Towards a Developmental Turn in Evolutionary Economic Geography?

Martin R. and Sunley P. Towards a developmental turn in evolutionary economic geography?, Regional Studies. Over the past couple of decades or so there have been increasing moves within evolutionary theory to move beyond the neo-Darwinian principles of variety, selection and retention, and to incorporate development. This has led to a richer palette of concepts, mechanisms and models of evolution and change, such as plasticity, robustness, evolvability, emergence, niche construction and self-organization, This opens up a different framework for understanding evolution. This paper sets out the main characteristics of the recent and ongoing ‘developmental turn’ in evolutionary theory and suggests how these might inform a corresponding ‘developmental turn’ in evolutionary economic geography.