Emergence of new industries in peripheral regions: the role of narratives in delegitimation of onshore wind in the Arctic Finnmark region

Abstract

This paper discusses how narratives influence the legitimation of new industries in peripheral regions. We contribute to the literature a discussion of the emergence of green industries in peripheral regions, but particularly to the emerging debate in evolutionary economic geography on the role of legitimation in the emergence of new industries. Based on an empirical investigation of narratives regarding onshore wind in the Finnmark region in northernmost Norway, we caution against the focus in the literature on ‘successful’ legitimation, arguing that to better comprehend how new green industries emerge in regions there is a need also to understand delegitimation of new industrial activities and to investigate unsuccessful path creation processes, not only paths that have come into being and where legitimation has been ‘achieved’. Following from this we argue that our study on how representations (i.e., narratives) of emerging paths are linked to observable outcomes (e.g., delegitimation) teases out the need for further investigation of power relations, a topic that has received very little interest in research on regional industrial path development.