1st Edition
Re-Constructing the Global Network Economy Building Pathways to Resilience in Local Economies
This book looks at how to build more resilience into socio-economic networks within local communities. Understanding the relationships between attachment to place, complex systems and patterns of knowledge creation is not straightforward, but these relationships are emerging as the challenges that we face in bridging the gap between the social worlds that we inhabit and an emerging digital world.
These issues have been brought into even sharper focus through changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, forced familiarity with communication technologies is driving globalisation forwards, whilst on the other, the crisis has created awareness of dependencies and heightened desires for more local solutions. Plenty of books have been written about the rise of digital networks and the decline of local communities. This book takes a radical approach by identifying how these trends fit together and provides examples of how digital networks can be made to work for the local as well as the global economy. Using a case study approach, the book offers a clear-sighted view of the role of relational capital in specific places and organisations and shows the transformational impact that they can have at a micro level.
The book deliberately seeks to shake up preconceived ideas and is ideal for strategy practitioners and policy makers within governments and NGOs involved in connecting local to wider network economies.
1. Setting the Stage 2. The Old and the New: Regional Development and Transformational Entrepreneurship 3. Stewardship and Resilience in Networked Spaces 4. A Fork in the Road: Exploring Space, Place and Method 5. Zooming from Somewhere to Anywhere: Case Studies 6. Pioneering Stewardship: Thriving in a Networked World 7. Conclusion
Biography
Andrew Taylor has co-authored three books about people, place and economy. He leads the management consulting firm Connect CEE and the NGO Transilvania Executive Education. Andrew has a PhD in environmental politics from Cardiff University.
Adam Bronstone works in the non-profit sector and serves as an adjunct lecturer in the area of Politics and International Relations. Dr. Bronstone received his doctorate in political science from the University of Hull, UK.
"The intellectual depth and breadth of this volume commends it to all those interested in figuring out ways for organizational entities to become more robust and resilient, for society to be more inclusive."
Daniel Daianu, Professor of Economics, and President of the Romanian Fiscal Council
"This is a book for anyone passionate about understanding our contemporary knowledge economies, connected deeply by technology, networks, people and places. It provides a hopeful theoretical underpinning as well as practical inspiring models to help develop fairer, sustainable, and resilient futures."
Carola Boehm, Professor of Arts and Higher Education, Staffordshire University
"This book provides valuable insights into the nature and importance of the interaction between public and private actors in enabling sustainable regional development. The theoretical considerations along with the four case studies offer a structure for developing community resilience."
Prof. Mihaela Lutas, Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Romania
