Geography Reference
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for conserving existing structures or for modernizing existing production facilities
(adjustment). If institutional resistance to restructuring is weak, there might be more
room for setting up new industries, partly emerging out of the existing industries
(renewal), although this is no deterministic relationship, as also in a situation of weak
resistance there might be no evolution of new industries. Related to the issue of new
industries are the recent discussions on the role of related/unrelated variety and path
creation in restructuring regional economies (Boschma and Wenting, 2007; Frenken
et al., 2007; Martin and Sunley, 2006). On the one hand, variety is seen as a source of
regional knowledge spillovers, measured by
related
variety within sectors. On the other
hand, in the case of
unrelated
variety, variety is seen as a portfolio protecting a region
from external shocks. According to Martin and Sunley (2006, p. 421) 'there is a trade-
of between specialization and a short-lived burst of fast regional growth on the one
hand, and diversity and continual regional adaptability on the other'. In most regional
economies, however, the situation is rather complex, as:
various networks and structures of interrelatedness can emerge between dif erent sectors
and activities within a region, thus suggesting the possibility of what we might call 'path-
interdependence', that is situations where the path-dependent trajectories of particular local
industries are to some degree mutually reinforcing. The extent and signii cance of this interlink-
ing path ef ect is a key issue for further research. (Martin and Sunley, 2006, p. 421)
Although it is acknowledged that related and unrelated variety plays a role in the overall
restructuring of a regional economy, the main focus in this chapter is on the role of lock-
ins in the hindering of restructuring processes.
Several authors suggest that mono-structural regional economies with a high degree
of specialization, in particular, are most prone to regional lock-ins (Grabher, 1993;
Hamm and Wienert, 1989; Martin and Sunley, 2006; Schamp, 2000, p. 136). Going one
step further, it is also suggested that regional lock-ins are relatively strong in spatial con-
centrations of capital-intensive industries, such as the steel, coal-mining and shipbuild-
ing industries, which are spatially more concentrated than labour-intensive traditional
industries, such as textiles, and which are often characterized by high degrees of state
involvement at national and supra-national level leading to stronger protests and resist-
ance in case of politically inl uenced plant closures (Hamm and Wienert, 1989; Hudson
and Sadler, 2004, p. 291; Schamp, 2000). It is also emphasized that regional lock-ins are
embedded in varying national and supra-national institutional contexts (Hudson and
Sadler, 2004; Martin and Sunley, 2006; Schamp, 2000, p. 145).
The line, however, between adjustment and renewal cases can be very thin (Boschma
and Lambooy, 1999b; Grabher, 1993; Hamm and Wienert, 1989; Martin and Sunley,
2006; Maskell and Malmberg, 1999; Tödtling and Trippl, 2004). This is illustrated
by Essletzbichler and Winther (1999) when they speak about positive and negative
lock-ins, by Fürst and Schubert (1998) when they distinguish between productive and
non-productive political networks and by Callon (1998) when he refers to enabling and
constraining networks. As milieus tend to change more slowly than industries, a sclerotic
milieu can remain in a region even after the industrial structure to which it belonged
already has disappeared. The transition from positive to negative lock-ins and the thin
line between 'good' and 'bad' industrial agglomerations (Hassink, 1997; Saxenian, 1994)
show the importance of studying and understanding this under-researched phenomenon
