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This paper reappraises the two papers of Manuel Castells published in this journal in 1993 and 2002. This appraisal considers the context of his academic career and formidable body of work, the historical period in which the papers appeared and the general discussion on the transformation of cities and societies in academia. Although his legacy is now strongly coloured by Castells' later shift to information and communication, his contributions to cities should not be neglected. Commonalities and differences between the two papers at issue here are summarised. Despite shifts in personal positions of the author and socio‐economic positions of the studied cities, commonalities largely prevail. Their footprint in the academic literature is indicated by a discussion of cities and the world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of both internal and external co‐inventor networks in regional diversification. The impact of co‐inventor networks on regional technological diversification is tested for a data set containing 1,495,699 patents in 643 technologies in 290 European regions at the NUTS‐2 level, between 1987 and 2016. Our results show that both internal co‐inventor network connectivity and external co‐inventor network linkages could benefit regional technology entry and prevent regional technology exit. However, too inwardly oriented or outwardly connected co‐inventor networks would hamper patent production. Regarding regional diversification, we find that both internal and external co‐inventor networks could facilitate the entry of related technologies and restrain the exit of complex technologies. This paper contributes to the literature by initiating the integration of the complexity dimension into analysing the role of co‐inventor networks in regional diversification. This research bears significant policy implications for the advancement of Smart Specialization Strategy in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]