Economies–Institutions–Territories. Old Issues Revisited and New Research Avenues

The chapter closes the book by synthetizing how it consists of a collection of chapters dissecting the complex interplays between economies, institutions, and territories. Accounting for these interconnections is an intriguing way to look at the whole social anatomy (Hedstrom, 2005). In the first part of the chapter, we claim that the book offers one main general insight. The nexuses between economies–institutions–territories must be investigated through a multi-disciplinary comparative perspective. The comparison can be synchronic, i.e., concerning different territorial areas, or, vice versa, diachronic, i.e., relating to the dynamic evolution of these links over time. By observing the connections between economies–institutions–territories, one can grasp both change and persistence in the social world: the reconfiguration of institutional elements, economic processes, and their kinds of embedding in place. In the second part of the chapter, we pinpoint some promising research avenues that have already been suggested in some of the chapters and deserve further exploration. We draw upon the four sections of the book to illustrate a tentative future research agenda.