Abstract
Research on regional development has recently explored new domains, including agency. Evolutionary perspectives link new development paths to technological innovations and adaptation of economic structures to changing environments. In contrast, the agentic perspective attributes the formation of new development paths to the purposeful actions of human actors. A broad interpretation of the notion of development paths is adopted, which goes beyond technological change, including also innovation in regional policy, governance, and leadership. The special issue contributes to these debates by offering diverse theoretical insights and empirically rich cases from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden. The eight cases explore how local agency emerges, functions, and facilitates the creation of new development paths under conditions of relative peripherality and legacies of former industrial specializations.
Keywords: Agents of change, agency and leadership, old industrial regions, regional development, development path
