Innovation, which in essence is the generation of knowledge and its subsequent application in the marketplace in the form of novel products and processes, has become the key concept in inquiries concerning the contemporary knowledge based economy. Geography plays a decisive role in the underlying processes that enable and support knowledge formation and diffusion activities and specific geographical characteristics are considered especially important in this context. However, more recently, attention has focussed on external knowledge inputs through innovation networks, and increasingly the evolutionary character of the processes that lead to knowledge creation and subsequent application in the marketplace has been recognised.

This book examines the intersection of the dynamic processes of knowledge production and creative destruction. The first three chapters all discuss the role of global innovation networks in the context of territorial and/or sectoral dynamics, while the following two chapters investigate the evolution of regional or metropolitan knowledge economies. The final three chapters adopt a knowledge base approach in order to provide insight into the organisation of innovation networks and spatiality of knowledge flows.

This book was published in a special issue of European Planning Studies.