The role of policy in an evolving regional economy - A case study of the moving media cluster in Skåne

By studying the role of policy in the emergence of the moving media cluster in Skåne, this paper contributes to the understanding of how change in Regional Innovation Systems occurs and how it is change dependent by nature. The study shows how policy played a major role in the early stages of new path creation in the case of the moving media cluster. By assessing existing resources and competences, policy actors took the initiative to create novelty in the intersection of existing industrial sectors. Policy still plays an important role in the current evolution of the cluster, however in the role of a supporting actor rather than in the one leading the development. When analyzing the results with the theoretical framework, it reveals that a successful use of policy is based on a path dependent economic evolution and can be a tool for deliberate actions to alter future development trajectories. The role of policy is given the status of a key agent of change in the transformation of Regional Innovation Systems and through a co-evolution between institutions and the industrial structure, the economic evolution becomes place-dependent

Identification of regions with less developed research and innovation systems

The aim of this working paper is to contribute to the debate on how to identify regions with less developed research and innovation systems. We look at both conceptual and empirical approaches that figure prominently in scholarly work on regional innovation systems. Based on a critical review and discussion of the literature we shed light on a large number and variety of barriers and weaknesses that may hamper regional innovation and industrial change. It is shown in this paper that the regional innovation system concept can essentially inform the current debate on the design and implementation of smart specialisation strategies. It offers rich insights into various dimensions of regional innovation systems that may be weakly developed and allows for the development of typologies that capture the heterogeneity of these systems. We also demonstrate that empirical approaches to identify regions with less-developed research and innovation systems fall short of taking account of the conceptual advances made in the recent past

Guidebook for applying the Socio-Technical Configuration Analysis method

This working paper is part of the Socio-Technical Configuration Analysis (STCA) guidebook for beginners (see stca.guide). It serves as Chapter 1 of the guidebook, and introduces the conceptual and methodological foundations for the different analytical steps that are explained in subsequent chapters. We elaborate on the theoretical contexts in which socio-technical configurations, their dynamics and geographical variation play a key role and how this epistemological approach relates to well-established conceptual frameworks from innovation and transition studies. In STCA, statements or actions of actors that are reported in document stocks are aggregated into different forms of network or proximity map graphs, which can be interpreted as coherent storylines or strategies reflecting institutionalized socio-technical configurations shared by various actors. Shifts over time of these networks can then be interpreted as depicting transition dynamics, and comparisons across space as local variations of regime or innovation system structures. The paper introduces a coherent terminology to help researchers navigate through the different steps and software programs. It furthermore elaborates on a typology of research problems that can be analyzed through STCA and an overview on the generic steps that a researcher has to conduct when applying the method

Regions with less developed research and innovation systems

The aim of this working paper is to contribute to the debate on how to identify regions with less developed research and innovation systems. We look at both conceptual and empirical approaches that figure prominently in scholarly work on regional innovation systems. Based on a critical review and discussion of the literature we shed light on a large number and variety of barriers and weaknesses that may hamper regional innovation and industrial change. It is shown in this paper that the regional innovation system concept can essentially inform the current debate on the design and implementation of smart specialisation strategies. It offers rich insights into various dimensions of regional innovation systems that may be weakly developed and allows for the development of typologies that capture the heterogeneity of these systems. We also demonstrate that empirical approaches to identify regions with less-developed research and innovation systems fall short of taking account of the conceptual advances made in the recent past

The road towards autonomous driving – A differentiated view of institutional agency in path transformation

The purpose of the article is to contribute to conceptual and empirical understandings of institutional agency in path transformation. Previous studies of links between institutional change and industrial transformation have focused mainly on the institutionalization of new practices and influence of territorially defined institutional preconditions, leaving a need to disentangle different types of institutional agency and the rationales behind actors’ activities. The author elaborates on different dimensions of the institutional environment in which path transformation occurs and proposes a new analytical framework for investigating the role of institutional agency in path development. The framework identifies different types of institutional agency, respectively targeting the ‘legitimation’, ‘anchoring’ and ‘enabling’ of new paths. It is applied to a case study of the automotive industry in the NUTS2 region West Sweden, based on the development of self-driving cars. The analysis reveals that actors utilized the relationship between existing institutions when formulating strategies, rather than primarily targeting institutional change. The author concludes that actors deploy a combination of different types of institutional agency that exhibit varying spatial patterns, and discusses the implications for how the relationship between the past, present and future is understood in path development research

Contextualizing agency in new path development : how system selectivity shapes regional reconfiguration capacity

This paper examines factors shaping the reconfiguration capacity of regional innovation systems (RISs). ‘System selectivity’ is introduced as a concept to understand how factors such as regional imaginaries, power relations and directionality shape how RIS reconfiguration plays out. A comparative case study illustrates the conceptual arguments, investigating industrial change in two Swedish regions (the automotive industry in West Sweden and the digital games industry in Scania). The findings exemplify the influence of system selectivity on agents’ strategy formulation for RIS reconfiguration and highlight the importance of considering structure–agency dynamics to move beyond a stylized view of enabling or constraining RISs

(Re-)shaping regional economies : Regional innovation system dynamics and new industrial path development

This dissertation explores the complexities of regional economic restructuring. It casts a light on how regional environments are ‘reconfigured’ in relation to the transformation of existing regional industries and the development of new ones. More specifically, the aim is to advance our understanding of regional innovation system (RIS) reconfiguration in relation to new regional industrial path development.The theoretical discussion is anchored in a broad perspective of new regional industrial path development that has emerged at the intersection of different strands of literature in economic geography. The dissertation contributes to the academic debate by 1) developing a novel conceptual framework for analysing RISs from a ‘functional’ perspective, focusing on how system functions facilitate the provision of assets to regional actors; 2) investigating RIS dynamics, by disentangling the modes and types of RIS reconfiguration and factors determining RIS reconfiguration capacity; 3) exploring the interplay between historically developed context conditions and the role played by reflexive agents, zooming in on the evolving characteristics of RIS reconfiguration unfolding in different regional contexts.Empirically, the dissertation investigates processes of RIS reconfiguration and/or new industrial path development in four Swedish regions (Scania, West Sweden, and the city-regions of Linköping and Karlskrona) and one cross-border region (the Öresund region, encompassing the Swedish region of Scania and the Danish region of Zealand). Different types and stages of new path development in different industries are under scrutiny: the emergence of a digital games industry in Scania, the emergence and long-term development of IT industries in Karlskrona and Linköping, and substantial changes to the automotive industry in West Sweden based on the development of self-driving cars.The findings illustrate the complexity of structure-agency dynamics involved in new industrial path development. They point at the ways through which actors not only change, but also re-interpret and re-purpose existing structures, in order to alter the functioning of the RIS. The empirical analysis also highlight that securing the provision of assets relevant for new industrial paths include developing RIS structures in order to form assets within the region, and ways through which actors change the functioning of the RIS by developing structures for accessing or transplanting system functions from other regions. Furthermore, the findings situate RIS reconfiguration as a core component of new industrial path development and extend existing perspectives by 1) shedding light on changes in different dimensions of the RIS and 2) highlighting the role of RIS reconfiguration in the later stages the path development process, thus not only limited to ‘set the scene’ for industrial change processes.Finally, the dissertation offers valuable insights in relation to the design and implementation of innovation policy, such as smart specialisation. It suggests that the identification of regional priorities could benefit from taking a functional perspective and shows that the ‘opening up’ of existing RIS structures for asset provision can be a fruitful strategy across different regional contexts. By paying more attention to system functions, the reflexivity of actors and structure-agency dynamics, the dissertation provides policymakers with insights that are useful when designing transformational roadmaps and smart specialisation strategies

"Det" - Profession och giltighetsanspråk i läraryrket

During my one year master in pedagogic science, I was frequently given the impression that depicts the pedagogue’s profession as a rather transcendent talent or, more precisely, a matter of having ”it” or not. It seemed to me, as if the communicative part of the teacher’s specialised skill was more or less undefined in the description of what makes the pedagogue a professional pedagogue. On those premisses, I was led to the aim of this study, which is pursuing the very essence of the profession by discussing how five teachers validate their daily work from a habermasian perspective on communication, society and pedagogy. In this study, the interviewed teachers is making statements on how they mediate knowledge to students and why that particular mediation is taken place. This study argues, that the acceptability, which validates the pedagogic statement on mediation, is rarely founded on the science of pedagogy. There are other fields in the practices of the profession which makes the pedagogic action valid. In short: it is not pedagogic science that makes the profession a profession, the maintenance of the mission to the public school administration, for example, is a far more important source to acceptability in the teachers’ statements on mediation. The result of the interviews is placed in the context of the Habermasian discourse on the second modernity and its normativity claims of communicative action, rational interaction and consensus

Towards a multi-scalar perspective on transition trajectories

This paper contributes to the geography of transitions literature by conceptualizing transition trajectories from a multi-scalar perspective. It combines an institutional perspective of transitions with conceptions of scale from human geography to derive a framework which explicates how (de-)institutionalization and re-scaling mechanisms condition different transition trajectories. Our conceptual elaborations show that the traditional local-global niche cumulation and upscaling trajectory can be complemented with two alternative trajectories that build on analytically different sequences of institutionalization and re-scaling processes. This is illustrated through a case study of technology standardization in the sanitation sector, more specifically the development of the ISO 30500 standard for non-sewered sanitation systems, which was initiated by a consortium led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The observed transition trajectory departs from key assumptions of the local-global niche model, with actors engaging in direct institutionalization at the global level, followed by re-scaling global rationalities into different (sub-)national contexts