University
of Washington
GEOG 567: Research
Seminar on Regional Economic Development
Autumn 2004 (5 credits)
Objectives
This course provides graduate students the opportunity to read and
discuss some key articles on the theory and study of subnational, regional
economic development in industrial and "post-industrial" settings, to develop
their own research program, and to get feedback on their research and writing.
By the end of the course, each student should have a good sense of some
key debates in the literature, the promise and shortcomings of the "cultural
turn" in economic geography and of the "new geographical economics," and
should have made progress on her/his own research.
Logistics
We will meet from 2:30 - 5:20 p.m. each Monday of the quarter (4 October
- 6 December), in Parrington 120. For six weeks, the format will
entail
-
asking questions and making arguments that each student has prepared in
writing, relevant to the assigned reading, and
-
a roundtable of theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical difficulties
each student is having in his/her own research (or, for students in the
first year of a graduate program, research agenda setting).
The instructor is Professor
James W. Harrington, who can be reached at jwh@u.washington.edu
or 206-616-3821; my office is Smith Hall 408.
Expectations and Grading
Each student is expected to
| Prepare brief written statements and questions (~300 words) each week1 |
30 points |
| Be able to discuss assigned material each week |
18 points |
| Make and report progress on his/her own research or agenda setting2 |
10 points |
| Provide a plan for her/his own deliverable3
(paper, article, dissertation, chapter...) by 10/11 or 10/18 |
7 points |
| Produce a self-defined deliverable by 5 p.m. Monday 13 December |
35 points |
Schedule
The articles cited below using only the authors' last names and publication
year are from Regional Studies 37 (6/7); this is available
as an e-journal through the UW Libraries. The availability of the
other articles is noted, in turn.
4 October: Empirical Overview
Everyone read and prepare a statement/questions on Porter [2003].
11 October: Is Rigor Possible?
Everyone read and prepare a statement/questions on Markusen [reprinted
2003]; we will divide the duties of reporting on Grabher and Hassink
[2003], Hudson [2003], Lagendijk [2003], Markusen [2003], Peck [2003].
18 October: Do Knowledge Linkages Define the
Local?
Everyone read and prepare separate statements/questions on Antonelli
[2003], Scott and Storper [2003], and Simmie [2003].
25 October: The Centrality of Regional Economies
We will divide the duties of reporting on
-
Sabel, C.F. 1989. Flexible specialization and the re-emergence
of regional economies. Ch. 1 in Reversing Industrial Decline?
Industrial Structure and Policy in Britain and Her Competitors, ed.
by P. Hirst and J. Zeitlin. Oxford: Berg. {Available at Rams
Copy, 4144 University Way NE, 206-632-6630}
-
Storper, M. 1995. The resurgence of regional economies, ten
years later: the region as a nexus of untraded interdependencies. European
Urban and Regional Studies 2(3): 191-221. {Available at Rams
Copy}
-
Storper, M. 2004. Society, community, and economic development.
Presented at the DRUID Summer Conference on Industrial Dynamics, Innovation
and Development, Elsinore, Denmark.
1 November: The New Geographical Economics
We will divide the duties of reporting on Brakman and Garretsen [2003],
McCann and Sheppard [2003], Ottaviano [2003],
Plummer [2003], Rice and Venables [2003].
8 November: And Back to the Relational Turn
Everyone read and prepare a statement/questions on
Bathelt, H. and J. Glukler. 2003. Toward a relational
economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography 3(2): 117-144.
{This is available as an e-journal through the UW Libraries.}
In addition, students will report on other materials they have read.
15 November - 6 December
We will decide the format and reading for these weeks, in early November.
Notes:
1. Written statements and questions do not have to, but might
profitably, refer to other published work, specifying whether the student
has or has not yet read that work. Purpose: for each student
to develop an annotated bibliography and a sense of relationships among
authors and strands of research.
2. Progress statements do not have to be written, but need to
be clear. Purposes: to gain facility with self-representation,
and to exhibit weekly progress.
3. Each student defines what product would most help his/her
own academic progress over the quarter.
copyright James W. Harrington, Jr.
revised 26 September 2004