Three stories about regional salience: 'Regional Worlds', 'political mobilisation' and 'performativity'

Abstract

Territoriality is an important dimension of knowledge production and application. Despite the ethereal nature of the product itself, knowledge is thought to originate from, and be anchored to, particular places. Over the last decades, studies on themes such as Innovation Systems and knowledge spillovers have pointed at and further explored the spatial dimension of knowledge production, suggesting that due to spatial boundedness of knowledge the region presents an essential site for innovation, production and policy-makers. To review this message of regional salience three stories are presented: The first story, the institutional-economic account, features the role of the economy. The second story features political actors and processes, and the way these have promoted and mobilised the region as a significant site of innovation, production and policy-making. The third story focuses on the message of regional salience itself, with as protagonists the authors of the message, namely academics. The conclusion will bring the various stories together, suggesting how the story of performativity bears on the story on political mobil isation, and how both these stories may serve to put the institutional-economic account into perspective.