Lisa De Propris
Biographic Data
| ID | 1641555 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lisa De Propris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lisa |
| FAMILY NAME | De Propris |
| SIGNATURE | DE PROPRIS L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1476-1674 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 257 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 40 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Territorial servitisation in Italy
Integration between manufacturing and service activities currently represents a core source of competitiveness for firms and territories. Furthermore, a growing literature analyses the phenomenon of territorial servitisation, namely the co-location of manufacturing and Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) activities. This article investigates the process of territorial servitisation in Italy by analysing the diffusion of KIBS activities i…
A critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy
An industrial strategy for EU cohesion in an era of transformation
The current disruptive and systemic technological shift is posing a significant threat to persistent European Union socio-economic disparities due to path dependency forces, resistance and lock-in. The technological upgrading that is embodied in EU cohesion policies and the smart specialisation strategies has been an effective approach to allow low performing regions 'to keep-up' with higher performing regions, without, however, enabling actual c…
Industrial strategy reborn
People-centred policies for a just transition (digital, green and skills)
The paper contributes to the current debate on just transitions which is exploring what factors and conditions can lead to a twin transition that can also achieve an equitable redistribution of the outputs. The paper draws on the theories of justice, by bringing together three dimensions of justice: distributive, procedural and substantive justice. We apply this framework to explain the socio-economic impact of technology-pushed structural change…
Globalisation must work for as many regions as possible
Advanced economies have started to engage more pro-actively in designing, promoting and implementing a range of policies that aim to address the concurrence of two powerful and irreversible forces: one is the urgency of addressing societal and existential threats (including income inequality, joblessness, deindustrialisation, climate change, health and aging), and the other is the disruptive unfolding of new technologies (4.0 technologies).Respon…
Brexit, trade and UK advanced manufacturing sectors
The paper examines how Brexit has impacted on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in the UK Midlands, and to what extent such firms are reconfiguring their supply chains with the increase in trade barriers with Brexit. To do this, the paper aims to add to macro studies in the area by using a mixed-methods approach that combines descriptive quantitative analysis of secondary data with a complementary qualitative research analysis…
The regional economics of technological transformations
Effects of learning, unlearning and forgetting on path development
The paper examines processes of knowledge transformation in Industrial Districts (IDs) and how they contribute to industrial path development. Drawing on a case study of the footwear IDs in the provinces of Macerata and Fermo, Italy, we discuss how the knowledge configuration of the ID, within and outside of its core industry, changes as a result of internationalization activities, affecting path development. The Fermo IDs are characterized by a …
Regions beyond Industry 4.0
This special issue presents a collection of papers that explore from different angles the opportunities and challenges that Industry 4.0 poses to regions and cities. Papers investigate issues concerning: regional economies’ potential in creating new technologies by mapping the regional distribution of technological innovation capabilities and technological adoption; the implications for jobs and labour markets of the related regional socio-econom…
Pathways of regional transformation and Industry 4.0
We explore the impact of technological changes brought in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution on local systems of industrial specialization. To do so we connect the Evolutional Economic Geography literature on regional diversification with the literature on systems change, notably the multilevel perspective (MLP) framework, expanding the latter with a place-based dimension enabling the application of technological transition to regional economies…
Technological Disruptions, GVCs, and Industrial Policy
This chapter examines the impact of technological change on global value chains (GVCs) and what initiatives and instruments governments in advanced economies can deploy to support firms and people during the transition. Drawing on an emerging debate on de-globalization , we discuss how global production is slowly shifting from being organized in GVCs to continental platforms with shorter and geographically closer relationships as firms seek to co…
Regions in a time of pandemic
This paper contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the "regional" and the "urban".From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case.Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions.Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histo…
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Local clusters in global value chains
Local clusters in global value chains: Linking actors and territories through manufacturing and innovation." Regional Studies, 53(4), p. 615
Pushing regional studies beyond its borders
This paper explores how to push the field of regional studies beyond its present institutional, conceptual and methodological borders. It does this from five perspectives: innovation and competitiveness; globalization and urbanization; social and environmental justice; local and regional development; and industrial policy. It argues that the future of regional studies requires approaches that, in combination, result in the pushing on (by creating…
Skill up
New technologies and sector imbalances due to manufacturing hollowing out have dented the regional stock of competencies in the EU labour markets. This raises concerns over the sustainability of the EU's competitiveness in the longer term. The present study sheds light on what occupational mix might be able to deliver greater regional productivity in the light of emerging industrial dynamics. We estimate panel regression models using regional dat…
Servitizing industrial regions
The paper explores the evolving role of service sectors in relation to manufacturing activities within local systems of production and it discusses whether issues related to spatial proximity have shaped the value chains of manufacturing activities. Territorial servitization is defined here as the symbiotic recoupling between services and manufacturing that impacts on their relative value creation contribution to both value chains and consumers. …
Technological diversification and new innovators in European regions
This paper assesses the impact of regional technological diversification on the emergence of new innovators across EU regions. Integrating analyses from regional economics, economic geography and technological change literatures, we explore the role that the regional embeddedness of actors characterised by diverse technological competencies may have in fostering novel and sustained interactions leading to new technological combinations. In partic…
Manufacturing reshoring and its limits
This paper explores the meaning of reshoring and its drivers in the case of UK manufacturing and in particular its automotive sector. Drawing on interviews, policy reviews and a range of recent surveys, the paper finds that while reshoring is a discernable trend in UK manufacturing, it is less pronounced than many have claimed and that—in the UK case at least—there are severe limits as to how far this reshoring trend can go, particularly in relat…
Comparing creative industries in Europe
Creative industries are increasingly understood to contribute to localised innovation and dynamism. This paper provides a methodologically consistent comparison of creative industries across France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We map spatial agglomerations of creative activities showing evidence of urban concentration, which for Britain and France coincides with the dominance of capital cities, whilst for Spain and Italy, significant concentr…
They are industrial districts, but not as we know them!
How are creative industries weathering the crisis
The article explores whether and how creative industries are surviving the current downturn in order to understand whether they will be in a position to contribute to UK’s economic growth. The argument suggested here is that creative industries are crucial for recasting UK manufacturing so that parts of it can be competitively located in the UK. The only manufacturing activities that the UK can convincingly and sustainably aim to retain and grow …
Beyond Territory. Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation
A policy agenda for EU smart growth
The argument developed in this paper is that a resilient economy requires a growth agenda that is underpinned by a balanced industrial mix, the development and adoption of new knowledge or technological platforms, and risk taking in radical and incremental innovations as well as in soft and hard innovations. In other words, it is desirable to promote a sustainable and endogenous way to ‘reset’ the economy – borrowing the phrase from this study by…
Regions in a time of pandemic
This paper contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the "regional" and the "urban".From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case.Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions.Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histo…
Pathways of regional transformation and Industry 4.0
We explore the impact of technological changes brought in by the Fourth Industrial Revolution on local systems of industrial specialization. To do so we connect the Evolutional Economic Geography literature on regional diversification with the literature on systems change, notably the multilevel perspective (MLP) framework, expanding the latter with a place-based dimension enabling the application of technological transition to regional economies…
The 1988 reform of the European Structural Funds
With the reform of the Structural Funds, regions have gained a key role in the design and implementation of regional policy. Yet some of the weakest regions were not equipped with appropriate institutional structures and have struggled to benefit. In evaluating the reform, we revisit concepts such as justice and equity. While the reform may have given regions an entitlement to participate, we argue that some have lacked the capacity to do so effe…
Mapping local production systems in the UK
De Propris, L. (2005) Mapping local production systems in the UK: methodology and application, Regional Studies 39 , 197–211. The paper outlines a possible methodology to map and study local production systems. The three‐level diagnostic methodology enables researchers to map, classify and analyse in depth firms' agglomerations in regions or countries where there is little information about the presence and location of local production systems. T…
Pushing regional studies beyond its borders
This paper explores how to push the field of regional studies beyond its present institutional, conceptual and methodological borders. It does this from five perspectives: innovation and competitiveness; globalization and urbanization; social and environmental justice; local and regional development; and industrial policy. It argues that the future of regional studies requires approaches that, in combination, result in the pushing on (by creating…
EU Structural Funds, Regional Capabilities and Enlargement
Given GDP variations across CEE regions and with CEE regional structures and development processes only emerging recently, the cohesion situation under EU enlargement is considerably more challenging than when current EU regional policy was launched in 1988. Yet even that reform ran into problems given heterogeneity in the forms of regional governance across the EU. This needs to be fully recognised in the context of enlargement where pre-accessi…
Manufacturing reshoring and its limits
This paper explores the meaning of reshoring and its drivers in the case of UK manufacturing and in particular its automotive sector. Drawing on interviews, policy reviews and a range of recent surveys, the paper finds that while reshoring is a discernable trend in UK manufacturing, it is less pronounced than many have claimed and that—in the UK case at least—there are severe limits as to how far this reshoring trend can go, particularly in relat…
Comparing creative industries in Europe
Creative industries are increasingly understood to contribute to localised innovation and dynamism. This paper provides a methodologically consistent comparison of creative industries across France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We map spatial agglomerations of creative activities showing evidence of urban concentration, which for Britain and France coincides with the dominance of capital cities, whilst for Spain and Italy, significant concentr…
Place-renewing leadership
The forces of globalisation now impacting on local economies pose threats to the existing paradigm of competences and routines, yet simultaneously offer opportunities to integrate new knowledge and learning. This is particularly pertinent with respect to Europe's ‘mature regions’, which are undergoing a major economic restructuring by trying to shift from traditional manufacturing activities to hybrid activities that comprise a combination of man…
Beyond Territory. Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation
A Bridge Too Phare? EU Pre‐Accession Aid and Capacity‐Building in the Candidate Countries
The imminent large‐scale EU enlargement raises important questions regarding the success of Phare as one of the Pre‐Accession Funds in preparing candidate countries' institutions for Structural Funding, the need to reform EU regional policy itself, and to what extent the Commission is using Phare to build regional‐level institutions and shift an enlarged EU towards multi‐level governance. Despite some successes, Phare will not be able to deliver …
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Servitizing industrial regions
The paper explores the evolving role of service sectors in relation to manufacturing activities within local systems of production and it discusses whether issues related to spatial proximity have shaped the value chains of manufacturing activities. Territorial servitization is defined here as the symbiotic recoupling between services and manufacturing that impacts on their relative value creation contribution to both value chains and consumers. …
Measuring the Decline of a Marshallian Industrial District
De Propris L. and Lazzeretti L. Measuring the decline of a Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, Regional Studies. This paper presents the findings of a study on the decline of a typical Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter in the UK. The paper contributes to the current debate on clusters' life cycle by presenting a multidisciplinary methodology that combines historical and economic analy…
Brexit, trade and UK advanced manufacturing sectors
The paper examines how Brexit has impacted on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in the UK Midlands, and to what extent such firms are reconfiguring their supply chains with the increase in trade barriers with Brexit. To do this, the paper aims to add to macro studies in the area by using a mixed-methods approach that combines descriptive quantitative analysis of secondary data with a complementary qualitative research analysis…
Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development
This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions abo…
Local clusters in global value chains
Local clusters in global value chains: Linking actors and territories through manufacturing and innovation." Regional Studies, 53(4), p. 615
How are creative industries weathering the crisis
The article explores whether and how creative industries are surviving the current downturn in order to understand whether they will be in a position to contribute to UK’s economic growth. The argument suggested here is that creative industries are crucial for recasting UK manufacturing so that parts of it can be competitively located in the UK. The only manufacturing activities that the UK can convincingly and sustainably aim to retain and grow …
Globalisation must work for as many regions as possible
Advanced economies have started to engage more pro-actively in designing, promoting and implementing a range of policies that aim to address the concurrence of two powerful and irreversible forces: one is the urgency of addressing societal and existential threats (including income inequality, joblessness, deindustrialisation, climate change, health and aging), and the other is the disruptive unfolding of new technologies (4.0 technologies).Respon…
A policy agenda for EU smart growth
The argument developed in this paper is that a resilient economy requires a growth agenda that is underpinned by a balanced industrial mix, the development and adoption of new knowledge or technological platforms, and risk taking in radical and incremental innovations as well as in soft and hard innovations. In other words, it is desirable to promote a sustainable and endogenous way to ‘reset’ the economy – borrowing the phrase from this study by…
Regions beyond Industry 4.0
This special issue presents a collection of papers that explore from different angles the opportunities and challenges that Industry 4.0 poses to regions and cities. Papers investigate issues concerning: regional economies’ potential in creating new technologies by mapping the regional distribution of technological innovation capabilities and technological adoption; the implications for jobs and labour markets of the related regional socio-econom…
People-centred policies for a just transition (digital, green and skills)
The paper contributes to the current debate on just transitions which is exploring what factors and conditions can lead to a twin transition that can also achieve an equitable redistribution of the outputs. The paper draws on the theories of justice, by bringing together three dimensions of justice: distributive, procedural and substantive justice. We apply this framework to explain the socio-economic impact of technology-pushed structural change…
Technological diversification and new innovators in European regions
This paper assesses the impact of regional technological diversification on the emergence of new innovators across EU regions. Integrating analyses from regional economics, economic geography and technological change literatures, we explore the role that the regional embeddedness of actors characterised by diverse technological competencies may have in fostering novel and sustained interactions leading to new technological combinations. In partic…
A critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy
Skill up
New technologies and sector imbalances due to manufacturing hollowing out have dented the regional stock of competencies in the EU labour markets. This raises concerns over the sustainability of the EU's competitiveness in the longer term. The present study sheds light on what occupational mix might be able to deliver greater regional productivity in the light of emerging industrial dynamics. We estimate panel regression models using regional dat…
The Role for a Scottish Development Bank in a Devolved Scotland
Mention finance in the same sentence as devolution and most thoughts jump to the 'tartan tax' and the tax varying powers of the new Scottish Parliament. Yet as Jackson (1999) and McCarthy and Newlands (1999) note, this is something of a distraction to the real business of managing the Scottish economy, as the demands on public spending are so large that even the most that could be raised under these powers would not go very far. Whilst accepting …
EU Structural Funds, Regional Capabilities and Enlargement
Given GDP variations across CEE regions and with CEE regional structures and development processes only emerging recently, the cohesion situation under EU enlargement is considerably more challenging than when current EU regional policy was launched in 1988. Yet even that reform ran into problems given heterogeneity in the forms of regional governance across the EU. This needs to be fully recognised in the context of enlargement where pre-accessi…
The 1988 reform of the European Structural Funds
With the reform of the Structural Funds, regions have gained a key role in the design and implementation of regional policy. Yet some of the weakest regions were not equipped with appropriate institutional structures and have struggled to benefit. In evaluating the reform, we revisit concepts such as justice and equity. While the reform may have given regions an entitlement to participate, we argue that some have lacked the capacity to do so effe…
A Bridge Too Phare? EU Pre‐Accession Aid and Capacity‐Building in the Candidate Countries
The imminent large‐scale EU enlargement raises important questions regarding the success of Phare as one of the Pre‐Accession Funds in preparing candidate countries' institutions for Structural Funding, the need to reform EU regional policy itself, and to what extent the Commission is using Phare to build regional‐level institutions and shift an enlarged EU towards multi‐level governance. Despite some successes, Phare will not be able to deliver …
Mapping local production systems in the UK
De Propris, L. (2005) Mapping local production systems in the UK: methodology and application, Regional Studies 39 , 197–211. The paper outlines a possible methodology to map and study local production systems. The three‐level diagnostic methodology enables researchers to map, classify and analyse in depth firms' agglomerations in regions or countries where there is little information about the presence and location of local production systems. T…
Creative Clusters and Governance
Reconciling Cohesion and Competitiveness Through Eu Cluster Policies
This article examines the compatibility of the Lisbon objectives with the EU's long-standing concerns for social, economic and territorial cohesion. In particular, the Commission's policy agenda has been driven since the reform of the Structural Funds in the late 1980s by the concern to improve regional welfare in view of enabling socio-economic convergence across regions and Member States, and, with the introduction of the Lisbon Agenda, of cont…
Governance and Competitiveness in the Birmingham Jewellery District
Drawing on the existing debate on the link between the governance of local production systems (i.e. clusters or industrial districts) and the development of localities, this paper analyses the structure of interfirm networking and co-operation, as well as the structure of governance, in the jewellery district in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (BJQ). The BJQ was an historical urban Marshallian industrial district at the turn of the 20th century;…
Measuring the Decline of a Marshallian Industrial District
De Propris L. and Lazzeretti L. Measuring the decline of a Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, Regional Studies. This paper presents the findings of a study on the decline of a typical Marshallian industrial district: the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter in the UK. The paper contributes to the current debate on clusters' life cycle by presenting a multidisciplinary methodology that combines historical and economic analy…
A Handbook of Industrial Districts
Creativity and Space
The objective of the article is to explore the relative determinants of firms' performance in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (BJQ) considering creativity and innovation; firms' access to the market and networking. The article utilizes qualitative and quantitative analyses and aims to ascertain the role of firms' commitment to developing an in-house or external creative capacity on their ability to grow. The novelty of the article is to consider…
Drivers and Processes of Creative Industries in Cities and Regions
The current debate on drivers and processes of creative industries in cities and regions oscillates between two approaches: one that focuses on individuals' creative talent drawing on Florida's work, and one that looks at firms and systems of firms, i.e., creative clusters. In this introductory note, we critically review the main contributions on both sides, argue that that there a need to reconcile them especially in order to shape the current p…
Industrial and Regional Policies in an Enlarging EU
Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development
This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions abo…
Place-renewing leadership
The forces of globalisation now impacting on local economies pose threats to the existing paradigm of competences and routines, yet simultaneously offer opportunities to integrate new knowledge and learning. This is particularly pertinent with respect to Europe's ‘mature regions’, which are undergoing a major economic restructuring by trying to shift from traditional manufacturing activities to hybrid activities that comprise a combination of man…
A policy agenda for EU smart growth
The argument developed in this paper is that a resilient economy requires a growth agenda that is underpinned by a balanced industrial mix, the development and adoption of new knowledge or technological platforms, and risk taking in radical and incremental innovations as well as in soft and hard innovations. In other words, it is desirable to promote a sustainable and endogenous way to ‘reset’ the economy – borrowing the phrase from this study by…
Beyond Territory. Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation
They are industrial districts, but not as we know them!
How are creative industries weathering the crisis
The article explores whether and how creative industries are surviving the current downturn in order to understand whether they will be in a position to contribute to UK’s economic growth. The argument suggested here is that creative industries are crucial for recasting UK manufacturing so that parts of it can be competitively located in the UK. The only manufacturing activities that the UK can convincingly and sustainably aim to retain and grow …
Manufacturing reshoring and its limits
This paper explores the meaning of reshoring and its drivers in the case of UK manufacturing and in particular its automotive sector. Drawing on interviews, policy reviews and a range of recent surveys, the paper finds that while reshoring is a discernable trend in UK manufacturing, it is less pronounced than many have claimed and that—in the UK case at least—there are severe limits as to how far this reshoring trend can go, particularly in relat…
Comparing creative industries in Europe
Creative industries are increasingly understood to contribute to localised innovation and dynamism. This paper provides a methodologically consistent comparison of creative industries across France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We map spatial agglomerations of creative activities showing evidence of urban concentration, which for Britain and France coincides with the dominance of capital cities, whilst for Spain and Italy, significant concentr…
Technological diversification and new innovators in European regions
This paper assesses the impact of regional technological diversification on the emergence of new innovators across EU regions. Integrating analyses from regional economics, economic geography and technological change literatures, we explore the role that the regional embeddedness of actors characterised by diverse technological competencies may have in fostering novel and sustained interactions leading to new technological combinations. In partic…
Skill up
New technologies and sector imbalances due to manufacturing hollowing out have dented the regional stock of competencies in the EU labour markets. This raises concerns over the sustainability of the EU's competitiveness in the longer term. The present study sheds light on what occupational mix might be able to deliver greater regional productivity in the light of emerging industrial dynamics. We estimate panel regression models using regional dat…
Servitizing industrial regions
The paper explores the evolving role of service sectors in relation to manufacturing activities within local systems of production and it discusses whether issues related to spatial proximity have shaped the value chains of manufacturing activities. Territorial servitization is defined here as the symbiotic recoupling between services and manufacturing that impacts on their relative value creation contribution to both value chains and consumers. …
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Business (23 works) · Economics (23 works) · Political science (18 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Economic geography (16 works) · Regional Development and Policy (16 works) · Regional science (16 works) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (15 works) · Geography (15 works) · Sociology (14 works)