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In developing countries, implementing effective industrial policies faces challenges due to capacity and governance constraints, hindering accumulation of recognised success stories. This impedes our understanding of effective industrial policy tools in countries with accountability deficits. This article explores Russia’s Industrial Development Fund (IDF) support programmes, initiated since 2014, aimed at promoting import substitution through low-interest loans to industrial firms. These IDF programmes appeared to be more effective than most of Russia’s other industrial policy instruments. The article shows that they have resulted in statistically significant sales growth for supported businesses. It highlights institutional features contributing to programme effectiveness, ensuring the integrity of beneficiary selection and project support. It offers valuable insights for organisations implementing state support programmes in challenging governance conditions. Additionally, the recent emergence of more effective industrial policy tools like the IDF may partly explain Russia’s increased economic resilience against international sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cluster policies have been implemented for many years across Europe. Within an evolutionary perspective, industrial development policies need to be updated, and adapted to respond to new changing scenarios, challenges and demands of the social and economic community. It is the case of the challenges raised by climate change and the recent international summits and agreements (e.g. 2016 Paris Agreement or the recent COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh) or by exogenous shocks to supply and demand due to present international crises. This is the focus of this paper that analyses the evolution of cluster policies and identifies a specific gap that could and should be addressed soon. The policy literature thoroughly examines several areas that cluster policy should target to respond to the afore-mentioned challenges. However, one component is not adequately considered. This is the social capital linked to the important migration waves that have modified the social spectrum of European economies and have produced a strong impact on the way industry clusters function. Specific actions are required to address these important transformations and to restore the 'social embeddedness of economic action' and the social capital that ignites the competitive capacity of clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractStudies of industrial path development, a literature strongly influenced by evolutionary economic geography and systems of innovation theorizing, have an analytical focus on how interplays between actors, networks, and institutions, what we term social contingencies, shape industrial development in geographic areas. Tying into earlier calls in the literature, we argue that the emphasis on social contingencies has led to limited analytical attention to how material contingencies are also influential in shaping how and where industries develop. Based on this, we develop an analytical framework for studying sociomaterial contingencies for industrial path development in geographic contexts. Consequently, and echoing early path development theory, we argue for considering the breadth of dimensions underpinning industrial path development and their interplay, considering both intangible and tangible explanators without reducing either of these categories on behalf of the other. We discuss our approach in an exemplifying discussion of potential industrialization of hydrogen production in Western Norway to illustrate how assessment of sociomaterial contingencies adds analytical utility to the industrial path development literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2023, a collective of arts and humanities scholars undertook a mobile residency on the Far West Coast of South Australia, along the Great Australian Bight. Moving through deeply storied country that is largely marginal and neglected in the cultural and political imaginary, and negotiating our relation to this displacement as settler-colonial scholars with the privilege of mobility, the residency sought creative and critical approaches to self, place and others that might build capacity for shared reparative futures. Encounter, embodiment and entanglement – modes of staying with shadows cast by global forces of capitalism, industrialization, colonization and climate change and, just as importantly, staying clear of research methods that rehearse epistemic violence – formed the core of our intentionally indeterminate methodology. In keeping with a framework that accepts the contingency of knowledge and knowledge production, we offer not findings but seekings: invitations to engage in pursuing new collaborations, methods and politics for expanding imaginaries of materiality and connection, resistant to the dematerialization, dissociation and disregard inherent to the contemporary global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing the coordination and spatial spillover effects between industrial development and environmental protection is crucial for regional sustainable development. This paper examines the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the coupling coordination level between industrial development and environmental protection, as well as the evolution of the decoupling type within this system. under the evolution of the coupling coordination mode and decoupling model. Additionally, it analyzes the spatial spillover effects using the spatial panel vector autoregression model. The main conclusions are as follows: First, the coordination level between industrial development and environmental protection is increasing over time in each province. Second, the decoupling status of industrial development and environmental protection shows distinct stages, progressing towards strong decoupling over time. Third, regional industrial development has a positive spillover effect on both industrial development and environmental protection in neighbouring regions, whereas regional environmental protection has a negative spillover effect on industrial development but a positive spillover effect on environmental protection in neighbouring regions. This paper suggests that provinces should focus on the synchronisation industrial development and environmental protection and implement differentiated strategies based on their specific conditions. Additionally, joint management and governance should be pursued between neighbouring provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis essay addresses the physical transformation and changing public perceptions of the panel housing estates built in Bulgaria during socialist industrialisation. Particular emphasis is given to specificities of the Bulgarian experience, such as resident adaptations, self-made gardens and codes of behaviour around public spaces. The attitudes of various social and professional groups have been divided into four categories: rejection, scepticism, realism and reinvention. These serve as a framework for the analysis of two chief aspects: the physical decline and/or renewal of prefabricated housing estates; and the growing variety of public perceptions concerning these estates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, the social consequences of industrial development have long been questioned, but technological disasters of the last decades of the twentieth century led to a rethinking of Western ways of life and production. Engineering education has faced the challenge of taking these considerations into account via the humanities and social sciences (HSS) curricula, including themes ranging from work organizations to science and technology in society. Taking a sociohistorical approach, this article describes the apolitical stance of the integration of HSS into French engineering education. Following a problematization within the framework of curriculum sociology, the first part presents the sociohistorical context of French engineering education, with a particular focus on HSS. The second part highlights the difficulties of recognizing the scientific and critical nature of HSS in the larger engineering educational system. The article then presents the results of a review of current HSS curricula as posted on school websites, which reveals a pattern that HSS are taught in an apolitical stance, based in corporate themes rather than questioning the social order or science and technology in society. The review suggests that only a handful of schools have been able to break the boundaries between the engineering sciences and HSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Viennese waltz was the first vernacular, modern dance. Modern, here, Carrie’s the meaning of modernity. Such dances have an expressive relationship with the body and this requires a specific discursive understanding of what a body is and how it can be experienced. That is, modern, vernacular dancing is a function of the modern body. The modern body evolved as part of the social transformation of society from a feudal order to one founded on capitalism and industrialisation. The modern body is understood, and experienced, as limited by the body’s physical form, distinct from its environment. The body is the site of the individual, and, at the same time, it is the expressive site of mental stimulation. Notoriously, René Descartes theorised this construction in terms of a distinction between the ‘mind’ and the ‘body’ in Meditationes de Prima Philosophia published in 1641. A problem for modern, bourgeois society then became, how to control the expressiveness of the body in dance. This problem of management pervades modernity and is central to this article. The Viennese Waltz was the first modern dance, the first manifestation of dance as individual expression and, consequently, the first time the problem of how to control expression presented itself, and what the consequences might be if the dancing body was not controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions can the state discipline private equity firms into delivering the investment required to meet the coming needs of industrial transformation? States have sought to crowd in private capital to finance industrial development, but the results have so far been less than satisfactory. Prevailing accounts of financial industry power largely characterise an arms-length state-finance relationship that has unfolded in private-led markets where private equity firms have contributed to the secular growth in non-productive economic activity. This article problematises the assumption of private-led markets and argues that state-led markets present a counterfactual in which the disbursement of public money entails strict policy discipline and tight embedding between the state and private equity firms, which provides the conditions for them to emerge as unlikely champions of industrial policy. Two cases of co-investment between Chinese and European sovereign wealth funds demonstrate the power dynamics at play. Where PE firms in the Sino-Irish co-investment facilitated the international scaling of Irish firms in China, the PE firms operating in Europe failed to embed Chinese firms into regional supply chains in the Sino-Belgian co-investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation and integration in Global Value Chains (GVCs) is critical for industrial development, especially for developing economies in key sectors such as agri-food businesses (AFB). However, doing so optimally is difficult due to inherent power imbalances between GVC actors. Innovation intermediaries may support the upgrading and opportunities of less powerful actors by working between processes and institutions while exercising a mix of bargaining, demonstrative, institutional, and constitutive powers. By doing so, they can theoretically reconfigure chain governance structures. However, little research has been done on how precisely innovation intermediaries exercise these powers and to what ends. This study conducts case studies on two AFB non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Philippines, employing focus group surveys, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis to examine how they exercise different types of power to better their partners' GVC position. We find that both NGOs employ these powers in diverse ways and to varying degrees over time. Our results reveal the critical importance of active value chain participation by non-firm actors in influencing the balance of power within GVCs and in shaping government response. These results have implications for theoretical and policy debates concerning GVCs and innovation intermediaries, both generally and in developing economy contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilizes strategic trade theory (STT) to assess China's build-up of its maritime equipment (ME) industry. It does so by analyzing how maritime equipment has been addressed in Five-Year-Plans (FYPs) on the development of the maritime economy since 2013. Thus, it illustrates the importance of constructing integrated demonstration development zones and building-up technological capacities for the ME industry's development. It also details the Chinese government's objective to develop national champions in the ME industry, which corresponds with the broader context of China's Innovation-Driven Development Strategy (IDDS) since 2016. Though trade data illustrates China has not yet taken over the EU's current leadership position in the ME value chain, it does signal that dependence on the EU has been inversed for several categories of the ME industry. EU policymakers need to reflect on the possible ramifications of China's approach for both the EU's economic and security domains in deciding on if, how, and to what degree the EU and its member states should address China's ME build-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study are to implicitly investigate the relationship that exist between energy consumption (renewable and non-renewable energy) and human development (with the Human Development Index as proxy); and energy consumption and industrial sector performance (with industrial output as proxy) in selected sub-Saharan Africa and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Four groups of models were specified and estimated using Panel data for 21 countries according to income criteria from 1990 to 2022. These data were analyzed using Panel Ordinary Least Square (OLS) before which they were filtered with the use of Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test while the Johansen cointegration test was used to justify the long-run relationship among all included variables. The findings of this study revealed that energy consumption was positively related and statistically significant in explaining changes in human development and industrial sector performance in the selected sub-Saharan Africa and the OECD countries. However, changes in Human Development Index (HDI) were not statistically significant in explaining changes inindustrial sector performance in both regions. The results of the estimated models revealed a three-way directional causality among the selected variables. Additionally, it was established that a significant gap exist in human development, energy consumption and industrial sector performance, in favour of the selected OECD countries. Furthermore, it was also established that energy consumption and industrial output are potent determinants of human development in the selected OECD and sub-Saharan African Countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends the recent revisions to the two-sector model of Latin American structuralism, following the classical tradition approach, to a small economy with an advanced stage of industrialisation. After considering the incorporation of a third sector, which produces capital goods and is controlled by foreign capital, the relationships between distribution and balance of payments are analysed. The extended model enables an analytical formulation of O'Donnell's 'Pendulum', by putting forward various distributive configuration alternatives on the basis of different types of alliances between the classes described therein, as well as by identifying the limitations faced by each coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the transformative potential of inward investment on cluster development. It undertakes this through the lens of the evolving semiconductor cluster in South Wales (UK) and within a context whereby the semiconductor industry is under pressure with government interventions to improve prospects being implemented at a time of increasing global tension in the industry. The paper reveals the potential of inward investors as agents of regional economic change and cluster development. It shows that the emerging South Wales cluster distinguishes itself in terms of investment motivation, commodities and services produced. These factors result in growing embeddedness in relation to elements such as joint research with higher education and intra-firm collaboration to develop new products and processes. The paper concludes that investments based on risky and fast-changing technologies in industries such as the semiconductor sector necessarily create challenges for policy makers. These are best managed by placing greater emphasis on developing the conditions to satisfy the needs of such knowledge-intensive industries in relation to labour market conditions, factor conditions and market access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocational education and training (VET) has been emphasised as an important topic in Turkey's industrial development. However, Turkey's VET system has often been criticised for its weak performance in meeting employers' skill requirements and attracting successful students, which has resulted in the low status of VET in society. This article examines the Turkish VET system's on-going challenges through the evaluation of different groups of stakeholders. Drawing on the Capability Approach, it seeks to understand stakeholders' role in improving individuals' capabilities in a state-led VET context. Focusing on the automotive industry, the researcher conducted 26 semi-structured interviews with the representatives of four groups: firms, industrial actors (industry chambers, employer associations, and trade unions), state agencies, and vocational teachers. The findings show that all stakeholders engaging with Turkey's state-driven VET system agree on the strategic importance of the system for Turkey's economic and social development. However, this agreement does not prove itself in the concerted action of the stakeholders to deal with the system's challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes post-socialist industrial development and policy in the Western Balkans through the lens of its regional specialization and spatial concentration. Against a conceptual framework revolving around place-based industrial policy, and using the Concentration index (modified Herfindahl-Hirschman index) and location coefficients (Balassa index), a comparative analysis over three decades (1990–2020) highlights weak regional diversification and intra-regional integration of industrial activity. The findings offer a new industrial policy that transcends regional specialization and spatial concentration to address regional development, planning and governance. The concluding remarks reveal some basic paths toward effective and pro-European regional industrial policy in the Western Balkans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the existence of two main perspectives on the concept of convergence. The first view assumes convergence as an epistemological, methodological and heuristic issue resulting from the confluence of scientific disciplines and technological fields. The second view emphasizes the importance of technology management and industrial application development as strategies for analyzing the technical challenges and risks associated with convergence processes in the firm. To differentiate between the two visions, 59 specialized bibliographic works selected from a theoretical sample are analyzed. The main finding of this review is the characterization of these two perspectives that, although contradictory, are part of a common conceptualization of convergence as an umbrella notion. These findings provide relevant insights for a field of knowledge under construction: policy agendas focused on fostering technological convergence should start from the differentiation of these two analytical and conceptual levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that eco-innovations and the associated renewal of regional economic structures are pivotal in addressing environmental challenges, regional research is increasingly focusing on their spatio-temporal dynamics. While green technological and industrial path developments in specific regions have received considerable attention, little effort has been made to derive general patterns of environmental inventive activities across regions. Drawing on unique data capturing both green incumbent and green start-up activities in the 401 German NUTS-3 regions over the period 1997–2018, this paper sheds light on how eco-innovation activities unfold in different regional contexts. For this purpose, we introduce sequence analysis methods into the research toolkit of research on regional development. These novel methods allow us to understand to what extent regions engage in eco-innovation activities, how these activities change over time and to what extent similar or unique eco-innovation trajectories (co)evolve. Based on this empirical approach, we distinguish different types of regional eco-innovation trajectories and find a strong persistence and path dependency in green regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intricacies of replicating China's structural economic transformation through special economic zones (SEZs) in Africa, with a focus on the Eastern Industry Zone (EIZ) in Ethiopia. Combining insights from empirical research and the literature on China's development model, African SEZs and Chinese economic and trade cooperation zones (ETCZs) in Africa, we contend that while static industrialisation policies can be transposed more readily, the dynamic aspects that underpin China's model face challenges due to differences in institutional capacity and contextual synergies (internal and external). This hampers the efficacy of ETCZs in steering structural economic transformation. The article advocates for a more creative adaptation process, urging dynamic learning and leadership level innovation to address institutional and structural weaknesses while reducing vulnerability to externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polysaccharides are biomacromolecular widely applied in the food industry, as gelling agents, thickeners and health supplements. As hydrophobic groups, acetyls provide amphiphilicity to polysaccharides with numerous hydroxyl groups, which greatly expand the presence of polysaccharides in organic organisms and various chemical environments. Acetylation could result in diverseness and promotion of the structure of polysaccharides, which improve the physicochemical properties and biological activities. High efficient and environmentally friendly access to acetylated derivatives of different polysaccharides is being explored. This review discusses and summarizes acetylated polysaccharides in terms of synthetic methods, physicochemical properties and biological activities and emphasizes the structure-effect relationships introduced by acetyl groups to reveal the potential mechanism of acetylated polysaccharides. Acetyls with different contents and substitution sites could change the molecular weight, monosaccharide composition and spatial architecture of polysaccharides, resulting in differences among properties such as water solubility, emulsification and crystallinity. Coupled with acetyls, polysaccharides have increased antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antitumor, and pro-prebiotic capacities. In addition, their possible applications have also been discussed in green food materials, bioactive ingredient carriers and functional food products, indicating that acetylated polysaccharides hold a clear vision in food health and industrial development. Different catalysts and reagents could be chosen for acetylated polysaccharides preparation. Changes in structure properties of acetyl groups can affect physical and biological activities. Acetylated polysaccharides possess a lot of improved biological activities. Acetylated polysaccharides have great potential in food, pharmaceutical and biomaterial areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through historical and anthropological inquiry, this paper addresses the issue of memory antagonisms involving cultural landscapes in the context of a former mining region: the Belgian Black Country. This region, which became increasingly industrialized in the 19th century through the massive development of coal mining and steel industry, subsequently experienced deindustrialization, and now finds itself mobilized in a process of 'post-industrial' mutation. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, it examines how the landscapes inherited from industry, and in particular the slag heaps of the coalfield, have over time become repositories of a working-class memory, through the living and working practices of the communities surrounding the mines. It also documents the various representations attached to these landscape objects, whose contradictions echo the oppositions between capital and labor that have marked the development of industrial capitalism. The second part of the paper, which focuses on the present situation, examines how these representations are remobilized in the valorization processes that are initiated by different actors, in the context of a 'post-industrial' urban transition strategy that seeks to produce a unified and pacified historical narrative. We'll be looking at how historical conflicts still permeate the representations of these landscapes, the question of their conservation, and their possible future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses on sustainable development seldom question the mode of production behind so-called green technologies. Yet so long as these technologies are developed under a capitalist framework, they too will necessitate the cheapening of nature and labor. The socio-ecological costs of development in the Global North have long been borne by the Global South, and the production of green technologies risks reproducing this pattern. To critically engage with these dynamics, we use a political ecology framework to analyze lithium extraction in Bolivia. Supported by interviews with experts on Bolivian lithium extraction, we consider: (1) the anticipated socio-ecological impacts of lithium extraction; (2) the political economy of contemporary Bolivia; and (3) the governance/politics of lithium extraction at the local and global levels. The Bolivian state's effort to exercise its sovereignty and develop its economy through "100% state-led lithium industrialization" risks re-inscribing Bolivia's subordinate position in the world-system. Given the anticipated ecological impacts and unequal revenue distribution, local communities may be on the verge of accumulation by dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A functional and efficient financial sector is essential for the industrial advancement of a nation. In the context of Ethiopia's rapidly growing economy, this study examines the limitations imposed by its underdeveloped financial sector on the country's economic advancement and explores viable policy interventions. Characterized by state-owned bank dominance, a scarcity of non-bank financial institutions, and deficient infrastructure, Ethiopia's financial system perpetuates widespread financial exclusion. This exclusion hinders industrial transformation, stifles local business growth, and narrows financing avenues for foreign entities. Insights from China's shift toward market-oriented financial reforms and Kenya's fintech innovations suggest a path for Ethiopia involving clear, gradual reforms. Strategic steps could include diversifying financial institutions, improving financial infrastructure, advancing mobile payment solutions, and adopting more versatile financing methods to address the financial challenges of industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the history of the Soviet human acclimatization project in the North and Siberia, which spanned from medical experiments in Stalin's forced labor camps to the subsequent wave of industrialization in the region. The author argues that human acclimatization in the North was a settler colonial science project aimed at facilitating Russian administrators and engineers in asserting control over the territory and its resources, while creating a new homogeneous 'indigenous population' in Siberia and the North. This envisioned population, referred to as Homo Polaris by the author, was intended to emerge through a two-way transformation: the adaptation of Indigenous peoples into Soviet ideologies and practices, and the acclimatization of settlers coming from the European part of the country to the Arctic environment. Although the administrators and medical doctors were unable to achieve this biopolitical objective, the complexities and dialogues surrounding these transformations shed light on the late Soviet settler-colonial ideologies and their impact on social life in Siberia from the 1950s to the 1980s. The research is based on a comprehensive analysis of both published and archival works by scholars involved in the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution aims at: (i) mapping the deindustrialisation and reindustrialisation tendencies over the economic history of the Visegrad countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, henceforth, V4) since 1918 to 2022 by creating a cadastre of applied policy measures and evaluating their effectiveness; (ii) exploring whether the economic mentality of V4 countries allows current reindustrialisation policies to be effectively geared towards Industry 4.0? In order to understand the key features of industrialisation process in the V4s, a broad literature overview places emphasis on the economic characteristics of the region. It is also important to analyse the correlation between industrial policy in the XXth century and the new tendencies at the turn of the millennium by examining whether the current industrial policy mixes are serving economic resilience or grounding critical instability as a form of middle-income trap. Finally, it draws lessons for general- and V4-specific industrial policy in time of Industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the concept of geopolitical decoupling in global production networks (GPNs). Geopolitical decoupling is imposed on coupling participants by geopolitical forces that pressure transnational corporations to exit host regions/economies by cutting investment, production, and trade links with host country firms and industries. It also aims to disrupt inside-out trade, investment, and production links of host country firms abroad. The article identifies the basic features of geopolitical decoupling, the central role of states in geopolitical decoupling, the strategic responses of firms to deal with decoupling pressures, and the state strategies to cope with the negative effects of geopolitical decoupling in affected regions/economies. Empirically, the article investigates geopolitical decoupling on the example of the Iranian automotive industry, which experienced three geopolitical decouplings from automotive industry GPNs since 1979. It demonstrates the short- and long-term effects of geopolitical decoupling and recoupling on the Iranian automotive industry in the context of the strategic responses by the state and the political struggles over the nature of the state industrial development policy in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains independent Uzbekistan's transformation starting from its integration into the global economy as a primary commodity exporter. It argues that, in line with other resource-rich countries of the Global South, this transformation exhibited two enduring and interlinked features, namely rent-subsidised 'backward' industrialisation and the rise of a vast relative surplus population (RSP). First, the end of collective agriculture expropriated most of the Uzbek rural population from the land, so rents from cotton exports could subsidise 'backward' industries manufacturing for the domestic market. Second, as these industries could only absorb a minority of the population due to their limited (largely domestic) scale of production, the majority was turned into a vast RSP that struggles in the informal sector, including as labour migrants. Third, cotton's replacement by gold and natural gas as the main export commodities laid the basis for the current liberalisation. Still, Uzbekistan endures as a raw material exporter, hence as a 'backward' industrialiser and reservoir of RSP. As such, the paper problematises the transition literature's framing of Uzbekistan as an example of failed reform or successful developmentalism, showing instead how these enduring features of its development paralleled similar dynamics in other raw-material-exporting countries of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of economic integration on the environment in a sample of 36 African countries from 1990 to 2018. We employ the fixed-effect D&K estimator and the mediation analysis to examine direct and indirect effects, respectively. The findings reveal that economic integration improves the environment only when its negative indirect effects are neutralized. Precisely, economic integration has a direct negative effect on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and an indirect positive effect through urbanization, renewable energy consumption, financial development, and industrialization. The net effect is positive, and therefore, economic integration undermines the environmental quality in Africa. This result is robust when economic integration is split into trade and financial integration. The main implication of this study is that integration policies in Africa should also target greening the financial sector, sustainable urban planning, energy efficiency in the industrial sector, and renewable energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial for a special issue of the journal "Innovation & Development" focused on the financing of innovation for development in the Global South. The editorial highlights the need to address the relationship between finance and innovation, particularly in underdeveloped countries. It discusses the role of public financial institutions, such as national development banks, and explores novel forms of financing for innovation, such as micro-finance and venture capital. The editorial also introduces six research papers included in the special issue that touch on various aspects of finance and innovation in the Global South. Overall, the editorial aims to inspire new research questions and studies in this field. [Extracted from the article]

Manufacturing firms today co-exist in a complex collaboration network with their partners, who often seek help from external knowledge services to co-develop more competitive products. Thus, knowing how to accurately and rapidly acquire such knowledge to sustainably improve the quality of knowledge services are critical to maintaining the competitiveness of such firms. There is a need to develop reliable frameworks and tools to support the knowledge services of these firms. This paper proposes a service-oriented knowledge recommender framework focusing on the mechanism of knowledge service transfer and the knowledge recommendation model, which comprises the knowledge service demanders, knowledge service providers, and platform operators. The matching processes and algorithm of the knowledge service demanders and knowledge service providers are designed based on the product development tasks. A fuzzy synthetic evaluation method is proposed, using multi-factor, fuzzy decision making techniques, to improve the quality of the knowledge service. To validate the approach, a case study on gantry crane development is provided to show how to apply the proposed framework and system. An experimental evaluation is designed to demonstrate the benefit and performance of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the industrial revolution remains central to most accounts of the birth of the modern world, including, whether consciously or not, standard interpretations of Japan's modern history. However, recent decades have seen a burgeoning of research into the onset of industrialisation in Britain and elsewhere in Europe that has led to a significant reassessment of what the classic industrial revolution actually involved. Historians of Japan understandably have little time to take such developments on board and have therefore tended to rely on what is now an out-dated model as the background against which to describe the Japanese experience of industrialisation and modernisation. The purpose of this 'think-piece'/literature survey is therefore to outline the ongoing reconceptualisation of the industrial revolution and to provide some examples, using the English-language literature, of the ways in which the work of historians of Japan in various fields might be viewed from the new angle that it offers. In this light, such work can be seen as opening a rare window on to ordinary lives over the distinctive course of the first non-Western example of a reconceptualised industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, rapidly increasing production, use and disposable of plastic products has become one of the utmost environmental issues. Our current circumstances in which the food supply chain is demonstrated as containing plastic particles and other plastic-based impurities, represents a significant health risk to humans, animals, and environmental alike. According to this point of view, biodegradable plastic material aims to produce a more sustainable and greener world with a lower ecological impact. Bioplastics are being investigated as an environmentally friendly candidate to address this problem and hence global bioplastic production has seen significant growth and expansion in recent years. This article focuses on a few critical issues that must be addressed for bioplastic production to become commercially viable. Although the reduction of fruit and vegetable waste biomass has an apparent value in terms of environmental benefits and sustainability, commercial success at industrial scale has remained flat. This is due to various factors, including biomass feedstocks, pretreatment technologies, enzymatic hydrolysis, and scale-up issues in the industry, all of which contribute to high capital and operating costs. This review paper summarizes the global overview of bioplastics derived from fruit and vegetable waste biomass. Furthermore, economic and technical challenges associated with industrialization and diverse applications of bioplastics in biomedical, agricultural, and food-packaging fields due to their excellent biocompatibility properties are reviewed. Review of the diverse types and characteristics of sustainability of biobased plastics Improved pretreatment technologies can develop to enhance greater yield Enzyme hydrolysis process used for bioplastic extraction & hasten industrial scale-up Focus on technical challenges facing commercialized the bioplastics Detailed discussion on the application for sustainability of biodegradable plastics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature contends that the manufacturing sector is crucial for economic development, and it is conventional wisdom that exports drive manufacturing growth. However, it has yet to be established empirically whether the market size of export destinations is an essential factor in explaining diverging regional and sectoral manufacturing growth patterns. This article argues that accessing a few large external markets reduces entry costs, increases expectations of economies of scale, and fosters capital formation. To test this hypothesis, we construct a novel Relative Export Market Size (REMS) index that measures whether the share of sectoral exports destined to large economies in one region is higher than in other regions. Using a PVAR model with fixed effects, we verify the impact of the REMS index on value added, employment, and capital accumulation of 129 manufacturing sectors in 23 regions in Colombia from 1992 to 2017. The obtained results show that exporting to larger markets positively impacts employment, capital formation, and value added per capita of manufacturing sectors at a regional level. This finding indicates that exporting to the world's largest market helps develop competitive manufacturing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between industrialization and environmental quality. Despite an abundant literature on the subject, existing studies have not yet investigated the role of environmental policy stringency in the transmission of the effects of industrialization on environmental quality. This study uses a panel of 24 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with data covering the period 2000–2020. The use of the system GMM methodology shows that industrialization – measured by – the value added of industry and the value added of manufacturing – significantly deteriorates the quality of the environment. However, the introduction of the environmental policy stringency variable as a transmission channel produces a detrimental effect of industrialization on CO2 emissions up to thresholds of 37.33 and 37 respectively for the industrial sector and the manufacturing sector. For an environmental policy stringency above these thresholds, industrialization significantly reduces CO2 emissions. Finally, we found the Environmental Kuznets Curve between economic growth and CO2 emissions. Thus, a strengthening of environmental policy can help these countries to develop a virtuous relationship between industrialization and the quality of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although three centuries of industrialisation and growth have led to unimaginably better lives for most people, economic, well-being and health outcomes differ widely across places, both between and within polities. We suggest that policy to reduce such differences and ameliorate their impacts requires a consideration of the role of 'placeless' agents in shaping places – here, subnational regions. Prior economic development at macro-scales has rewarded and empowered placeless agents: firms, people and institutions which rely for well-being, identity and profits not on a specific place, but rather on a type or types of place. Their choosy mobility and lack of embeddedness means interactions with specific places are functionally narrow, voluntary, self-interested and potentially problematic for embedded actors, and for the health and viability of the places within which they operate. We operationalise this concept by developing notions of economic, socio-cultural and civic placelessness, make some suggestions for measurement, and assess a number of government policies developed in the region of Wales that are in part reactions to the incursion and impacts of the placeless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature unanimously agrees that industrial diversification is path dependent: new industries build on the pre-existing capabilities of regions that are partly embodied and reflected in the skills of the region's workforce. This paper explicitly accounts for regional capabilities as workforce skills to build skill relatedness and skill complexity measures, that is, the skill-spaces, for 107 Italian regions for the period 2013–19. The data-driven techniques we use reveal that skill-spaces form two highly polarised clusters into social–cognitive and technical–physical skills. We find evidence that social–cognitive skills yield the highest probabilities of regional competitive advantage. A comparison with co-location-based measures shows that our measures are able to capture a substantial part of regional capabilities that cannot be measured with previous measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Continental Congress foray into printed money during the American Revolution was so disastrous that the United States printed no more money for nearly a century, the one exception being a brief period during the War of 1812. After that Congress chartered and unchartered its national bank twice. The American economy henceforth (1816–1836) was often structurally short of coins, and without any national coinage Americans had to find substitute forms of currency to finance the burgeoning economy. The Supreme Court ruled that sovereign States and individuals could authorize both State and private banks to issue their own notes. In consequence, nearly all paper money in circulation was either State or private banknotes based on a limited reserve of gold. This generally proved insufficient to adequately fund major infrastructure projects. The federal government also had no institution for raising or transferring large amounts of money to fund these national improvements. Nonetheless, Hamilton's U.S. Bank, without the help of a national currency, was an institutional precursor for what would not take final form until 1913. There would be no Federal Reserve today without the Whig-Republican agenda institutionally incarnated in the First and Second U.S. Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study spanning 2010–2022 across 50 African economies, we investigated the effects of industrialization, labor force participation, and electrification on Africa’s productive capacity. We also examined how electrification moderates the effect of industrialization and labor force participation on productive capacity. We adopted the pooled OLS, the fixed effect estimator, and the dynamic system GMM estimation technique for our analysis. Our findings indicate industrialization, labor force participation, and electrification as potent channels for enhancing Africa's productive capacity. In tandem with Africa’s reality, we find that electrification isn’t moderating the positive impact of industrialization and labor force participation on productivity. Our findings also revealed human capital development, government health expenditure, and institutional quality as pivotal drivers of productive capacity in Africa, while factors like global economic policy uncertainty and natural resource endowment exhibit predominantly negative roles. These results underscore the need for African policymakers and leaders to foster an enabling environment that facilitates industrialization, increased labor force participation, and improved electricity access to promote economic performance and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study explores the relationship between land mortgage financing and urban economic development from the perspective of spatial spillovers. We develop a spatial Durbin model (SDM) using a dataset for 83 Chinese cities over the period 2007–2015, and find that land mortgage financing not only promotes local economic development, but also has a positive spatial spillover effect on economic development in other cities. Urban fixed assets investment plays a partial mediation role. However, compared with that of other cities, this positive spatial spillover is significantly weaker for the economic development of megacities and industrial cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extractive capitalism threatens biocultural diversity through the erosion of identity in the Anthropocene. The coastal community of Ketchikan, Alaska, while remote, contends with overtourism and economic dependence on the multinational conglomerate mass cruise industry. Travel restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdown temporarily removed 'the company' from the company town identity of Ketchikan. This provided unique research insights into social-ecological impacts and bioregional resilience. Residents of Ketchikan's greater bioregion provided empirical insights into the industrialization of identity and perceived biocultural impacts through qualitative, semi-structured interviews. This research extends place identity by applying critical ecofeminist-posthumanistic epistemologies that analyze the structural power components of biocultural identities. The findings offer a critical biocultural identity framework comprising nine indicators that serve to substantiate emotions, affect, and sensoryscapes as subjugated knowledges while critiquing the capitalistic colonization of materialisms and the psyche. Future interventions incorporating this framework may inform social science strategies for the conservation of biocultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has already caused pervasive pollution. To appreciate the scale of the problem, identify its causes and consequences, and develop strategies and practical counter measures, we present a comprehensive picture of soil pollution with more detailed analysis in Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The intensity of contamination depends on location, industrial development and the course of military operations. In the east of the country, illegal dumping of chemical waste as well as active hostilities have caused significant soil contamination with heavy metals and oil products: Kharkiv region showed a 200% increase in cadmium contamination; Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions showed a 139% and 156% increase in oil spills; all with serious consequences for public and environmental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the current debate on just transitions which is exploring what factors and conditions can lead to a twin transition that can also achieve an equitable redistribution of the outputs. The paper draws on the theories of justice, by bringing together three dimensions of justice: distributive, procedural and substantive justice. We apply this framework to explain the socio-economic impact of technology-pushed structural change on the future of work. We define just transition as a triple transition that requires digital and green shifts and crucially, a competence and skill transition that transversally cuts across industries, jobs and professions. The paper analyses the case of a specific region, Emilia Romagna in Italy, which has implemented, particularly since 2010, an original holistic approach to industrial development policy, comprising social and education policies. We conclude that within a national education framework tasked with pivoting the mix of necessary basic knowledge, regions have an important role to play by designing and implementing place-based education and training initiatives that are specific to the regional socio-economic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers in China and African countries increasingly attach importance to the exchange of knowledge in their development cooperation. Extensive business relationship and investment projects are found to be the major platform for skill diffusion between China and Africa. To examine the mechanism and effects of the bilateral knowledge exchange, this article uses Chinese investments in Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector as an example. By reviewing interactions at various levels of cooperation, namely within the enterprises, inter-enterprises and policy direction, the author reveals complex dynamics of knowledge sharing between Chinese and Ethiopian stakeholders. The knowledge transfer is not limited to formal training, but takes place in almost every aspect of daily operations and requires coordination of multiple levels. While knowledge is effectively transferred through practices, practices get improved through knowledge sharing at the meantime. Therefore, knowledge diffusion is not only an integral part of China-Africa economic cooperation for mutual benefits, but also facilitates political understanding and trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether latecomer provinces in China have experienced premature deindustrialization or reindustrialization by examining the positions of the provincial industry-income nexus using the latecomer index. The latecomer index facilitates the identification of the downward (premature deindustrialization) and upward (reindustrialization) positions of the nexus for latecomer provinces. The empirical analysis reveals that, for the nationwide level, the premature deindustrialization effect remains during the total sample period of 1992–2020 reflecting the initial regime prioritizing eastern coastal industrialization, whereas the pace of the premature deindustrialization is slowed down in the periods of 2002–2020 and 2009–2020 due to a series of industrial policies under the subsequent regime. At the regional level, the reindustrialization impact dominates the premature deindustrialization effect in the eastern and central regions, whereas this effect dominates the reindustrialization impact in the western region. The study identifies the existence of reindustrialization in China in the regional analysis, whereas extant literature on reindustrialization focuses only on European cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the historical perspective and current status of drying research and development (R&D) in China. The International Drying Symposium (IDS) series was launched in 1978, and since then, China has made significant contributions to drying science, engineering, and technology. The article highlights the exponential growth in Chinese publications on drying and the top institutions and industries involved in drying R&D. It also mentions the development of various drying technologies in China, such as single droplet drying, microwave-assisted spouted bed drying, and pulsed vacuum drying. Additionally, the article discusses the growth of the drying equipment manufacturing industry in China and the country's role in organizing academic conferences on drying. China is expected to continue advancing in the field of drying and promoting high-quality development and energy-efficient practices. [Extracted from the article]

For European naval powers, whose economic and political well-being depended on the success of naval enterprises, warships played a fundamental role. Based on a multi-scalar and comparative approach, evidence from post-medieval (or historical) shipwrecks, can contribute to a better understanding of modern technology and society. This article deals with the innovations of British, French, and Spanish warships that sailed from about 1750 to 1815. An archaeological, archaeometric, and documentary study of wreck sites, with emphasis on ships' structure, equipment, and ordnance, provided novel data to address the development of naval technology of the period. Based on this comprehensive approach, the information obtained allowed for a discussion of the impacts of industrialisation, warfare, and science on the innovation dynamic developed within the aforementioned states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contributes to the literature on industrial path development through its focus on asset modification for green path development in the Norwegian outdoor textile industry. The authors drew on the concepts of green path development and asset modification to develop a theoretical framework that describes green industrial restructuring as a process by which firms build on various firm-level and system-level assets that are altered through different asset modification modes, which in turn leads to different green path development outcomes. The framework was applied in a study of the greening of the Norwegian outdoor textile industry. A case study was based on data from interviews with firm leaders and industry experts. The findings show that all modes of asset modification are at play in the ongoing greening process. However, asset upgrading and asset creation play a central role. Furthermore, firm-level assets in combination with system-level assets at national and supranational scales are particularly important inputs to the greening of the industry. The authors conclude that in contrast to findings from previous research on industrial path development, regional-level assets play a minor role, which can be explained by the lack of geographical clustering and local embeddedness of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role that industrial culture and human agency play in regional industrial development. It makes three contributions. First, it discusses and explores the concept of regional industrial culture and examines its relevance for regional industrial development. Second, it identifies and investigates two main forms of regional industrial culture: one self-interest dominated type and one community dominated type. Third, the paper discusses how firm – and system-level agencies can contribute to changing the dominant form of industrial culture at the regional level. The paper also provides a study of the regional industrial culture and change in the culture by key actors and agency in the Molde region in Western Norway since 2010. The empirical study demonstrates that the concepts of self-interest and community dominated culture and their link to firm – and system – level agency is relevant to capture and describe a regional industrial culture and potential changes within it. We found that the industrial cultural change in the Molde region could be regarded as mainly being the outcome of system level agency performed by both firm – and system – level actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic developments affect urban land-use changes. Using Lefebvre's production of (urban) space as a conceptual framework, this study investigated the industrialisation process and its urban spatial outcomes in three cities (Galan, Dukem, and Bishoftu) along the southern outlet of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Landsat images were used to quantify the changing patterns of the three cities from the period 2006 to 2021. Interviews with key informants and document analysis were used to supplement these findings. The analysis reveals that in Addis Ababa-Bishoftu economic growth corridor, the unruly urban land-use changes have become a serious issue, challenging the sustainable development of cities. The study confirms that the proximity to Addis Ababa has contributed to the urbanisation process and urban corridor formation through investment expansion. This calls for a high level of expertise as well as integrated regional development for sustainable urban and industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Minister of Industries in Cuba between 1961 and 1965, Che Guevara addressed the challenge of increasing production and labour productivity in conditions of underdevelopment and in transition to socialism, without relying on capitalist mechanisms that undermine the formation of new consciousness and social relations integral to socialism. Under capitalism, Guevara noted, competition for private profit drives the application of science and technology to industrial development, revolutionising the productive forces. Socialist governments must find alternative methods. To these ends, Guevara set up nine research and development institutes, focussing on sugar cane derivatives, minerals and metals, the chemical industries, agricultural by-products, the mechanical industry, technological innovations, and automation. He established an institutional framework to begin experimentation at different ends of the production chain simultaneously. The short-term results were inevitably limited, but more significant than the productive achievements attained was the methodology introduced, the application of science and technology to production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]