Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in economic geography. In this chapter, the constraining and negative character of
lock-ins is emphasized, as it analyses the explanatory role lock-ins can play in delaying
necessary renewal processes in old industrial areas. A sound understanding of negative
lock-ins is for several reasons important for geographers. They might explain the struc-
tural economic problems some old industrial areas face, as well as the related persistence
of regional economic inequalities in some industrialized countries. Moreover, a sound
understanding of the emergence of negative lock-ins might enable geographers to draw
policy lessons on how to avoid their emergence.
Thus, the evolutionary economics school and the related lock-in concept seem to be
useful concepts to understand the negative consequences of path-dependent develop-
ment and the importance of regions' capabilities to adjust their institutional endowments
('un-learning') (Maskell and Malmberg, 1999; Schamp, 2000). Grabher's lock-in concept
has been often cited (see for instance in Cooke and Morgan, 1998, p. 111; Schamp, 2000,
p. 139), showing its importance as an explanatory concept for the decline of industrial
areas, but empirical research testing the concept has been rare.
Moreover too little is known to answer the key question, namely 'why it is that some
regional economies become locked into development paths that lose dynamism, whilst
other regional economies seem able to avoid this danger?' (Martin and Sunley, 2006,
395). This chapter, therefore, not only aims at analysing whether we i nd regional
lock-ins in old industrial areas, but also tackles this key question by looking at factors
having an impact on regional lock-ins. Derived from the above discussions on path
dependence, lock-ins, institutions and industrial characteristics, the following impact
factors are expected to have the strongest ef ect on regional lock-ins. One could of course
debate adding more factors, such as the age of an industry, but these are regarded as the
most important ones. Impact factors are not the same as environment or context; they
also include the characteristics of the population, as can be seen under the economic-
structural impact factors. The strength of regional lock-ins, in turn, af ects adjustment
or renewal in old industrial areas (Figure 21.1).
Adjustment or renewal
Economic-structural
impact factors
Regional
lock-ins
Political-institutional
impact factors
Figure 21
.
1
Relations between impact factors, regional lock-ins and the restructuring in
old industrial areas
