Sustainable Innovation and Regional Development

Rethinking Innovative Milieus

New Horizons in Regional Science series

Edited by Leïla Kebir, University of Lausanne, Olivier Crevoisier, Institute of Sociology, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, Pedro Costa, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Department of Political Economy and DINAMIA’CET-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal and Véronique Peyrache-Gadeau, EDYTEM, Université Savoie Mont-Blanc, Chambéry – Le Bourget du Lac, France

This book questions the way contemporary innovation processes develop and become embedded in territories. It analyses recent developments in territorial systems of production, networks of innovation and innovative milieus, with regard to the issue of sustainable development. Drawing on 12 case studies aimed at fostering sustainable development and conducted by an experienced team of international scholars, a new conceptual approach to sustainable innovation is proposed. More broadly, it also reassesses the development models proposed in the 1980s that emerged in the context of globalization, competitiveness and technological innovation.

‘This book is a compendium of interesting case studies on sustainable innovation that represent a new approach to business behavior. This approach incorporates cultural, political, and ethical values, and shared responsibility of the economic actors, particularly with respect to the environment.’
– Arijit Ray, Review of Regional Studies

‘This book makes several major contributions to regional innovation and sustainability research. Besides collecting very substantive cases, it provides an inspiring and generative conceptual framework. It argues convincingly that we have to move beyond narrow competitiveness concerns and embrace broader social, environmental and economic processes in their interdependence to better understand recent regional innovation trends. Thus, the term sustainability becomes much more analytical, and less normatively charged. The book deserves to become a standard reading in transitions studies, regional studies and economic geography.’
– Bernhard Truffer, Eawag, Switzerland and Utrecht University, the Netherlands

‘This ambitious book is at the vanguard of the debate on regional development and innovation. It revisits the classical concept of Innovative Milieus to interrogate more capacious forms and modes of innovation and articulate new ways of thinking about regional development. Drawing on highly inspiring case-stories, it offers a thought-provoking and timely contribution that goes well beyond the classic innovation-for-regional-competitiveness paradigm. A recommended read for scholars interested in new ways to analyze, understand and explain innovation in and for regions.’
– Lars Coenen, CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden