I am a Professor of Geography and Planning at The University of Toledo. I am an economic geographer whose current research interests focus on the geography of the craft brewing industry.
In recent decades, the number of craft breweries in the United States has increased dramatically,... more In recent decades, the number of craft breweries in the United States has increased dramatically, increasing from around a thousand in 1996 to over six thousand today. In order to minimize start-up and initial operating costs, many craft breweries have located in older buildings in economically distressed neighborhoods. Craft breweries are particularly adept at engaging in adaptive reuse, with the result that they occupy buildings that were previously once churches, cinemas, fire stations, etc. This investment by craft breweries, in conjunction with investment by other businesses (as well as the public sector), has resulted in the revitalization of many of these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that were once full of abandoned buildings and suffered from social problems such as high crime rates have become destinations for residents and tourists alike. At the same time, however, there is a dark side to this neighborhood revitalization as rising real estate values has forced many establi...
The craft beer industry is of increased interest to academics and geographers are beginning to no... more The craft beer industry is of increased interest to academics and geographers are beginning to not only chart a "geography of beer"; but also the local economic development implications of the industry. Indeed, we posit that the growth of the craft beer industry resides at the nexus between nature, place, and identitydor what we consider an applied geography of growth that is necessarily informed by sustainability and the closely allied geographic concepts of human-environment interactions and place. Further, we examine the branding of nature and place as co-determined spatial mechanisms for market differentiation and economic growth including neo-localism. Specifically, we examine real world examples of authentic branding initiatives that extend from dynamic place-based human-environment interactions that promote the overall sustainability of communities and the craft beer industry. In doing so, we propose an economic development framework based in an applied geography organized around the concepts of place, region, and sustainability. The framework can be used in a variety of economic development contexts and across multiple industries.
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the initial measures that have been developed to e... more The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the initial measures that have been developed to evaluate the success of an industrial cluster that is focused on the greenhouse industry in northwest Ohio, USA. The firms that make up the core of this cluster are family-owned SMEs that are in the mature stage of the industrial life cycle. As such they are facing some significant competitive challenges that are threatening their future viability. Researchers from three local universities have been working with firms in the cluster to help them address these competitive challenges collectively. Success is defined as the benefits that the cluster has generated for the participating firms and the local industry. An assessment of the impact of the cluster on the regional economy is outside the domain of this presentation. The work reported in this paper is only the beginning phases of a longer-term, on-going effort to track the progress and success of the cluster.
Beginning in the mid-1980s Japanese manufacturing companies began to invest heavily in U.S. produ... more Beginning in the mid-1980s Japanese manufacturing companies began to invest heavily in U.S. production capacity. This was partly a response to a weakening U.S. dollar and trade protectionist measures imposed by the U.S. government. Japanese investment in U.S. production capacity continues unabated today. As more and more Japanese manufacturers started manufacturing their products in the United States there was an interest among geographers to understand the spatial dynamics of this investment. Much of this investment was directed towards the automotive sector. Given the large amount of investment that flowed into the automotive sector the purpose of this is to summarize three decades of scholarly research on Japanese direct investment in this sector.
International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, 2012
Industrial clusters have received considerable attention as a regional development strategy. Whil... more Industrial clusters have received considerable attention as a regional development strategy. While their efficacy has been debated by academics, clusters have become popular among practitioners. Despite clusters’ acceptance, there have been few attempts to measure their success or their impact on constituent firms. This paper outlines and discusses the metrics developed to evaluate the success of the northwest Ohio greenhouse cluster. The cluster was launched in 2004 to help the industry become more competitive though collaborative problem solving. In identifying success metrics, the authors were cognizant of the fact that they had to reflect the cluster’s objectives and goals. Thus metrics that measured the impact of branding and marketing efforts, reducing energy costs, and increasing collaboration among cluster stakeholders were developed. The work reported in this paper is only the beginning phases of a longer-term, on-going effort to track the progress and success of the northw...
Economic clusters have been delineated using Local Moran's I and Getis-Ord G * i because they dis... more Economic clusters have been delineated using Local Moran's I and Getis-Ord G * i because they distinguish relationships across areal unit boundaries within a specified neighborhood. A problem using spatial statistics with U.S. county data are the great variations in county sizes. We examined the relationship between the values for Local Moran's I and G * i , in groups of counties of differing size. The impact of county size on both spatial statistics using a contiguity spatial weights matrix and an inverse centroid distance matrix are assessed. In small counties, the choice in spatial weight matrices is immaterial, especially when using Local Moran's I. For large counties the differences between the spatial weights methodologies is more apparent, due to edge effects being more prevalent. Selection of an optimal combination of spatial weight methodology and clustering statistic should depend on the study's purpose, the distribution of county sizes, and the industry being studied.
Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to identify cluster areas. Geogr... more Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to identify cluster areas. Geographic proximity (co-location) is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for potential clustering activity. Therefore, assessment of industry location and density patterns becomes the first phase in the identification of potential cluster regions to be included in a cluster driven development policy. This paper uses Getis-Ord Gi* in the identification of potential cluster regions in the U.S floriculture industry. Issues related to the use of alternative spatial weights matrices are reviewed. Also the value of identifying nationwide floriculture potential cluster regions from the perspective of a northwest Ohio greenhouse cluster project is discussed.
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2012
This paper analyzes oral histories of eight northwest Ohio farms on the theme of farm succession.... more This paper analyzes oral histories of eight northwest Ohio farms on the theme of farm succession. We report several significant findings: a process of succession that is less orderly than some recent studies suggest; that farmers hope for, even expect succession but do not plan for it; the importance of wives to the adaptation and diversification of onfarm operations; and that contrary to some claims, the "farmer's boy"-type successors can innovate and adapt, suggesting the future of family farms may be in sounder hands than some believe.
Many American communities place a high priority on retaining and attracting innovative industries... more Many American communities place a high priority on retaining and attracting innovative industries. However, in most American metropolitan areas, the responsibility for local economic development is fragmented along jurisdictional and institutional lines. The result of this fragmentation is that local economic development is often chaotic with no one individual, agency, or jurisdiction in control, which may inhibit the effectiveness of local economic development efforts. To address these challenges and more effectively utilize resources, there has been greater emphasis recently on regional collaboration in local economic development. The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of collaboration among local economic development professionals in the Toledo, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area and to identify the extent to which these interactions constitute a social network. We believe that the existence of a strong social network among economic development professionals is critical to overcome some of the negative effects of jurisdictional and institutional fragmentation. While there is a core network of relatively dense collaboration in northwest Ohio, that network does not span the entire metropolitan area. A high level of local interactions occurs, but there are few "global pipelines" outside the region. A potential challenge for economic development in the region is to avoid "lock in", which will make it more difficult to attract innovative industries or diversify the economy in order to decrease the traditional dependence on the auto industry.
This paper investigates the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Italy over the period ... more This paper investigates the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Italy over the period 1986-1999. FDI are measured through the frequencies of acquisitions and greenfield investments per province and sector, so count data models are applied. The results show that the location determinants strongly differ according to the foreign entry mode. Unlike the results of many other studies, foreign ventures do not emulate their domestic counterparts. When foreign firms decide to make a greenfield investment in Italy, they are strongly influenced by location decisions of previous foreign investors, but they must also take into account congestion costs mainly linked to the lack of available labor force in the big northern cities. Thus, Southern provinces (with high unemployment rates) have a high potential attractiveness, which might be implemented with a strong investment in public infrastructures, as demonstrated by simulations. Foreign acquisitions are affected not only by supply of acquisition candidates, but also by the other location characteristics, such as the demand level, public infrastructure, stock of foreign firms and unit labor costs.
During the last century American agriculture has undergone a massive transformation from an indus... more During the last century American agriculture has undergone a massive transformation from an industry dominated by a large number of small family-owned farms to an industry characterized by a fewer larger scale, heavily-capitalized enterprises. In this paper, we analyze the shifting geography of production with respect to the U.S. floriculture industry. The ongoing transformation of the floriculture industry is being driven by two interrelated phenomena. One is growing Canadian imports, particularly from Ontario. Canadian producers benefit from a fortuitous location with respect to major American markets, operate on a larger scale, enjoy a more favorable institutional setting, and until recently, profited from a favorable exchange rate. Another transformative process has been increasing sales of floricultural products by mass merchandisers in the U.S. The "big box" stores favor large scale operations, including Canadian exporters, due to larger scale demand and more complex sales agreements. As a result of these transformative changes, the U.S. floriculture industry will likely move to a dual market structure, consisting of large scale producers, who can supply the "big boxes" and compete effectively with foreign imports, and another segment of small scale producers who will have to carve out local markets based on higher quality customer service and/or being responsive to specialized consumer demands.
Contents: Foreword Local food systems and old industrial regions, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and P... more Contents: Foreword Local food systems and old industrial regions, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and Paula Ross A systems modelling framework for the role of agriculture in a sustainable urban ecosystem, Sara Metcalf Social networks, ecological frameworks, and local economies, Casey Hoy, Steve Bosserman and Ross MacDonald Extreme environments: urban farming, technological disasters, and a framework for rethinking urban gardening, Erica Giorda Feeding the hungry: analysis of food insecurity in lower income urban communities, Mahbubur R. Meenar Benchmarking local food systems in older industrial regions, James T. Hathaway Urban food deserts: policy issues, access, and planning for a community food system, Jeanette Eckert and Sujata Shetty Local food systems: the birth of new farmers and the demise of the family farm?, Jill K. Clark, Shoshanah Inwood and Jeff S. Sharp Defining local food systems, Peleg Kremer, Tracey L. DeLiberty and Yda Schreuder Urban food production limits and the viability of community gardens: the case of Hartford, Connecticut, C. Patrick Heidkamp, Scott E. Russell and Meghan Sloan Neoliberalism and local food systems: understanding the narrative of hunger in the United States, Harold Perkins Planning for sustainable food systems: an analysis of food system assessments from the United States and Canada, Marisol Pierce-Quinonez Characterization of the built food environment for single parent households in an older industrial city, Lewiston, Maine, David E. Harris, Michelle Vazquez Jacobus, Holly A. Ewing, Sonja K. Pieck, Emily Kane and Janet Whatley Blum Toward a relational geography of local food systems: or wicked food problems without quick spatial fixes, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and Paula Ross Appendices Index.
This paper analyzes the high-tech economies of 350-plus metropolitan areas across the U.S. during... more This paper analyzes the high-tech economies of 350-plus metropolitan areas across the U.S. during 2010. Attention is given to 20 different production attributes-including the age and education of the workforce, patent production, business startups, per capita productivity of the workers, and the like. Multivariate analysis is used to reduce these 20 attributes down to 10 orthogonal dimensions; then the scores on these dimensions are used to identify eight different innovation and entrepreneurial clubs. Basically the exercise deconstructs the metropolitan economies into various parts so that each economy is assigned a signature score on each of the independent factors. High-tech places, which are especially active in both patents and startups, are shown to be more heterogeneous than low-tech places. Moreover, the recent growth and change seen in many metropolitan areas appears to be associated with the incidence of very different factors: population growth has been driven by forces that are different from those that have induced either employment change or productivity growth in those metropolitan areas.
To better understand the non-economic drivers of growth in emerging industries, this paper examin... more To better understand the non-economic drivers of growth in emerging industries, this paper examines the craft beer industry. Specifically, the paper will review two examples—the Black Cloister Brewing Company in Toledo, OH and 3rd Turn Brewery, Louisville, KY—to understand how the values of entrepreneurs and local firms that are situated at the nexus of work, place, and creativity promote growth. Further, the paper will consider the socio-cultural meaning of creativity relative to the craft beer industry and the many ways in which the concept of innovation traditionally used by economic geographers to understand growth can be better understood within the context of creativity in some industries. In doing so, the paper represents a conceptual shift away from innovation towards creativity, as well as community.
Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 2015
Much recent research on US labour markets has turned to tracing out the dramatic changes that acc... more Much recent research on US labour markets has turned to tracing out the dramatic changes that accompanied and followed the events of the Great Recession (2007–2009). But to date this research has led to more temporal as opposed to spatial detail about those changes. This paper uses an online data set to assess the relative economic health (performance) of the US's more than 350 metropolitan labour markets during and after the Great Recession. These data address both the current level (e.g. unemployment rate) and the recent trend (e.g. 3-year job growth) in the economic health of those labour markets. Multivariate analysis generates one sub-index for level and a second sub-index for trend and then an overall performance index is calculated. But, after recognising that heterogeneity in these labour markets exists according to their different sizes, this paper re-examines those online data using four separate population size classes. New indices are then generated reflecting the relative sizes of the metropolitan labour markets and the new rankings that follow differ in important ways from the original rankings. The findings also indicate a disjuncture now exists between the economic health of Snowbelt versus Sunbelt cities. Coming immediately out of the Great Recession the average economic health of Northern cities is much better than that of Southern cities.
The geography of globalization and the implications it has upon business have been widely examine... more The geography of globalization and the implications it has upon business have been widely examined. However, the examination of practices relating to local entrepreneurs has been overlooked when observed from the context of the global marketplace as well as within current literature about place competition (see Cox and Mair 1988; Cox 1998). The contradictions between the ability for capital to move freely and the place-bound character of large immobile investments are clear (Phelps and Raines 2003). Yet, not so evident are the practices of the local firm that can either take advantage of or ignore emerging global markets. The greenhouse industry has historically been reliant upon retailers and wholesalers located in close proximity. However, with the development of technologies that allow for sensitive products such as flora to be shipped at continually increasing distances1, Ohio growers now find competition from neighboring counties, states, and foreign countries--particularly Canada (LaFary et al 2005; Reid and Carroll 2005). Moreover, the industrial geographies of globalization have focused almost exclusively on mainstream economic activities such as manufacturing and/or so-called emerging new economic sectors such as information technologies. A resultant consequence is research into activities of entrepreneurs situated at the economic margins has gone unnoticed. For this reason, we investigate the local and global dynamics facing Ohio greenhouse growers and their entrepreneurial practices unlocking the existing silences observed in the literature. Ultimately, the concepts of local dependence, globalization, and operational responses from the Ohio greenhouse industry in the global marketplace will be examined.
In recent decades, the number of craft breweries in the United States has increased dramatically,... more In recent decades, the number of craft breweries in the United States has increased dramatically, increasing from around a thousand in 1996 to over six thousand today. In order to minimize start-up and initial operating costs, many craft breweries have located in older buildings in economically distressed neighborhoods. Craft breweries are particularly adept at engaging in adaptive reuse, with the result that they occupy buildings that were previously once churches, cinemas, fire stations, etc. This investment by craft breweries, in conjunction with investment by other businesses (as well as the public sector), has resulted in the revitalization of many of these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that were once full of abandoned buildings and suffered from social problems such as high crime rates have become destinations for residents and tourists alike. At the same time, however, there is a dark side to this neighborhood revitalization as rising real estate values has forced many establi...
The craft beer industry is of increased interest to academics and geographers are beginning to no... more The craft beer industry is of increased interest to academics and geographers are beginning to not only chart a "geography of beer"; but also the local economic development implications of the industry. Indeed, we posit that the growth of the craft beer industry resides at the nexus between nature, place, and identitydor what we consider an applied geography of growth that is necessarily informed by sustainability and the closely allied geographic concepts of human-environment interactions and place. Further, we examine the branding of nature and place as co-determined spatial mechanisms for market differentiation and economic growth including neo-localism. Specifically, we examine real world examples of authentic branding initiatives that extend from dynamic place-based human-environment interactions that promote the overall sustainability of communities and the craft beer industry. In doing so, we propose an economic development framework based in an applied geography organized around the concepts of place, region, and sustainability. The framework can be used in a variety of economic development contexts and across multiple industries.
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the initial measures that have been developed to e... more The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the initial measures that have been developed to evaluate the success of an industrial cluster that is focused on the greenhouse industry in northwest Ohio, USA. The firms that make up the core of this cluster are family-owned SMEs that are in the mature stage of the industrial life cycle. As such they are facing some significant competitive challenges that are threatening their future viability. Researchers from three local universities have been working with firms in the cluster to help them address these competitive challenges collectively. Success is defined as the benefits that the cluster has generated for the participating firms and the local industry. An assessment of the impact of the cluster on the regional economy is outside the domain of this presentation. The work reported in this paper is only the beginning phases of a longer-term, on-going effort to track the progress and success of the cluster.
Beginning in the mid-1980s Japanese manufacturing companies began to invest heavily in U.S. produ... more Beginning in the mid-1980s Japanese manufacturing companies began to invest heavily in U.S. production capacity. This was partly a response to a weakening U.S. dollar and trade protectionist measures imposed by the U.S. government. Japanese investment in U.S. production capacity continues unabated today. As more and more Japanese manufacturers started manufacturing their products in the United States there was an interest among geographers to understand the spatial dynamics of this investment. Much of this investment was directed towards the automotive sector. Given the large amount of investment that flowed into the automotive sector the purpose of this is to summarize three decades of scholarly research on Japanese direct investment in this sector.
International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, 2012
Industrial clusters have received considerable attention as a regional development strategy. Whil... more Industrial clusters have received considerable attention as a regional development strategy. While their efficacy has been debated by academics, clusters have become popular among practitioners. Despite clusters’ acceptance, there have been few attempts to measure their success or their impact on constituent firms. This paper outlines and discusses the metrics developed to evaluate the success of the northwest Ohio greenhouse cluster. The cluster was launched in 2004 to help the industry become more competitive though collaborative problem solving. In identifying success metrics, the authors were cognizant of the fact that they had to reflect the cluster’s objectives and goals. Thus metrics that measured the impact of branding and marketing efforts, reducing energy costs, and increasing collaboration among cluster stakeholders were developed. The work reported in this paper is only the beginning phases of a longer-term, on-going effort to track the progress and success of the northw...
Economic clusters have been delineated using Local Moran's I and Getis-Ord G * i because they dis... more Economic clusters have been delineated using Local Moran's I and Getis-Ord G * i because they distinguish relationships across areal unit boundaries within a specified neighborhood. A problem using spatial statistics with U.S. county data are the great variations in county sizes. We examined the relationship between the values for Local Moran's I and G * i , in groups of counties of differing size. The impact of county size on both spatial statistics using a contiguity spatial weights matrix and an inverse centroid distance matrix are assessed. In small counties, the choice in spatial weight matrices is immaterial, especially when using Local Moran's I. For large counties the differences between the spatial weights methodologies is more apparent, due to edge effects being more prevalent. Selection of an optimal combination of spatial weight methodology and clustering statistic should depend on the study's purpose, the distribution of county sizes, and the industry being studied.
Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to identify cluster areas. Geogr... more Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to identify cluster areas. Geographic proximity (co-location) is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for potential clustering activity. Therefore, assessment of industry location and density patterns becomes the first phase in the identification of potential cluster regions to be included in a cluster driven development policy. This paper uses Getis-Ord Gi* in the identification of potential cluster regions in the U.S floriculture industry. Issues related to the use of alternative spatial weights matrices are reviewed. Also the value of identifying nationwide floriculture potential cluster regions from the perspective of a northwest Ohio greenhouse cluster project is discussed.
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2012
This paper analyzes oral histories of eight northwest Ohio farms on the theme of farm succession.... more This paper analyzes oral histories of eight northwest Ohio farms on the theme of farm succession. We report several significant findings: a process of succession that is less orderly than some recent studies suggest; that farmers hope for, even expect succession but do not plan for it; the importance of wives to the adaptation and diversification of onfarm operations; and that contrary to some claims, the "farmer's boy"-type successors can innovate and adapt, suggesting the future of family farms may be in sounder hands than some believe.
Many American communities place a high priority on retaining and attracting innovative industries... more Many American communities place a high priority on retaining and attracting innovative industries. However, in most American metropolitan areas, the responsibility for local economic development is fragmented along jurisdictional and institutional lines. The result of this fragmentation is that local economic development is often chaotic with no one individual, agency, or jurisdiction in control, which may inhibit the effectiveness of local economic development efforts. To address these challenges and more effectively utilize resources, there has been greater emphasis recently on regional collaboration in local economic development. The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of collaboration among local economic development professionals in the Toledo, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area and to identify the extent to which these interactions constitute a social network. We believe that the existence of a strong social network among economic development professionals is critical to overcome some of the negative effects of jurisdictional and institutional fragmentation. While there is a core network of relatively dense collaboration in northwest Ohio, that network does not span the entire metropolitan area. A high level of local interactions occurs, but there are few "global pipelines" outside the region. A potential challenge for economic development in the region is to avoid "lock in", which will make it more difficult to attract innovative industries or diversify the economy in order to decrease the traditional dependence on the auto industry.
This paper investigates the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Italy over the period ... more This paper investigates the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Italy over the period 1986-1999. FDI are measured through the frequencies of acquisitions and greenfield investments per province and sector, so count data models are applied. The results show that the location determinants strongly differ according to the foreign entry mode. Unlike the results of many other studies, foreign ventures do not emulate their domestic counterparts. When foreign firms decide to make a greenfield investment in Italy, they are strongly influenced by location decisions of previous foreign investors, but they must also take into account congestion costs mainly linked to the lack of available labor force in the big northern cities. Thus, Southern provinces (with high unemployment rates) have a high potential attractiveness, which might be implemented with a strong investment in public infrastructures, as demonstrated by simulations. Foreign acquisitions are affected not only by supply of acquisition candidates, but also by the other location characteristics, such as the demand level, public infrastructure, stock of foreign firms and unit labor costs.
During the last century American agriculture has undergone a massive transformation from an indus... more During the last century American agriculture has undergone a massive transformation from an industry dominated by a large number of small family-owned farms to an industry characterized by a fewer larger scale, heavily-capitalized enterprises. In this paper, we analyze the shifting geography of production with respect to the U.S. floriculture industry. The ongoing transformation of the floriculture industry is being driven by two interrelated phenomena. One is growing Canadian imports, particularly from Ontario. Canadian producers benefit from a fortuitous location with respect to major American markets, operate on a larger scale, enjoy a more favorable institutional setting, and until recently, profited from a favorable exchange rate. Another transformative process has been increasing sales of floricultural products by mass merchandisers in the U.S. The "big box" stores favor large scale operations, including Canadian exporters, due to larger scale demand and more complex sales agreements. As a result of these transformative changes, the U.S. floriculture industry will likely move to a dual market structure, consisting of large scale producers, who can supply the "big boxes" and compete effectively with foreign imports, and another segment of small scale producers who will have to carve out local markets based on higher quality customer service and/or being responsive to specialized consumer demands.
Contents: Foreword Local food systems and old industrial regions, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and P... more Contents: Foreword Local food systems and old industrial regions, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and Paula Ross A systems modelling framework for the role of agriculture in a sustainable urban ecosystem, Sara Metcalf Social networks, ecological frameworks, and local economies, Casey Hoy, Steve Bosserman and Ross MacDonald Extreme environments: urban farming, technological disasters, and a framework for rethinking urban gardening, Erica Giorda Feeding the hungry: analysis of food insecurity in lower income urban communities, Mahbubur R. Meenar Benchmarking local food systems in older industrial regions, James T. Hathaway Urban food deserts: policy issues, access, and planning for a community food system, Jeanette Eckert and Sujata Shetty Local food systems: the birth of new farmers and the demise of the family farm?, Jill K. Clark, Shoshanah Inwood and Jeff S. Sharp Defining local food systems, Peleg Kremer, Tracey L. DeLiberty and Yda Schreuder Urban food production limits and the viability of community gardens: the case of Hartford, Connecticut, C. Patrick Heidkamp, Scott E. Russell and Meghan Sloan Neoliberalism and local food systems: understanding the narrative of hunger in the United States, Harold Perkins Planning for sustainable food systems: an analysis of food system assessments from the United States and Canada, Marisol Pierce-Quinonez Characterization of the built food environment for single parent households in an older industrial city, Lewiston, Maine, David E. Harris, Michelle Vazquez Jacobus, Holly A. Ewing, Sonja K. Pieck, Emily Kane and Janet Whatley Blum Toward a relational geography of local food systems: or wicked food problems without quick spatial fixes, Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and Paula Ross Appendices Index.
This paper analyzes the high-tech economies of 350-plus metropolitan areas across the U.S. during... more This paper analyzes the high-tech economies of 350-plus metropolitan areas across the U.S. during 2010. Attention is given to 20 different production attributes-including the age and education of the workforce, patent production, business startups, per capita productivity of the workers, and the like. Multivariate analysis is used to reduce these 20 attributes down to 10 orthogonal dimensions; then the scores on these dimensions are used to identify eight different innovation and entrepreneurial clubs. Basically the exercise deconstructs the metropolitan economies into various parts so that each economy is assigned a signature score on each of the independent factors. High-tech places, which are especially active in both patents and startups, are shown to be more heterogeneous than low-tech places. Moreover, the recent growth and change seen in many metropolitan areas appears to be associated with the incidence of very different factors: population growth has been driven by forces that are different from those that have induced either employment change or productivity growth in those metropolitan areas.
To better understand the non-economic drivers of growth in emerging industries, this paper examin... more To better understand the non-economic drivers of growth in emerging industries, this paper examines the craft beer industry. Specifically, the paper will review two examples—the Black Cloister Brewing Company in Toledo, OH and 3rd Turn Brewery, Louisville, KY—to understand how the values of entrepreneurs and local firms that are situated at the nexus of work, place, and creativity promote growth. Further, the paper will consider the socio-cultural meaning of creativity relative to the craft beer industry and the many ways in which the concept of innovation traditionally used by economic geographers to understand growth can be better understood within the context of creativity in some industries. In doing so, the paper represents a conceptual shift away from innovation towards creativity, as well as community.
Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 2015
Much recent research on US labour markets has turned to tracing out the dramatic changes that acc... more Much recent research on US labour markets has turned to tracing out the dramatic changes that accompanied and followed the events of the Great Recession (2007–2009). But to date this research has led to more temporal as opposed to spatial detail about those changes. This paper uses an online data set to assess the relative economic health (performance) of the US's more than 350 metropolitan labour markets during and after the Great Recession. These data address both the current level (e.g. unemployment rate) and the recent trend (e.g. 3-year job growth) in the economic health of those labour markets. Multivariate analysis generates one sub-index for level and a second sub-index for trend and then an overall performance index is calculated. But, after recognising that heterogeneity in these labour markets exists according to their different sizes, this paper re-examines those online data using four separate population size classes. New indices are then generated reflecting the relative sizes of the metropolitan labour markets and the new rankings that follow differ in important ways from the original rankings. The findings also indicate a disjuncture now exists between the economic health of Snowbelt versus Sunbelt cities. Coming immediately out of the Great Recession the average economic health of Northern cities is much better than that of Southern cities.
The geography of globalization and the implications it has upon business have been widely examine... more The geography of globalization and the implications it has upon business have been widely examined. However, the examination of practices relating to local entrepreneurs has been overlooked when observed from the context of the global marketplace as well as within current literature about place competition (see Cox and Mair 1988; Cox 1998). The contradictions between the ability for capital to move freely and the place-bound character of large immobile investments are clear (Phelps and Raines 2003). Yet, not so evident are the practices of the local firm that can either take advantage of or ignore emerging global markets. The greenhouse industry has historically been reliant upon retailers and wholesalers located in close proximity. However, with the development of technologies that allow for sensitive products such as flora to be shipped at continually increasing distances1, Ohio growers now find competition from neighboring counties, states, and foreign countries--particularly Canada (LaFary et al 2005; Reid and Carroll 2005). Moreover, the industrial geographies of globalization have focused almost exclusively on mainstream economic activities such as manufacturing and/or so-called emerging new economic sectors such as information technologies. A resultant consequence is research into activities of entrepreneurs situated at the economic margins has gone unnoticed. For this reason, we investigate the local and global dynamics facing Ohio greenhouse growers and their entrepreneurial practices unlocking the existing silences observed in the literature. Ultimately, the concepts of local dependence, globalization, and operational responses from the Ohio greenhouse industry in the global marketplace will be examined.
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