Regional development is the process of growing wealth, economic opportunities, and improved quality of life in a region (subnational territory). A wide range of policies exist to encourage regional economic growth and reduce disparities between regions. These include economic incentives, infrastructure investments, and soft measures aimed at improving business climates. Governments and the private sector both play key roles in regional development. The challenge is to balance equity and efficiency.
The prevailing understanding of regional development is that it is largely caused by the ability to reap economies of scale and scope resulting from a local concentration of economic assets (i.e., human resources, physical capital, technology). These assets are viewed as the necessary preconditions for generating a viable region in a global economy. In the recent geographic literature, this view is referred to as evolutionary economic geography (EEG) and regional innovation systems (RISs).
However, the ability of a region to benefit from these economies of scale and scope is often not a sufficient condition for regional development. Noneconomic factors are also critical, such as the nature of the firm’s activities, its open-mind and entrepreneurial spirit, its cultural identity and values, its physical infrastructures and progress in the development of industry, etc. This broader understanding of regional development is reflected in the work of scholars who draw on theories of power and domination from scholars such as Gramsci (1947/1999), Bourdieu (1989), Foucault (1979) and Lukes (2021). This scholarly trend suggests that regional development research can gain greater depth by integrating research into visible and invisible forms of power.
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