Unresolved issues in regional economic resilience: Conceptual ways forward

Abstract

Regional economic resilience (RER) remains the state-of-the-art concept in economic geography to investigate regional development in times of disturbance. We seek to contribute to a transformative notion of RER, which unfolds in light of global environmental change. In our review of conceptual and empirical RER applications, we reveal three unresolved issues: a focus on firms rather than diverse actors, trivial reflections on social–ecological interdependencies, and the need for more fluid understandings of socio-spatial relations. Based on these insights from neighboring geographical disciplines, we provide concrete propositions for theoretical enhancement to make RER fit for purpose.