Modes of knowledge migration: Regional assimilation of knowledge and the politics of bringing knowledge into the region

Abstract

The dynamics of complex processes of knowledge migration are strongly influenced by the receptiveness of the territorial background such as nations, regions or locations. With regard to a regional assimilation of new knowledge the processes of knowledge migration offer several opportunities for regional policy-making that aim at bringing knowledge into the region. In order to understand knowledge beyond its “visible” or “measurable” aspects, a further cultural element has to be added to the standard set of socio-economic indicators, which constitute the collective explicit knowledge in a region. This cultural element, in contrast, refers to the collective tacit knowledge dimension in regional development that allows us to understand the prospects for a regional assimilation of new knowledge and to explain socio-economic variations among regions beyond the mechanical logic of statistics-based rankings and foresights. Regional knowledge culture is therefore conceived as the product of collective explicit and collective implicit (or tacit) knowledge components.