While space might shrink, the flows of goods in space gets constantly wider. Great inventions in history have marked the reorganization of space as well as some activities, some spatial relations and the value of territory. Space has been adapting to these needs offering new opportunities and challenges. Geography has become the leading science to analyze and mediate in these processes. The space of markets, the relations between the digital world and the real world, “geolocalization” of services and new economic activities have moved geography to a new level within social sciences. This round table starts from the following standpoint: How do the extreme speed of flows affects the meaning and perception that in different social and cultural settings people have? Keywords: innovation, flows, networks.

This article proposes a methodology based on geographical information systems and factor-analysis to carry out taxonomies for mountain areas in the Catalan Pyrenees. Initially, socio-economic and spatial variables have been used in the classification of the areas. Subsequently, the discrimination of homogeneous areas becomes important in order to undertake posterior studies about their development and to facilitate the creation of specific public policies adjusted to their main competitive advantages. The confrontation of such extreme and rival neighbouring uses in small Pyrenean regions -such as natural parks and productive activities- with externalities arising and affecting each others’ activities, requires governmental instruments to intervene in order to achieve a more efficient allocation of resources in the face of externalities, to decrease production where there is external cost and to increase it where there are external benefits. Necessarily, these policies would have to be related to urban planning and to take into account economic and social aspects. Keywords: local development, GIS, multivariate analysis, rural mountainous areas, natural protected areas.

The concept of “embeddedness” refers to the social construction of inter-firm relationships and the enmeshing of economic relationships within broader social structures and relationships in particular places. Previous research has suggested “embedding” is the best way to generate local growth and social capital and has focused on SMEs in Europe and North America, although the existing model is being more widely adopted now. This volume is the first to examine the complex processes of “embedding” in this wider context. Bringing together a broad range of case studies from the developed and developing world which address the nature of embeddedness from various perspectives, it not only questions the universality of the current model and the policy initiatives it has spawned but also provides a much wider understanding of “embeddedness”. It does so by discussing the social dimensions more fully and
by throwing light on the spatial and temporal ambiguity of the concept and its inadequate treatment of power.

Contents
Approaching embeddedness, Michael Taylor and Simon Leonard; Embeddedness and innovation, Ron Boschma, Jan Lambooy and Veronique Schutjens; Rethinking institutions and embeddedness in a third world context, Giles Mohan; Supply chains, embeddedness and the restructuring of Argentina’s tanning industry, Kjersti Wølneberg; Going places? Reflections on embedding and disembedding in agriculture and horticulture under neoliberalism: the example of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, David Hayward, Christina Stringer and Richard Le Heron; Weakening ties: the embeddedness of small UK electronics firms, Sara Openshaw and Michael Taylor;
Enterprise embeddedness and industrial innovation in Spain: an overview, Montserrat Pallares-Barbera; Local embeddedness in global financial services: Australian evidence in ‘the end of geography’, Pierre Agnes; Local embeddedness and service firms: evidence from Southern England, Paul Search
and Michael Taylor; Embedded project-production in magazine publishing: a case of self-exploitation?, Carol Ekinsmyth; Local embeddedness, ‘institutional thickness’ and the state regulation of local labour markets, Simon Leonard; Diasporic embeddedness and Asian women entrepreneurs in the UK, Irene Hardill, Parvati Raghuram and Adam Strange; Over- and Under-embeddedness: failures in developing mixed embeddedness among Israeli entrepreneurs, Michael Sofer and Izhak Schnell; Enterprise, embeddedness and exclusion: business relationships in a small island developing economy, Michael Taylor; The local embeddedness of firms in Turkish industrial districts: the changing roles of networks in local development, Ayda Eraydin; Understanding embeddedness, Michael Taylor and Simon Leonard.