Table Of Contenti
Regional Economic Development
and History
Regional Studies is inextricably intertwined with history. Cultural and institu-
tional legacies inform choices between different policy options, meaning that
the past plays a crucial role in how we think about regional economic develop-
ment, planning and policy.
Through a selection of accessible theoretical, methodological and empirical
chapters, this book explores the connections between regional development
and history. Drawing on the expertise of scholars in several disciplines, it links
history to topics such as behavioural geography, interdependence, divergence
and regional and urban policy.
This innovative book will be of interest to researchers across regional studies,
planning, economic geography and economic history.
Marijn Molema is a historian and working as programme leader at the Frisian
Institute of Social Research. He is also a guest researcher at the Fryske Akademy,
a research institute in the city of Leeuwarden of the Royal Netherlands Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
Sara Svensson is a political scientist specializing in regional collaboration across
national borders. She is Senior Lecturer at Halmstad University in Sweden
and Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European
University in Budapest (Hungary).
ii
Regions and Cities
Series Editor in Chief
Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University, USA
Editors
Ron Martin, University of Cambridge, UK
Maryann Feldman, University of North Carolina, USA
Gernot Grabher, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany
Kieran P. Donaghy, Cornell University, USA
In today’s globalised, knowledge-d riven and networked world, regions and cities have
assumed heightened significance as the interconnected nodes of economic, social and cultural
production, and as sites of new modes of economic and territorial governance and policy
experimentation. This book series brings together incisive and critically engaged international
and interdisciplinary research on this resurgence of regions and cities, and should be of interest
to geographers, economists, sociologists, political scientists and cultural scholars, as well as to
policy- makers involved in regional and urban development.
For more information on the Regional Studies Association visit www.regionalstudies.org
There is a 30% discount available to RSA members on books in the Regions and Cities
series, and other subject related Taylor and Francis books and e- books including Routledge
titles. To order just e-m ail Emilia Falcone, [email protected], or phone on +44 (0)
20 3377 3369 and declare your RSA membership. You can also visit the series page at www.
routledge.com/ Regions- and- Cities/ book- series/ RSA and use the discount code: RSA0901
138. Metropolitan Economic Development
The Political Economy of Urbanisation in Mexico
Alejandra Trejo Nieto
139. Regional Economic Development and History
Edited by Marijn Molema and Sara Svensson
For more information about this series, please visit:
www.routledge.com/ Regions- and- Cities/ book- series/ RSA
ii i
Regional Economic
Development and History
Edited by Marijn Molema
and Sara Svensson
iv
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Marijn Molema and Sara Svensson;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Marijn Molema and Sara Svensson to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-3 3413- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0 -4 29-4 4554- 5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
v
Contents
List of contributors vii
Acknowledgements ix
Prolegomenon 1
Bringing the past back in: Taking history seriously in the
study of regional development 3
RON MARTIN, PETER SUNLEY AND EMIL EVENHUIS
Introduction 9
1 The importance of history for regional economic development 11
SARA SVENSSON AND MARIJN MOLEMA
PART I
Disciplinary and theoretical explorations 19
2 Regional development, history and the institutional lens 21
MARIJN MOLEMA AND JOHN TOMANEY
3 Behavioural economic geography and regional history:
Explaining uneven development from a human perspective 36
ROBERT HUGGINS AND PIERS THOMPSON
vi
vi Contents
PART II
Innovations in research design and methodology 61
4 An interdisciplinary approach to the persistent effects of
Polish partitions on educational achievements 63
JUSTYNA KOŚCIŃSKA AND MIKOŁAJ HERBST
5 Regional GDP before GDP: A methodological survey
of historical regional accounts 82
KERSTIN ENFLO AND ANNA MISSIAIA
6 Comparative research designs: Interdependence as challenge
and opportunity in regional studies 98
MARTIN ÅBERG AND THOMAS DENK
PART III
Empirical case studies 117
7 Catching the ladder: The formation and growth of the
São Paulo automotive industry cluster 119
TOMÀS FERNÁNDEZ- DE- SEVILLA AND ARMANDO J. DALLA COSTA
8 Urban and regional development policy: Its history and its
differences 145
KEVIN COX
9 Spatial- economic development: The effect of urbanization
on education in China, 1890– present 164
MEIMEI WANG AND BAS VAN LEEUWEN
Conclusions 183
10 Setting an agenda for a “New Regional History” 185
MARIJN MOLEMA
Index 197
vi i
Contributors
Martin Åberg is Professor of History at Karlstad University (Sweden), and
specializes in 19th and 20th century political organization and mobilization
in a comparative perspective.
Kevin Cox is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Ohio
State University (US).
Armando J. dalla Costa is an economist at the Federal University of Paraná
(Brazil) and Research Productivity Scholar at the Brazilian National Council
for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
Thomas Denk is Professor of Political Science at Örebro University (Sweden).
His research focus is on comparative interdependence, state formation, dem-
ocratization and political culture.
Kerstin Enflo is Associate Professor at the Department of Economic History
at Lund University (Sweden) and is a leading expert on long-t erm regional
development.
Emil Evenhuis is a researcher in the Department of Urbanisation and Transport
at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de
Leefomgeving, Netherlands).
Tomàs Fernández- de- Sevilla was the Kurgan van- Hentenryk Postdoctoral
Fellow in Business History at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
from 2015 to 2018.
Mikołaj Herbst is Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, the
EUROREG Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (Poland),
specializing in regional studies and the economics of education.
Robert Huggins is Professor of Economic Geography at the School of
Geography and Planning at Cardiff University (UK).
Justyna Kościńska is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Sociology, University
of Warsaw (Poland), working on the spatial accessibility of educational ser-
vices and urban sociology.
viii
viii Contributors
Ron Martin is Professor of Economic Geography at University of Cambridge
(UK) and President of the Regional Studies Association.
Anna Missiaia is a post- doctoral researcher at the Department of Economic
History of Lund University (Sweden) and her main research interest is on
regional industrialization and regional development in the long-r un.
Marijn Molema is a historian and working as programme leader at the Frisian
Institute of Social Research, Leeuwarden (Netherlands).
Peter Sunley is Professor of Economic Geography at Southampton
University (UK).
Sara Svensson is a political scientist specializing in regional collaboration
across national borders. She is Senior Lecturer at Halmstad University in
Sweden and Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies at Central
European University in Budapest (Hungary).
John Tomaney is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Barlett
School of Planning, University College London (UK).
Piers Thompson is Associate Professor of local and small business economics
at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University (UK).
Bas van Leeuwen is an economic historian working on global history at the
International Institute of Social History, a research institute of the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Meimei Wang is a PhD student working on Chinese economic and social
history at Utrecht University (Netherlands).
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Acknowledgements
This volume could not have been produced without the Research Network
Regional Economic and Policy History (ReHi-N etwork), supported by the
Regional Studies Association. We want to thank the RSA and their dedicated
staff members Klara Sobekova and Daniela Carl, among others, for their
involvement and interest. Conversations and cooperation with the co- founders
of the ReHi- Network, Arno van der Zwet (University of the West of Scotland),
Martin Åberg and Silke Reeploeg (Karlstad University), helped to shape this
volume as well. John Tomaney (University College London) was a valuable
advisor in the early stage of the network, and hosted its inaugural meeting in
April 2017. Lilla Jakobs at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European
University gave valuable advice on the practicalities of producing a book.
The Center as well as the Fryske Akademy also provided intellectual stimu-
lating environments for the duration of the work on this book. Lisa Lavelle
and Natalie Tomlinson at Taylor & Francis have been helpful throughout.
Ruth-Anne Hurst did a good job as production editor. This book was edited by
a historian and a social scientist (political science). We are grateful to each other
for the additional insights brought together by this cooperation, all of which we
will take with us in our further research work.
The editors, 17 September 2019
