The micro-dynamics of learning networks: how local actors contest ‘peripherality’

Current thinking in regional development has been incredibly productive and led to a plethora of empirically-derived ‘big’ concepts and theories. These grand ideas embody the geographies of a very limited number of places, and little thought has been given to the assumptions which occur when theories are transferred between place. The implied method involves respatialising theories to produce concrete versions of these abstract theories, and comparing real regions against those exemplars, which produces significant ‘errors of taxonomy’. In particular, it undermines understanding less successful regions. In this paper, I use the idea of different versions of ‘peripherality’ applying in one place to use different theoretical approaches to make sense of a complex sequence of events. Forty five companies spun off from one electronics company in the North East of England over the last fifty years, an event which can be interpreted as either significant or not. By looking at the different versions of ‘peripherality’ present, and how that peripherality changes, I seek to produce a less core-centred approach to theorising uneven economic development.