Policy mixes for new place-based innovation policies: the role of regions in addressing grand societal challenges

Edurne Magro and James R. Wilson

Chapter 26 in The New Role of the State for Transformative Innovation, 2026, pp 434-447 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter addresses the potential for regional policy approaches that mix elements of direction-oriented industrial and innovation policy with elements of the emergent discovery processes characteristic of Smart Specialisation Strategies. As such, it explores policy mixes for tackling grand societal challenges in a place-based approach, where the roles of sub-national regions in what are inherently complex and multi-scalar challenges require clearer articulation and implementation. For that, the chapter includes illustrations from three European regions: Wales in the United Kingdom, and the Basque Country and Catalonia in Spain. The three regions present some singularities in terms of regional identity, significant challenges in terms of achieving decarbonisation goals, and stronger policy competences than other European regions. The chapter concludes with some reflections around the implementation challenges facing place-based policy mixes in this new era.

Keywords: Regional Innovation Policy; Multi-level Governance; Smart Specialisation Strategies; Grand Societal Challenges; Transformative Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781839100253
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781839100260.00037 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:19424_26

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().