Local Economic Development

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the evolution of the concept of local economic development (LED) in economic geography and other social and economic disciplines. Defining LED as the process that links economic growth and development to specific features and dynamics that take place to the local scale, the author focuses on the broad array of meanings and interpretations that are associated to LED. Although LED mainly arises as analytical framework to put in context phenomena such as the diversification of regional development pattern and the resisting importance of urban and regional agglomeration in a globalized economy, LED literature traditionally associated with governance and policies praxis in order to enhance the performances of local economies in a context of global competition. In particular, we shall focus on the concept of territorial competitiveness, considered as the “cartina di tornasole” (non so come si traduca) of the extreme consequences of the LED discourses. In fact, the concept of territorial competitiveness pushes the main assumptions of LED literature so far to assume that not only firms but also territories do compete with each other. In this perspective, the processes of economic development are so strictly tied to local dynamics and assets that the territories assume a sort of economic – but not only economic – collective agency. In the conclusions, hence, we shall argument that this emphasis on cohesion and homogeneity that lies behind many discourse on LED and territorial competitiveness has some important consequences in terms of reification of the territory.