Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography, edited by FrankGiarratani, Geoffrey J.D.Hewings, and PhilipMcCann. 2013. Cheltenham, U.K. and Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar. 502 + viii. ISBN: 978‐1‐84376‐961‐3, $256.50.
该手册包含20章，涵盖重工业、创意文化、高科技、资源型及知识网络型产业，基于实证研究分析真实产业与区域案例，适合区域科学和经济学研究者参考。
Not so long ago, handbooks were relatively rare and therefore somewhat special, but they are now found in great abundance. Many scholars have learned to rely on such handbooks for state-of-the-art reviews of research and perspectives on specific topics. Since the mid-1980s, the publisher Edward Elgar has specialized in the publication of handbooks on both broad and highly focused topics, many of them highly relevant to academics in economics, regional science, and related fields. The scope of this handbook is relatively broad, encompassing a range of empirical research on real firms and industries in real regions and places. Following a brief introduction by the editors, the volume contains 20 chapters: three on heavy industries, four on creative and cultural industries, four on high-technology sectors, four on resource-based sectors, and five on knowledge- and network-based activities. This sectoral or industrial organization is filled in with much greater variety. Manufacturing sectors include steel, autos, food and beverages, and mobile handsets; nonmanufacturing sectors include video games, horticulture, and services. Nearly all chapters are based on—or present—original empirical work. The two exceptions are conventional, and excellent, literature reviews by Raquel Ortega-Argilés on European and United States research on productivity and Chris Forman on the impact of information technology (IT) on the geography of economic activity. The other contributions blend data and literature review and, indeed, a heavy empirical focus, typical within industry studies. Some of these are focused on individual countries or regions, such as Thomas Klier and James Rubenstein on the auto industry, Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus on artistic occupations, and Kristy Buzard and Gerald Carlino on the geography of research and development (R&D), all in the United States; Gill Bentley, David Bailey, and Stewart MacNeill on the European auto industry; and Hong Shangqin, Philip McCann, and Les Oxley on innovation by small firms in New Zealand. Global overviews include the global air transport sector (Aisling Reynolds-Feighan) and the global food and beverage industry (Ruth Rama and Catalina Martinez). As the editors note in their introduction, all the chapters exhibit “the specific mechanics and technological, organizational and strategic features of each industry, including the historical and technological evolution of the sectors” (p. 3). Particularly insightful chapters address unusual perspectives on economic activity. In the only chapter to look to the future rather than the past, Frank Bruinsma and Mark Bokhorst assess the impact of climate change on Dutch land use. Yuko Aoyama and Hiro Izushi probe the varied skills needed by video game producers to thrive—and the different availability of those skills in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, for different reasons. Three chapters focus exclusively on regions within the United States (Peter Doeringer, Pacey Foster, Stephan Manning, and David Terkla on the New York City garment district and Boston; Michael Carroll and Neil Reid on northwest Ohio; and Heike Mayer on Portland and Boise). Only one chapter is neither a review nor an empirical exposition: Joyce Cooper, Randall Jackson, and Nancey Green Leigh use hypothetical data to illustrate a proposed framework for including the environment in input–output research. The chapters by Mayer and by Carroll and Reid stand out in another respect: they are the only ones that address directly issues of theory. A few chapters are very focused on a narrow sector or topic, such as Carroll and Reid's examination of social capital in the northwest Ohio horticulture cluster. Two of the chapters are somewhat abstract as well as focused: Stephen Sheppard on real estate values in the neighborhood of museums, and Cooper, Jackson, and Green Leigh on an input–output analysis of recycling and remanufacturing. Other chapters are comparisons across economies, such as video games in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan (Aoyama and Izushi), and productivity in Europe and the United States (Ortega-Argilés). Much of the world's economic geography is missing. Asia appears only through India's role in Latin American services (Elsie Echeverri-Carroll) and Japan's video game industry, and as a context for competition in the auto industry. China is generally absent except indirectly in its impact on other places, such as Italy's industrial districts. Africa is absent entirely. The selection of sectors must leave out many, such as petrochemicals, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and nanotechnology. Obviously not all industries and regions could be represented in this handbook, but the editors generally have made very good choices of experts on the industries and regional contexts that are included. Only Bruinsma and Bokhorst look at the future in a serious way, through the emerging and likely future impacts of climate change on the low-lying areas of the Netherlands and its economic activities. State-of-the-art reviews are the norm, usually illustrated with recent data. Most chapters look at the past, but largely the recent past, through 2010. An exception is Buzard and Carlino, whose data are for 1998. Some authors, such as Ram Mudambi, provide new twists or updates on material previously published elsewhere. I learned a great deal from two chapters in particular. The first is that by Doeringer et al. on the production model of craft-based industries, of which they profile two: women's clothing in the New York garment district and the emergence of a video cluster in Boston. Although this is the longest and most detailed chapter in the volume, it is also the most rewarding. The second is the update by Fiorenza Belussi and Lisa DePropris of the situation of Italian industrial districts. The title of their chapter hints at their conclusion: “They are industrial districts, but not as we know them!” These two chapters paint full pictures of the dynamic change within New York's garment district and Italian regions through the evolution of firms and their strategies. Despite their diversity, the high quality of all the chapters makes me recommend the volume to regional scientists who are empirically inclined and who will appreciate the rich variety of empirical reality found in its chapters. The chapters on “heavy industries” (steel and autos) and on the airline industry are packed with data and trends in those sectors that will be useful material for teaching. Many others will find it profitable to dip into the volume for at least one or two chapters and their original, up-to-date research. The editors have done a fine job of compiling a collection of state-of-the-art research in industry studies and economic geography.