Old industrial regions, technology and innovation : tensions of obduracy and transformation

Work on regions and technologically informed innovation has often focused on high-tech regions as exemplars of apparent success in economic development. This paper, by contrast, focuses on understanding how regions transform themselves in respect of pervasive pressures, in relation to old industrial regions. In particular, the possible tensions between pressures for transformation and the potential obduracy of social, cultural, and institutional interrelationships are highlighted by reflection on the broad body of work termed the ‘new regionalism’. Four issues are raised and then are integrated to develop an approach to researching the tensions between pressures for transformation and the obduracy of old industrial regions. The paper examines a case study of the early stages of a particular technologically informed innovation—a hydrogen economy development—in an old industrial ‘region’: Teesside in northeast England. After consideration of this case study I highlight four important issues in the conclusion that are raised during exploration of tensions of obduracy and transformation in an old industrial region