Studying human agency in regional development

Abstract

The regional development studies community increasingly focuses on the significance of agency when investigating why some regions or cities develop better or worse than others. Undoubtedly, this line of research increases our understanding of the relations and interplay between human actions and socially produced structures. The articles in this special issue follow this research agenda by focusing on purposeful and meaningful efforts by human actors to promote regional development in their parts of the world. This editorial identifies the reasons for the increased body of literature on agency in regional development and introduces the main lessons of the special issue.