Pushing regional studies beyond its borders

This paper explores how we push the field of regional studies beyond its present institutional, conceptual and methodological borders. It does this from five perspectives: innovation and competitiveness, globalisation and urbanisation, social and environmental justice, local and regional development, and industrial policy. It argues that the future of regional studies requires approaches which in combination result in the pushing on (by creating), pushing off (by consolidating), pushing back (by critiquing) and pushing forwards (by collectively constructing) the field.