Regional economic resilience: A scoping review

Abstract

Since the late 2000s, the concept of regional economic resilience has become the new buzzword in economic geography. Despite considerable attention, a common sentiment in the literature is that regional economic resilience is an underdeveloped and fuzzy concept. Therefore, this paper conducted a scoping review of 168 articles on the concept of regional economic resilience from 2000 to 2022 to assess its present conceptual state. The paper finds that the notion of regional economic resilience has become a well-developed concept and does not bear the markers of a fuzzy concept anymore. A conceptual framework is advanced.

Prospects for municipal stewardship as a national policy: A scoping review and thematic synthesis

“…Surveying the emerging literature, CWB is conceptualised as being rooted in place-based economics, democratic participation and control and mobilising untapped power of the local public sector (Guinan and O’Neill, 2019: 383). When considering the implications that broader political and economic processes may have on the implementation of CWB as a national policy, our review of the relevant literature suggests that we have to be mindful of various dynamics, such as the changes in administration and longevity of the new municipal ideal (Bua and Davies, 2022), broader economic and political processes (Pike et al, 2007) which contribute to determine resilience (Sutton et al, 2023) and the need for institutions to evolve (Vazquez-Barquero and Rodriguez-Cohard, 2015), in order to fulfil the democratic aspirations underpinning CWB. Thus, depending upon how CWB is interpreted and approached, power, leadership and decision making can be held in a variety of ways, privileging certain groups of stakeholders.…”

Unresolved issues in regional economic resilience: Conceptual ways forward

“…We thus find, similar to Weichselgartner and Kelman (2015), that RER evolved from a highly descriptive towards a more normative concept, reinforcing the calls for more integrative endeavours across geography. Some scholars argue that RER has now matured into a well-developed concept that is no longer fuzzy (Sutton et al, 2023). Although agreeing that the four types of resilience proposed over time add conceptual clarity, we believe that the theoretical backbone of transformative resilience is far from consistent and difficult to operationalize.…”

Practitioners' ability to retool the economy: The role of agency in local economic resilience to plant closures in Ontario

“…Resilience is generally defined as “the ability of … economies to resist and adapt to or transform in the face of shocks and subsequently recover to maintain or improve their pre‐shock economic performance” (Sutton, Arcidiacono, et al., 2023, p. 6). This definition reflects the dominant evolutionary perspective in the resilience literature (Sutton, Arcidiacono, et al., 2023), which views economies as constantly changing and adapting to their economic landscape, including shocks, in a restless manner (Boschma, 2015; Bristow & Healy, 2014; Evenhuis, 2017; Hu & Hassink, 2020; Martin & Sunley, 2015; Simmie & Martin, 2010). The evolutionary perspective provides a stark contrast to the equilibrist perspective, which views economies as tending toward a stable or equilibrium state.…”

“…The evolutionary perspective emphasises that economic resilience is a dynamic process (Boschma, 2015; Bristow & Healy, 2014; Hu & Hassink, 2020; Martin, 2012; Martin & Sunley, 2020), consisting of five dimensions: preparation, vulnerability, resistance, response, and recoverability (Sutton, Arcidiacono, et al., 2023). First, preparation refers to the degree to which economies prepare for shocks.…”

“…A recent conceptual development in the resilience literature—coined the agency perspective and rooted in evolutionary thinking—highlights the importance of economic actors (e.g., workers, firms, policymakers, and institutions) in determining localities' resilience (Bristow & Healy, 2014, 2018, 2020; Martin & Sunley, 2015; Sutton, Arcidiacono, et al., 2023). The agency perspective was brought forth in the seminal work of Bristow and Healy (2014) and has influenced how scholars understand the determinants of resilience.…”