Futures should matter (more): Toward a forward-looking perspective in economic geography

Although the future is an increasingly important topic for regional economic development, our knowledge of the future as a research subject has been limited. Following futures studies, we develop a perspective on a specific version of regional futures research based on critical realism. We believe that discussing regional futures could be a promising “boundary object” for scholars taking different approaches. Moreover, we argue that economic geographers’ ability to engage with the future in meaningful ways is as important as their ability to engage with the past and present if the discipline is to retain its relevance in the future.