Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, a focus on the real-world economic geography of our world, i.e. the
spatial economy, prompts a variety of issues on management and governance of
land use and scarce space (O'Loughlin
2000
; Soja
1997
). Against this background,
also political science, planning, public administration and land use management
have to be mentioned as important constituents of a comprehensive view on the
development of the spatial economy.
2.5
Retrospect and Prospect
It seems plausible that the future of regional science will be marked by many
uncertainties on the dynamics of the spatial economy. Prominent sources of such
uncertainties are: global population dynamics and its spatial distribution (including
the urban-rural divide), the future of urbanization in an era where the megatrend is
towards urbanized settlement patterns, the complementary (sometimes mutually
supportive) interface between physical-material and virtual-digital spatial interac-
tion, and the complexity of governance systems in an age of unprecedented spatial
transformation in our world. All such phenomena call for advanced research tools
in regional science, for instance, on individual-collective spatial behaviour, design
of early warning systems, for critical transitions ('tipping points') in space, self-
organizing or resilient systems models on adaptability and vulnerability in space, or
data mining in case of large-scale or massive databases.
After the above exposition, it goes without saying that regional science is an
'
Unvollendete
': there will always be more secrets behind the horizon which prompt
our curiosity. Issues like the analysis of continuous space, the nature of spatial
complexity, the future of data-driven models, the spatial importance of the digital
society, or dynamic space-time interactions will be a source of scholarly concern
and scientific inspiration. It is predictable that regional science in the future will not
be a boring or dismal science!
References
Ascani A, Crescenzi R, Iammarino S (2012) New economic geography and economic integration:
a review, WP1/02, search working paper. London School of Economics, London
Barnes TJ (2004) The rise (and decline) of American regional science. J Econ Geogr 4:107-129
Barnes T, Gregory D (1997) Space, spatiality and spatial structure. In: Barnes T, Gregory D (eds)
Reading human geography: the poetics and politics of inquiry. Arnold, London, pp 232-243
Bosker M, Brakman S, Garretsen H, Scharm M (2007) Adding geography to the new economic
geography. Working paper no 2038, Center for Economic Studies/ifo Institute for Economic
Research, Munich
Boureille B (1998) The notion of space in the economic work of Emile Levasseur. In: Bellet M,
L'Harmet C (eds) Industry, space and competition: the contribution of economists of the past.
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 187-198
Brakman S, Garretsen H, van Marrewijk C (2009) The new introduction to geographical econom-
ics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
