In a period of increasing globalization and rapid growth in emerging countries, recognizing sources of regional competitiveness is of paramount importance. This timely and informative book identifies and analyzes changes in the origins of regional advantage. The expert contributors illustrate that sources of regional competitiveness are strongly linked with spatially observable yet increasingly flexible realities, and include building advanced and efficient transport, communications and energy networks, changing urban and rural landscapes, and creating strategic and forward-looking competitiveness policies. They investigate long-term interactions between regional competitiveness and urban mobility, as well as the connections that link global sustainability with local technological and institutional innovations, and the intrinsic diversity of spatially rooted innovation processes. A prospective analysis on networks and innovation infrastructure is presented, global environmental issues such as climate change and energy are explored, and new policy perspectives - relevant world-wide - are prescribed.

Networks, Space and Competitiveness will prove an invaluable resource for academics, students and researchers across a range of fields including international and regional economics, regional science, economic geography and international business.

Contributors: C.R. Azzoni, R.N. Baleiras, A. Bhattacharjee, R. Capello, J.I. Carruthers, E.A. Castro, T.P. Dentinho, P.C. Ferrao, A.M. Fuertes Eugenio, M. Grillitsch, E.A. Haddad, C. Hoglinger, J.L. Marques, C.S. Silva, K. Spiekermann, F. Todtling, J.M. Viegas, M. Wegener