Regional Governance, Industrial Restructuring and Sustainable Development Conference 2018

The long-term development paths of cities and regions are shaped by a never-ending process of restructuring, with some cities and regions achieving fast growth over long period while others lock into a trajectory of relative and sometimes absolute decline. Nonetheless, in some cases, some lagging regions and cities find renewed growth and previously vibrant cities and regions may lose momentum. It appears that economic restructuring benefit some cities and regions and puts others at a disadvantage. The set of existing economic, political, and also social and cultural activities and functions in a city or region is important in this regard, and will determine whether a city or region can be at the forefront of such restructurings, can position itself to benefit from new rounds of investment and innovation, and can achieve more sustainable development, or instead will lose out and become marginalized. The variety in the development of cities and regions in the context of constant restructuring in the economy defies predictions of a clear-cut convergence or divergence, and instead leads to an intricate pattern of uneven development depending on a multitude of factors. Such combined and uneven development between cities and regions has of course long been a central research topic within economic geography, regional science and urban studies.

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