Theory and Praxis in Economic Geography: ‘Enterprising’ and Local Growth in a Global Economy

In a globalising world, a key question is: how can communities, cities, and regions continue to cope and prosper given the constraints within which they must work? The authors propose an approach to the geographical analysis of regional economic issues based on theoretically informed empirical modelling. The authors operationalise the approach by distilling eight measurable dimensions from a set of six institutionalist theories of local growth, with each theory being a unique combination of subsets of these dimensions. The impact of these dimensions on local economic growth is then explored in the empirical context of regional change in Australia. The results of this linkage of theoretical and empirical research suggest that local growth, at least in Australia, is fostered by two sets of processes associated with (1) ‘human resources’; and (2) an enterprising culture. The processes revealed suggest general lines that policy development might follow.