed through patterns of international migration.

Reading

Amin, A. and Cohendet, P. (2004), Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities, and Communities. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

Coe, N. M. and Bunnell, T. G. (2003), ‘“Spatializing” knowledge communities: towards a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks’, Global Networks 3 (4), pp. 437–456.

Gertler, M. S. (2008), ‘Buzz without being there? Communities of practice in context’. In Amin, A. and Roberts, J. (eds), Community, Economic Creativity, and Organization. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

Morgan, G. (2001), ‘Transnational communities and business systems’, Global Networks 1 (2), pp. 113–130.

Morgan, K. (2004), ‘The exaggerated death of geography: learning, proximity and territorial innovation systems’, Journal of Economic Geography 4 (1), pp. 3–21.

Saxenian, A. (2006), The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).

Week 3: Global service industries

Recent research on transnational firms in different types of professional and non‐professional service industry (e.g. law, advertising, retail) illustrates many of the ideas covered in the preceding sessions. These include the formation of organisational proximities through professional social networks, the role of corporate knowledge management strategies in supporting learning in the firm, and the continuing importance of embodied knowledge and face‐to‐face interaction in these sectors.

Reading

Beaverstock, J. V. (2004), ‘“Managing across borders”: knowledge management and expatriation in professional service legal firms’, Journal of Economic Geography 4 (2), pp. 157–179.

Bryson, J. R. and Daniels, P. W. (eds) (2007), The Handbook of Service Industries. (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham).

Currah, A. and Wrigley, N. (2004), ‘Networks of organizational learning and adaptation in retail TNCs’, Global Networks 4 (1), pp. 1–23.

Faulconbridge, J. R. (2006), ‘Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms’, Journal of Economic Geography 6 (4), pp. 517–540.

Jones, A. (2007), ‘More than ‘managing across borders?’ the complex role of face‐to‐face interaction in globalizing law firms’, Journal of Economic Geography 7 (3), pp. 223–246.

Week 4: Project ecologies

Project forms of organisation offer another perspective from which to examine learning processes in industries such as advertising, software, new media and design. Research in economic geography has been concerned with situating the temporary project in a wider ecology of more permanent relations including the project team, firm, cluster, interpersonal networks and global corporate groups.

Reading

Girard, M. and Stark, D. (2002), ‘Distributed intelligence and organizing diversity in new media projects’, Environment and Planning A 34 (11), pp. 1927–1949.

Grabher, G. (2001), ‘Ecologies of creativity: the village, the group, and the heterarchic organization of the British advertising industry’, Environment and Planning A 33 (2), pp. 351–374.

Grabher, G. (2004), ‘Learning in projects, remembering in networks? Communality, sociality, and connectivity in project ecologies’, European Urban and Regional Studies 11 (2), pp. 103–123.

Grabher, G. and Ibert, O. (2006), ‘Bad company? The ambiguity of personal knowledge networks’, Journal of Economic Geography 6 (3), pp. 251–271.

Sunley, P., Pinch, S., Reimer, S. and Macmillen, J. (2008), ‘Innovation in a creative production system: the case of design’, Journal of Economic Geography 8 (5), pp. 675–698.

Week 5: Reflexive economic knowledges

A feature of contemporary capitalism is the role of educational, media and management or policy consultancy institutions in producing and circulating theoretical knowledges that shape global business practice. Research in economic geography has investigated the effects of this kind of process in a number of different contexts and places.

Reading

Bryson, J. R. (2000), ‘Spreading the message: management consultants and the shaping of economic geographies in time and space’. In Bryson, J. R., Daniels, P. W., Henry, N. and Pollard J (eds), Knowledge, Space, Economy. (Routledge, London).

Hall, S. (2008), ‘Geographies of business education: MBA programmes, reflexive business schools and the cultural circuit of capital’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33 (1), pp. 27–41.

Hughes, A. (2006), ‘Learning to trade ethically: knowledgeable capitalism, retailers and contested commodity chains’, Geoforum 37 (6), pp. 1008–1020.

Lagendijk, A. and Cornford, J. (2000), ‘Regional institutions and knowledge‐tracking new forms of regional development policy’, Geoforum 31 (2), pp. 209–218.

Swain, A. (2006), ‘Soft capitalism and a hard industry: virtualism, the ‘transition industry’ and the restructuring of the Ukrainian coal industry’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31 (2), pp. 208–223.

Thrift, N. (1999), ‘The globalisation of the system of business knowledge’. In Olds, K., Dicken, P., Kelly, P. F., Kong, L. and Yeung, H.‐W. (eds), Globalisation and the Asia‐Pacific: Contested Territories. (Routledge, London).

Thrift, N. (2005), Knowing Capitalism. (Sage Publications, London).

Focus Questions

 What are the potential limits of theories of economic learning that focus on the regional scale?

 What are the forms of organisational or extra‐organisational mechanism that can support the development of transnational innovation networks?

 Does the concept of relational proximity imply that geography is no longer an important factor in the transfer of knowledge between actors?

 Research on distanciated learning in economic geography has so far tended to focus on certain types of knowledge‐based service industry rather than manufacturing: what are the main features of these industries that may explain this?

 In what ways does the concept of project ecologies offer a different perspective from clusters for studying learning in industries like advertising or software?

 How do education, media and consultancy institutions shape business practices in the global knowledge economy?

 How can actor–network theory widen our understanding of knowledge in economic geography?