Learning City Regions: Theory and Practice in Private and Public Sector Spatial Planning

In this article, it is argued that there are at least two different conceptual definitions of the learning region. The first sees them as localities that are spatially differentiated by capacities to collaborate and generate new economically valuable knowledge. The second sees them as an alternative policy prescription to overcome the persistent disadvantages of lagging regions. These different definitions lead to a lack of conceptual clarity in what empirical characteristics might count as a learning region. There is some agreement between them on the significance of knowledge networks as vehicles for the development of trust relations and the acquisition of tacit knowledge. In this context, the relationships between spatial planning and the development of soft and hard connectivity to facilitate networking are examined in the contrasting city-regions of Cambridge and Swansea. It is concluded that less favoured regions require demand-led increases in the proportions of innovative firms in order to accelerate their economic development based on learning region strategies.