Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
20 On the notion of co-evolution in economic
geography
Eike W
.
Schamp
Economic geography has recently seen various 'turns' in its way of thinking, adapting
and absorbing approaches that have been developed in related disciplines. Evolutionary
economics is a case in point that seems to increasingly inl uence empirical work in
economic geography, although the 'evolutionary turn' is still considered 'embryonic'
(Martin and Sunley, 2006, p. 396). This state of af airs calls for further rel ection on the
way in which the 'original' meaning of a concept in another discipline can be adapted
to the perspectives of economic geography. As the prei x implies, co-evolution always
occurs in association with evolution. While a serious debate on the concept of evolution-
ary economic geography (Boschma and Frenken, 2006) has already begun, its apparent
'alter ego', co-evolution, needs to be examined more closely as a concept in economic
geography. This chapter attempts to shed some light on the possible signii cance of
introducing co-evolution into economic geographical thought. Using an analytical
rather than a systemic approach, it argues in favour of a very specii c interpretation of
co-evolution. In a word, in this chapter co-evolution is not seen as a phenomenon that
generally accompanies the evolution of something else but as one that applies to a special
case.
If co-evolution is therefore to be understood as a type of alter ego, it is helpful to
begin with a brief rel ection about evolution and its interweaving with co-evolution.
Broadly speaking, there are two dif erent perspectives on evolution; that is, the neo-
Schumpeterian perspective which looks at the emergence of 'populations' dei ned in
micro-economic terms, and the systemic perspective where the entire economy is seen as
an evolving system. Co-evolution has a totally dif erent meaning in each perspective. The
i rst viewpoint calls for an exact delineation of what is co-evolving with what, whereas in
the second perspective co-evolution is 'embedded' in an overall systemic understanding.
Looking at the i rst perspective, section 2 discusses aspects of co-evolution that may be
crucial for analyses in economic geography. It should be noted that dynamic processes
in technology and innovation that can be analysed using the concept of evolution and
co-evolution are socially determined. This makes it possible to introduce 'institution'
as a dif erentiating characteristic of co-evolution.To put it more precisely, this chapter
understands co-evolution only as co-evolving populations of well-dei ned institutions.
The following sections discuss in more detail some major concepts of institution and
institutional forms that have long been familiar to economic geographers: the i rm, the
institutional setting, and the region. It will become clear that co-evolution is not seen
as an 'ordinary' fact in dynamic processes of spatial and regional development, that
co-evolutionary analyses require a thorough rel ection on any 'objects' included in the
analysis and on mechanisms of co-evolution, and therefore also call for further rel ection
on methodology.
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