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Breaking Out from Lock-In: Regional Innovation Strategies in the German Ruhrgebiet

Breaking Out from Lock-In: Regional Innovation Strategies in the German Ruhrgebiet

Gert-Jan Hospers
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 14
ISBN13: 9781616928469|ISBN10: 1616928468|EISBN13: 9781616928483
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch005
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MLA

Hospers, Gert-Jan. "Breaking Out from Lock-In: Regional Innovation Strategies in the German Ruhrgebiet." Regional Innovation Systems and Sustainable Development: Emerging Technologies, edited by Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos, et al., IGI Global, 2011, pp. 43-56. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch005

APA

Hospers, G. (2011). Breaking Out from Lock-In: Regional Innovation Strategies in the German Ruhrgebiet. In P. Ordóñez de Pablos, W. Lee, & J. Zhao (Eds.), Regional Innovation Systems and Sustainable Development: Emerging Technologies (pp. 43-56). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch005

Chicago

Hospers, Gert-Jan. "Breaking Out from Lock-In: Regional Innovation Strategies in the German Ruhrgebiet." In Regional Innovation Systems and Sustainable Development: Emerging Technologies, edited by Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos, W.B. Lee, and Jingyuan Zhao, 43-56. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch005

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Abstract

This chapter discusses strategies aimed at regional-economic structural change in the German Ruhrgebiet. The Ruhrgebiet used to be the largest industrial area in Western-Europe. After the crisis in the coal and steel industry the region pursued re-industrialisation policies in the 1960s and 1970s. These attempts were largely unsuccesful. Therefore, since the 1980s the involved actors gradually adopted regional innovation strategies. Thus, they were able to break out from the region’s lock-in situation. The re-orientation of the Ruhrgebiet towards innovation based on the industries’ expertise and past (e.g. environmental technology, energy and industrial tourism) is more successful than its earlier re-industrialisation attempts. Also for other old industrial areas in Europe this kind of place-based renewal might be the future.

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