Working Regions focuses on policy aimed at building sustainable and resilient regional economies in the wake of the global recession. Using examples of four ‘working regions’ — regions where research and design functions and manufacturing still coexist in the same cities — the book argues for a new approach to regional economic development. It does this by highlighting policies that foster innovation and manufacturing in small firms, focus research centers on pushing innovation down the supply chain, and support dynamic, design-driven firm networks. This book traces several key themes underlying the core proposition that for a region to work, it has to link research and manufacturing activities — namely, innovation and production — in the same place. Among the topics discussed in this volume are the issues of how the location of research and development infrastructure produces a clear role of the state in innovation and production systems, and how policy emphasis on pre-production processes in the 1990s has obscured the financialization of intellectual property. Throughout the book, the author draws on examples from diverse industries, including the medical devices industry and the US photonics industry, in order to illustrate the different themes of working regions and the various institutional models operating in various countries and regions.

Makes correlations between success and geography, explaining how such rising centers of innovation as San Francisco and Austin are likely to offer influential opportunities and shape the national and global economies in positive or detrimental ways.

This collective volume shows how Ukraine can best be understood through its regions and how the regions must be considered against the background of the nation. The overarching objective of the book is to challenge the dominance of the nation-state paradigm in the analyses of Ukraine by illustrating the interrelationship between national and regional dynamics of change. The authors—historians, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, literary critics and linguists from Ukraine, Poland, Switzerland, Germany and the USA—explicitly go beyond the perspective of an entity defined by traditional political borders and cultural, economic, historical or religious stereotypes. The research project that led to the composition of the book combined quantitative (statistical surveys conducted across Ukraine) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and focus-group discussion) methods. The authors came to the conclusion that regionalism as a defining phenomenon of Ukraine is more prominent than the regions themselves. This approach regards Ukraine as a construct in flux where different discourses intersect, concur and eventually merge through the lenses of various disciplines and methodologies.

This timely book presents fresh, forward-looking analyses of key regions across the globe, organized around power transition theory. Tracking political and economic trajectories broadly, the contributors use cutting-edge data to forecast general trends in regional politics, economics, and diplomacy. Their collective insights into the likely directions of regional dynamics within a changing global order comprise an invaluable guidebook for forward-thinking readers considering where the world is headed in the coming decades and the implications for strategy, politics, and policy.

This is a timely and unique overview of the 16 diverse federal states that make up the reunified Germany. The essential data for each state is provided in this easy-to-use reference. The demographics, geography, history, recent politics, economy, architecture, and noteworthy sites, people and culture, memorial sites, and traditional cuisine are surveyed in turn. This is an invaluable resource for students studying German and Germany, travelers, and teachers. A clear introduction explains the new Germany in historical and regional context. It has been claimed that Germany is a post-national society, but regions are still a primary basis of identity for many Germans and one of the main references points in daily life and politics. Part of Germany's reconstruction came through re-creation and identification with historically remolded regions. This work offers a needed summary of the results thus far.

This book juxtaposes the experiences of regions that have lived or are living through industrial transition in coal-mining and manufacturing centres throughout Europe, opening the way to a deeper understanding of the intensity of change and of how work helps shape new identities.