Advancing spatial ontology in evolutionary economic geography through comparative analysis of Nordic battery-industry studies

Evolutionary economic geography (EEG) has been criticised for treating agency, institutions, and space in overly simplified ways, prompting calls for stronger engagement with geographical concepts. Responding to these debates, this article examines how Nordic battery-industry studies can extend and make EEG’s geographical framing more explicit through a comparative deductive analysis of three cases at cross-border, city, and regional scales. Drawing on Chu & Hassink’s (2023, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 16 (3), 391–404, doi:10.1093/cjres/rsad020) spatial ontology, the analysis is structured around five concepts: place specificity/locality, sense of place, constructed scales, place dependence, and path dependence. The findings show that these concepts can be operationalised comparatively to explain how green path development is shaped by spatially embedded relations among actors, institutions, and scales rather than by abstract regional categories alone. The analysis further demonstrates how agency is expressed within place-specific, multiscalar, and historically embedded development processes, highlighting the mutually constitutive relationship between agency and structure.