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The geographical contours of political world economy can be discussed through a continuously changing structure of both core and peripheral areas on an international and intra-national scale and a collection of states and their corresponding national economies. Regional economies imply that the competitive advantages and economic fate of individual firms are linked to those of all the other local firms. Regional economies can also be considered as political entities since it take structures of collective order into account. This chapter summarises the author's insights regarding how the revival of regions as the focus of economic and political activity may be able to result in the rethinking of issues that concern citizenship and democracy in local society.

This chapter explores the nature of Italy’s ‘dual model’ of economic development up to the early 1930s, and how this is linked to the existence of a segmented banking system. It also analyses the political connections between government, small local banks, and regional economies.

This chapter examines the ‘industrial policy’ executed in the industrial district, Kawamata. The local government and associations made various attempts to support the development of silk weaving industry. An investigation into these practices and actions, as well as the conflicts within the regions, shows that both the silk traders and the rural elites played key roles in the process. Their activities were motivated by the widespread understanding within the region that the rural elites had to take responsibility for the development of the regional economy.

In recent years, debate has started to explore the tensions between global and local aspects of the Roman economic world. This chapter argues that the Roman economy is not only best understood as an agglomeration of globalized regional economies but that we can also define a series of major mechanisms at work that governed discrete areas of economic activity. In particular, it focuses on the role of the state as a motor of economic activity through its status as an imperial power. It constructs some simple models built around colonial discourse analysis, rather than complex economic theory. The main purpose of this chapter is not to outline a new general model for the Roman economy but to reignite debate about the economic face of Roman imperialism.

Building on the experience of nine Japanese electronics firms after World War II, the authors look at the explanatory contribution of selective factor disadvantages operating at the country level (hard countries) and of local rivalry (the stimulus of pressures) to the survival and growth of these firms. Their argument, which stresses the spatial influence on firm strategy, is close to that of Enright in the previous chapter. Since Fujita and Ishii look at the global operations of their nine selected firms, they are also able bring to the fore the geographical dispersal and local spatially determined dynamics as they impact firm strategy. Their detailed analysis shows that globalization of the chosen firms is a function of the desire to remain competitive. However, it also notes that fundamental problems have arisen for the Japanese electronics industry as well as for the Japanese economy, and these are identified as primarily institutional and competitive in type.

Concentrations of capital and human labor, relevant elements in the emerging world economic system, serve as the basic units of a new global mosaic of regional economies. This global mosaic, made of a series of developed geographic spaces found in various places in the world, has a central nucleus and surroundings of a variable radius. Understanding how this system works means grasping the notion of demographic and economic clustering in geographic space. Using empirical data for the United States, the author presents his insights regarding clustering and the patterns of economic location by sector. The author also presents a schematic outline of the new world map where the developed areas of the world are represented as systems of polarised regional economies. In line with this, the chapter includes a discussion regarding the social order of such systems.

China's transition from a planned to a market-oriented economy has led to the emergence of “local economic dukedoms.” As local governments are responsible for their own development, the regional economy has suffered from intense intercity competition. This chapter examines governmental power and its impact on Pan-Pearl River Delta (Pan-PRD) regional cooperation. It argues that the development of a coordinated network is essential for the stable regional governance of the Pan-PRD region.

This chapter is concerned with the evolving relationship between the Scottish economy and its constituent regions over the course of the twentieth century. It begins by considering the mechanisms by which regional economies prosper or stagnate. This prompts a series of questions. Have regional economic disparities in Scotland narrowed? Have regional economies become less distinctive? To what extent has the issue of regional disparities within Scotland been recognised and acted upon by public policy makers? What, in turn, has been the impact of policy upon the regional economies of Scotland? These thematic questions are analysed over four time periods. A snapshot of the regional economies of Scotland at the beginning of the twentieth century is given to provide a description of the economic structures inherited from the Victorian era. The processes of structural change which were at work between 1914 and 1945 are analysed next. These processes continued after the Second World War and gradually transformed the regional distribution of economic activity. Changes are discussed in the period up to 1975, this date chosen as marking the end of the long postwar boom, the first production of North Sea oil and the creation of the Scottish Development Agency. Finally, developments over the last quarter of the twentieth century are discussed.

Banks in the South and West received large state subsidies, became embroiled in infrastructure projects, and were expected to promote social welfare and the “commonwealth ideal.” In accordance with theories of the connection between financial development and economic growth, southern banks were designed to help late‐developing economies catch up with early developers. These institutions also played a secondary role in that they insulated regional economies from financial panics, extended recessions, and potentially devastating debt‐deflation cycles.

This chapter uses the preceding analysis of the organization, dynamics, and strategies of global production networks to explain the diverse patterns of uneven economic development within the global economy. As such, it completes the book’s three-step approach to theorizing economic development in an interconnected world with global production networks as the central driver. The chapter develops the concept of ‘value capture trajectories’ as a new way of thinking about the highly varied and dynamic outcomes for firms both articulated into, and disarticulated from, global production networks. In turn, the developmental implications of those value trajectories are analysed through the lens of the different modes and types of strategic coupling that may become apparent at the sub-national regional level. The chapter also discusses how these dynamic modes of coupling are themselves highly contested by a range of actors both within and beyond the constituent global production networks.

This chapter presents the nature of and limits to regional cultural hegemony in Morelos by discussing the general history of the conformation of the Morelos region and the relation between the political integration of Morelos and cultural hegemony. Morelos' proximity to Mexico City has held the development of regional economic and political elite. The transformation of Morelos' regional economy from its agricultural base to an industrial and service base initially reinforced the old core/periphery structure. The historical weakness of Morelos' elites is attributable to the region's position in Mexican political and economic geography. The proof of the weakness of Morelos' autochthonous Porfirian elites is in the Revolution itself. Politically, Morelos can be described as a region wherein the upper bureaucratic echelons have the power to appoint key officers at the local level. The weakness of the regional economic groups helps explain the issue of the political articulation of the region.

This concluding chapter summarizes the principal findings and offers some reflections on the boundaries of social citizenship and the role of race and immigration in American social welfare provision. Taken together, the treatment of blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants provides a nuanced picture of how race, citizenship, and nativity served as dividing lines between those who were judged worthy of assistance and those who were not. Despite persistent and widespread nativism, European immigrants were included within the boundaries of social citizenship while Mexicans were left on the periphery, granted limited inclusion at times, completely excluded at other times, and in some instances expelled from the nation entirely. Ultimately, the different treatment of blacks, European immigrants and Mexicans reflected the worlds each group inhabited—worlds bound by both regional political economies and each group's social position.

The prosperity of regional economies is inescapably linked to the health of their colleges and universities. Economic development has evolved from a by-product of higher education to a public expectation. Schools both big and small have emerged as crucial economic engines often taking the place of Fortune 500 corporations as a major generator of jobs and tax revenue. Economic impact can be maximized by developing a clear strategy, streamlining technology transfer, effectively managing conflicts of interest and developing mechanisms for bridging the chasm between the academy and the commercial world. It is critical that economic development be encouraged in service of the core mission of the university: research and teaching.