University of Kiel, Germany Evolutionary Economic Geography, B.Sc. Geography

1. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Evolutionary
Economic
Geography
Summer
Semester
2021
1st lecture
22/04/2021

2. Eduardo Oliveira
oliveira@geographie.uni-kiel.de
Office hours via Zoom (with waiting room)
(Every Wednesday upon email > 16:00 - 18:00)
Robert Hassink
hassink@geographie.uni-kiel.de
(office hours)
Economic Geography Working Group
• 11 lectures/EN
• Seminar/EN/DE
• Exam/EN/DE
• Seminar/EN/DE
Evolutionary Economic Geography Module

3. Evolutorische Wirtschaftsgeographie und
Innovationsgeographie
‘The explanation to why something exists intimately
rests on how it became what it is’ (Dosi, 1997, p. 1531).

4.  Housekeeping rules
 Brief on economic geography (EG)
 Teaching strategy
 About WiGeo
 Specific aims
 Schedule
 Key references & sources
 Defining EG
 The history of EG
 Current strands of reasoning
 Evolutionary economics
 Evolutionary governance
 Seminar details
Today’s lecture

5. Housekeeping rules
 10:15 – 11:45 = 90 minutes lectures (Zoom)
2x 5 minutes break > strategically selected
 This is a co-created and interactive territory
 I ask for everyone’s cooperation
Mute v.s. Unmute your Mic.
 Share with us your questions throughout
mainly via chat (or voice if you prefer), EN/DE
 Continue the debate beyond the lecture (email)

6. Overall aim of this EEG Module
To understand
better
economic
geography
through
evolutionary
perspectives

7. Economic Geography in Brief
Geography can be
defined as the why and
so what of where.
--
In economic geography
the where, why, and so
what questions are
focused on
understanding
economy in territories
or organization
economic landscape.
(Clark et al. 2017)

8. Spatial dimension v.s. eco dynamics

9. Take the time to think big

10. Start today thinking about your topic
regions
strategy
Related and unrelated
Clusters
governance
evolution
Regional resilience
Corporate strategies
industrial dynamics
dependencies
Place-based
Supply-chains
growth
geographic inequalities
entrepreneurship

11. How?
 Drawing connections
between textual
arguments and the key
concepts BUT important
is your own interests
 Creating your line of
 Reasoning > your line of
thinking and go along
 Position yourself
 Select appropriate
literature
 Think beyond Anglophone

12. Teaching strategy
To doubt
To think
To think geographically
To communicate
To question
To be aware of social constructs
To make mistakes
To learn from mistakes
To have fun while learning.

13. Teaching strategy
Research-drive teaching > examples
A relaxing atmosphere
Informative slides, including hyperlinks
Read the literature shared via
OpenOlat
Think critically and independently
Share your thoughts
Support constructive debates

14. You'll find the latest publications of the Working Group Economic Geography here
Our understanding of Economic Geography
Economic dynamics
across scales
Involving players

15. Economic players
Geographical context
Governance context
Our understanding of Economic Geography
Evolve through time
Embedded in institutional settings

16. A relational perspective,
because economic actors do
not act in isolation.
An evolutionary
perspective, because
economic actors do not act
without a history.
An institutional perspective,
because institutions affect
decisions of economic actors.
Theoretical perspectives

17. Practice orientated perspective
Because economic players constitute, reproduce and transform the economy.

18. Aims of this module
• Advancing knowledge on Evolutionary Economic Geography
(EEG) through multidisciplinary perspective
• How evolutionary narratives of EG intersect with the
governance of cities and regions (Boschma et al. 2017);
• How EEG articulates and contributes to the
operationalization of EG concepts (place-based, clusters);
• Drawing synergies (+ aspects) and trade-offs (-) between
EEG and strategic thinking, alternative growth models.
In-depth exploration of EEG key concepts and theories
applicable to economic and social development across
spatial scales (from local to global). (Chen & Hassink, 2020)

19. Think geographically but multidisciplinary
Cocoa supply chain
 Production
 Consumption
 Distribution
 Beyond
 Communities
 Human rights
cocoa-barometer 2021

20. Economic geography and sustainability
https://greenworldwarriors.com/tag/logging/
Deforestation hotspots

21. Economic geography and sustainability
Lieferkettengesetz

22. 1) 22-04: Introduction
2) 27-04: Evolutionary Economic Geography within Grand
Societal Challenges
3) 29-04: Industrial Dynamics, Clusters and Niches, Green-
Entrepreneurship and Socio-Economic Transformation of
Industrial Towns
4) 04-05: Path Development and Path Dependence, Lock-Ins,
Co-Production Processes of Transformation and Regional
Structural Change
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
OLAT
OLAT
OLAT
OLAT
(Zoom)

23. 5) 06-05: Resilience Thinking and Resilience Strategies,
Economic Dynamics along an Urban-Rural Gradient
6) 11-05: Constructing Regional Advantage, Related and
Unrelated Variety
7) 18-05: Evolutionary Economic Geography and Place-Based
Regional Policies, the Entrepreneurial Region
8) 20-05: Strategic Thinking in Regional Development, Strategic
Spatial Planning and Regional Attractiveness Strategies
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
OLAT
OLAT
OLAT
OLAT

24. 9) 25-05: Social Capital and Corporate Spatial Responsibility,
Strategic Coupling and Sustainability Transitions
10) 27-05: Conceptualisation, and Implementation of Smart
Specialisation Strategies in Today’s Globalized World
11) 01-06: New Directions in Economic Geography: Classic
versus Alternatives Concepts and Practices of Economic
Growth and Regional Development
Examination
Tuesday, 03 of August 2021
(Zoom)
Seminar
25/26/27 June & 2nd July
(RH and EO)
Lectures, April, May, June 2021
Tuesday, 10:15 – 11:45 | Thursday, 10:15 – 11:45
OLAT
OLAT
OLAT

25. The quality of the material you are reading
https://scholar.google.com/ http://www.webofknowledge.com/ https://www.semanticscholar.org/
EU Science Hub
http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg.html
https://www.circle.lu.se/

26. Few important references to keep in mind
• Flor Avelino, Erasmus University of Rotterdam
• Anna Davis, The University of Dublin
• Julia Affolderbach, University of Trier
• Heike Mayer, University of Bern
• Simona Iammarino, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Lars Coenen, Western Norway University of Applied
• Bernhard Truffer, Eawag
• Teis Hansen, Lund University
• Sebastian Fastenrath, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute
• Boris Braun, University of Cologne
• Ron Boschma, Utrecht University
• Koen Frenken, Utrecht University
• Christian Schulz, Heidelberg University
• David Gibbs, University of Hull
• James Murphy, Clark University
• Canfei He, Peking University
• Christian Binz, Eawag

27. Few important sources to keep in mind
Academic Journals:
• Research Policy, Impact Factor (IF): 5.3
• Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, IF 8.4
• Global Environmental Change, IF 10.4
• Regional Environmental Change, IF 3.4
• Economic Geography; IF 8.2
• Journal of Economic Geography, IF 3,2
• Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, IF 4.4
• Ecology & Society, IF 4,4
• Papers in Economic Geography and Innovation Studies
• Regional Studies, IF 3.3
• Regional Studies, Regional Science
• European Planning Studies, IF 2.2

28. Defining economic geography
Research that examines how economic processes
intersect with the geographical organization of society.
(Sheppard & Barnes 2017)
The study of geographically specific factors that shape
economic processes and identify key agents (firms, labour,
state) and drivers (such as innovation, institutions and
entrepreneurs) that prompt uneven territorial
development and enable change (Aoyama et al. 2011)
As such, it involves the processes of production,
consumption, distribution, and exchange, in the formal
and informal economy (Clark et al, 2017).

29. EG: multidisciplinary
Territorial
governance Strategic
spatial planning
Economic
geography
Sustainability
principles
Regional
development

30.  What factors explain persistent poverty in global cities
such as New York, London, Lagos and Tokyo,
 What prompted the emergence of vast urban slums in
Calcutta?
EG: examples
What are the impacts of globalization on people’s jobs and
livelihoods across the world?

31. Central to the work of E. Geographers
Explaining causes and consequences of uneven
development, regional inequalities manifested across
territories is a central concern for economic geographers.
Sustainability of development trajectories

32. Economic geographers emphasize that identifying
and analyzing the various networks of linkages
and flows across space is essential premise to
understand economic landscapes.
Understanding the economic landscape
(Hassink and Gong, 2017)

33. Current strands of reasoning in EG
Commodity production:
 Evolutionary approach (firm;
enterprises; entrepreneurship);
 Relational approach (regional scale);
 Place-based approaches;
Global production networks:
 Industry development in space
 Global innovation systems of
industries
 Diversification / clusters / Niches
 Supply chains
Consumption:
 Public procurements
 User-driven sustainability
 Circular economy
 Slow innovation and slow
consumption

34. Evolutionary economic geography
Which of the theoretical notes from
evolutionary economics are useful to tackle
key questions in economic geography?

35. Historical perspective
 Charles Darwin, 1859
 Thorstein Veblen, 1899
 Joseph Schumpeter, 1911
 Richard Nelson and Sidney G. Winter, 1982 An
Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
 Evolutionary economic theory (Nelson, 2013)
 Neo-Schumpeterian School (Hanusch & Pyka, 2007)

36. Evolutionary biology
 Heritage
 Selection
 Mutation
 Co-evolution
 The local dimension
Evolutionary biology and economics
Economic thinking
 Heritage => Routines
Skills, learning-by-doing, tacit knowledge,
sunk costs, switching costs
 Selection => Competition
Selection environment, market structure,
capital market, institutions, spatial structure
 Mutation => Innovation
 Co-evolution => co-production
 The local dimension => place-
based policies, clusters etc.

37. Evolutionary economics
• Optimality through rational
choice
• Ahistorical and reversible
• Representative agent
• Equilibrium
Evolutionary economics vs.
neoclassical theory
Neoclassical theory
• Sub-optimality
through bounded
rationality
• Path-dependent and
irreversible
• Heterogeneity of
agents
• Processes of change

38. Innovation and technological development
Types of technological change
• Incremental innovations
• Basic innovations
• Techno-economic revolutions
• Techno-economic paradigms
Entrepreneurial discourse

39. Joseph Schumpeter
1939: Business cycles: a theoretical historical and statistical
analysis of the capitalist process
Mark I => entrepreneurs, creative destruction etc.
1943: Capitalism, socialism and democracy
Mark II => R&D in large enterprises
Innovation and technological development
One of the first scholar to theorize about entrepreneurship
Schumpeter identified innovation as the critical dimension
of economic change

40. Analyses and explains “the
processes by which the economic
landscape – the spatial organisation
of economic production, circulation,
exchange, distribution and
consumption – is transformed from
within over time” (Boschma &
Martin 2010, 6).
Evolutionary economic geography

41. As Boschma and Martin (2007) put it, evolutionary economic
geography is concerned with the spatialities of economic
novelty (innovations, new firms, new industries, new networks),
with how the spatial structures of the economy emerge from
the micro-behaviours of economic agents (individuals, firms,
organisations); with how, in the absence of central coordination
or direction, the economic landscape exhibits self-organisation;
and with how the processes of path creation and path
dependence interact to shape geographies of economic
development and transformation, and why and how such
processes may themselves be place dependent.
Evolutionary economic geography

42. Evolutorische Wirtschaftsgeographie und
Innovationsgeographie
Die Motivation zur Entwicklung der
Evolutorischen Ökonomik war eine
zunehmende Unzufriedenheit mit den
vorherrschenden neoklassischen
ökonomischen Gleichgewichtsmodellen in
der Ökonomik. Diese basieren u. a. auf
einigen sehr zentralen Annahmen. Zum
Beispiel, dass sich die Wirtschaft in einem
permanenten Gleichgewicht befi ndet bzw.
dass sie einen solchen Zustand zu jeder Zeit
anstrebt und Ungleichgewichtsphasen,
wenn überhaupt, nur für kurze Zeit
existieren können.

43. Evolutionary understandings of
Governance & power relations
Perspective on the way societies, markets
and governance evolve. It integrates concepts
and insights from various theoretical sources
into a new coherent framework.
Governance is never a matter of a few
people taking decisions. There are always
other actors who need to comply with rules,
who need to understand orders, others who
need to cooperate, to advise. Beunen, Van Assche, Duineveld 2014

44. The term governance itself is often associated with the supposed
shift from government to governance, a supposed change in
western societies from central steering and expert-driven
decision-making to more participatory forms of democracy.
Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT)
EGT can thus see the middle ground as more than that. It can
understand the supposed polarities of market and state as
mythologized polarities, and rather than two poles and a middle
ground, it can map out and compare pathways of governance, in
which market, state and law relate in different ways, in which
interventions of different sorts are more or less likely to emerge
and have more or less impact.
Beunen, Van Assche, Duineveld 2014

45. “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).
Evolutionary economic geography deals with the
uneven distribution of economic activity across space,
and how that evolves over time.
Summary of today’s lecture

46. Summary of today’s lecture, EEG
(Boschma and Frenken, 2006).
 Assumes the behaviour and success of firms to be dependent
primarily on the routines a firm (or its founder) has built up in the
past (path dependence)
 Views the traditional determinants of firm (location) behaviour as
being price signals (neoclassical) and place-specific institutions as
conditioning the range of possible (location) behaviours
 Views institutions as primarily influencing innovation in a generic
sense, and as co-evolving with technologies over time across
different regions
 Describes the spatial evolution of sectors and networks as a
dynamic co-evolutionary process transforming spaces
 EEG explains regional economic development from the dynamics
of structural change at the level of sectors, networks and
institutions at multiple territorial levels

47. Seminar
25, 26, 27 June and 2 July
 Presentation:
 15 – 20 min. in German or in English
 5 min. discussant
 15 min. discussion
 Written essay (paper):
 max. 3,500 words excluding references
 line spacing 1.5
Eduardo Oliveira
oliveira@geographie.uni-kiel.de
Office hours via Zoom (with waiting room)
(Every Wednesday upon email > 16:00 - 18:00)
Robert Hassink
hassink@geographie.uni-kiel.de
(office hours)

48. Seminar > Time Table
 Until 1st of June (final lecture) > first talk about your topic by e-mail or office
hours (Eduardo Oliveira - Robert Hassink)
 Until 8th of June > deadline for submission of presentation topic by e-mail
 Until 15th of June (10 days before presentation) > submission of structure, aim,
abstract (max. 150 words) + list of references to us by e-mail
 17th and 18th June > one-to-one consultation (email or office hours)
 Until 21st of June (3 days prior to presentation) > submission of extended
abstract (max. 1,500 words + list of references as PDF) > we will send this to all
participants by e-mail (please read and be ready to discuss)
 21 days after presentation: submission of final paper of max. 3,500 words
excluding references cited in the paper via e-mail and as PDF.
June > presentations > 25, 26, 27 June and 2 July

49. Collective presentation guidelines
25, 26, 27 June and 2 July
> specific schedule details will follow <
 Persuasive speech that you use to spark interest in
what your work is about and why it matters
 15 - 20 minutes your talk + collective discussion
(detailed schedule few days before via email + OLAT)
 Use Plain Language
 Keep It Simple and Short
https://academicpositions.be/career-advice/how-to-write-an-elevator-pitch

50.  Regional resilience thinking and processes of socio-economic
transformation
 Innovation in adapting and responding to the grand societal
challenges e.g. EEG v.s. energy transition
 In-depth reflection of spatial implications of EEG e.g. path
creation and the emergence of new industries in space
 Policy solutions to overcome causes and consequences of
uneven development e.g. supply chains; circular economy
 EEG and tourism, creative industry, sustainability transitions
 The role of spin-offs and start-ups in regional development
 Regional systems of innovation and high-/clean-tech clusters
Topic areas – few ideas only

51. Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Thank you
Questions?
See you on 27-04 (Tuesday): Evolutionary
Economic Geography within Grand Societal
Challenges (OLAT / Zoom)