Knowledge for Governance

This open access book focuses on theoretical and empirical intersections between governance, knowledge and space from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions elucidate how knowledge is a prerequisite as well as a driver of governance efficacy, and conversely, how governance affects the creation and use of knowledge and innovation in geographical context. Scholars from the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, public administration, political science, sociology, and organization studies provide original theoretical discussions along these interdependencies. Moreover, a variety of empirical chapters on governance issues, ranging from regional and national to global scales and covering case studies in Australia, Europe, Latina America, North America and South Africa demonstrate that geography and space are not only important contexts for governance that affect the contingent outcomes of governance blueprints. Governance also creates spaces. It affects the geographical confines as well as the quality of opportunities and constraints that actors enjoy to establish legitimate and sustainable ways of social and environmental co-existence.

Johannes Glückler is Professor of Economic and Social Geography and Fellow of the Marsilius Center for Advanced Studies at Heidelberg University, Germany. His research follows a relational perspective and builds on theories of organization, networks, and institutions in the study of the geography of knowledge and regional development. He is founding board member of the German Society for Social Network Research DGNet and co-founder of the M.Sc. Governance of Risks and Resources at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile.

Gary Herrigel is the Paul Klapper Professor in the College and the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, USA. He is the author of three books, many articles and a number of edited collections and journal special issues on corporate governance, manufacturing competitiveness, industrial relations, business history, economic geography and comparative political economy.

Michael Handke is a research fellow at Heidelberg University, Germany and head of the M.Sc. Governance of Risk and Resources at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile. His research interests include economic geography, risk research, financial geography, and development research. His empirical work focuses on the management of risks in economic relationships, with a particular interest in the dealing with risks under conditions of limited risk knowledge from a spatial perspective.