Regional development can address a variety of problems such as access to clean energy sources, jobs and housing. It is a multifaceted and often contentious process in which many interests, groups and individuals compete to define a possible future of a region and thereby influence its trajectory.
A number of scholars in the field of social science have recently highlighted the importance of addressing power relationships in order to understand regional development processes. In particular, they have called for a more thorough integration of visible and invisible forms of power in research on regional development.
One strand of literature on regional development, evolutionary economic geography (EEG), focuses on the role played by firms in shaping the evolution of local economies and argues that the success or failure of an enterprise’s attempt to develop a new market depends on its ability to take advantage of opportunities created by global flows of capital, technology and workers. Another prominent geographical approach, regional innovation systems (RISs), places a similar emphasis on the importance of the capacity of firms to innovate.
In both EEG and RIS, however, attention is paid mainly to the purely economic dimensions of these processes and little is said about politics or power relations in a way that may be able to contribute to understanding contested regional development trajectories. This article is intended to fill this gap by arguing that noneconomic factors – such as political leaders’ vision, charisma and their ability to build trust between state governments, businesses and local communities – are equally important in shaping successful or unsuccessful attempts at regional development.