The study of institutions has become a very important field within the social sciences and specifically in economic geography. Despite the general acknowledgement of the important role that institutions play in social, political, cultural and economic development, there still exists a certain image of them in the literature as a sort of «magic dust» that blesses —or not— the regional and local development processes. Contributing to this is the attention paid to the spatial dimension of the phenomenon, which is relatively recent compared to the important progress made in institutional theory over the past few decades, for example in the fields of organisational studies and political science. In this way, the book Knowledge and Institutions takes on the challenge of looking inside the «black box» of the institutions from a triple view- point; the spatiality of institutions, the time-space dynamics of institutional change, and the role of the institutions in the creation and dissemination of knowledge and, connected to this, the social outcomes in bounded territories.

Recently published by the Springer publishing company, as open access, the work is the result of the involvement of the academics Johannes Glückler (Heidelberg University, Germany), Roy Suddaby (University of Victoria, Canada) and Regina Lenz (Heidelberg University, Germany) as editors and twenty social researchers of recognised international prestige. Their expert viewpoint examines the issue from different angles to explain a phenomenon that is without doubt complex and multi- faceted, at the same time as structuring the different contributions around what have been identified as the four key challenges within current research.

The first question relates to differences in the conceptualisation of institutions, a topic which necessarily influences the remaining challenges. As a review of insti- tutional theory shows, these differences stem from the panoply of approaches that exist among and within the social sciences; from approaches that have arisen from economics and organisational studies, noticeably the rational choice or neo-institutionalism schools among others; to those that emerged from the field of economic geography, strongly influenced by the so-called «institutional turn», historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism, among many others.

In this sense, the book reviews some classic institutional theory arguments in relation, for example, to the distinction between institutions understood as formal structures for regulation, laws, contracts or policies and those that are informal institutions such as agreements, conventions, routines or traditions. However, some new areas of theoretical progress of great interest are also discussed. As an example, it is worth mentioning the notion of «mnemonic communities», understood as historically incidental structures that reflect the collective memory of the past, make sense of the present and make it possible to guide actors’ actions. Similar to this is the approach considering that institutions are created and exist from the beliefs of individuals. The so-called «economics of convection» also follows a similar line of thought. In contrast to other economic approaches, it suggests reserving the concept of the institution for formal units of coordination; while conventions are thought of as «the deeper culturally established knowledge frames that enable actors to interpret situations and to act appropriately». From this point of view, without conventions the institutions would be incomplete and lacking meaning.

This debate has methodological implications of practical interest for those who wish to look further at the always tricky study of institutions and their effect on a given region. As the authors stress, the attempt to conceptualise can lead to more rigorous theoretical formulations, such as the processes of economic development. It also makes it possible to generate more precise analytical models, with which to go further than describing how institutions work, as well as enabling better comparisons of the impact of institutionalism on the performance of different territories. In this respect, it is worth noting that the question of why seemingly different institutions can have the same effects and why seemingly similar institutions generate different spatial effects remains open.

The second key question identified relates to this relationship between space and institutions. On the one hand, it examines the influence of the aforementioned institutional turn on the current economic geography, which acknowledges that economic action itself is one form of social action that must be understood in its context and within a wider system of social, economic, and political rules of both formal and informal nature».

On the other hand, the existence of implicit assumptions about space made by neo-institutionalism is made clear. As an example, it talks about the concept of «organizational fields», which describes the regional structure in terms of resource providers, consumers, regulating agencies and other organisations that make similar products and services, raising clear similarities with the regional cluster models in economic geography. As well as highlighting the spatial aspects, the concept draws attention to the opportunity of embracing networks as an analytical method to study them. Similarly, the «institutional fields» proposed area of study refers to the set of structures, practices and meanings which necessarily appear embedded in a specific social and, in principle, geographically bounded context. In this way, social interaction, facilitated by the physical proximity of actors, becomes a key mechanism for the change or continuity of institutions. However, some more recent theoretical lines of thought understand institutional fields not so much as a physical space but as a discursive space, for continuous conversation and negotiation among the various ac- tors. Thus, the focus of attention shifts to «which discursive practices do actors use to construct the semiotic space of their institutional field».

The third question relates to the conditions and processes for the emergence, reproduction and change of institutions. Despite important advances made in recent decades within institutional theory, there is still much room for improvement in the understanding of the mechanisms and processes for institutional change. The book starts from the traditional distinction between adaptive changes and radical changes which are produced by external shocks that can go so far as to jeopardise the established institutional structure (for example, environmental or demographic changes or the introduction of new technologies), before then noting that experts also demand that attention be paid to the endogenous dynamics of institutional change. From this viewpoint, the actors become leading players in this change as they influence institutions, while the institutions structure the actors’ expectations and actions. From historical institutionalism, it also focuses on the strong path dependence that these processes show, as well as on the appearance of key moments in history or critical junctures, where changes in agreements and consensuses, or the influence of the elite, encourage institutional change.

On this point, the question of how to define the institutions once again becomes essential, inasmuch as some of the approaches discussed previously can help achieve a better understanding of the different mechanisms involved in institutional change; for example, in relation to the differentiation between institutions as «structure» and as «equilibria», or in terms of the consistency noted between «institutions» and «conventions». In this sense, among the approaches included, the analytical power of the detailed observation of the stability or change in the form and/or the function of the institutions within their social context stands out.

Lastly, the effects of the institutions on the creation and dissemination of knowledge and the associated impacts on society represent the fourth thematic area of the book. As the editors reiterate, the study of the positive or negative effects of institutionalism on innovation and socio-economic development has a notable tradition within economic geography. However, once again we must remember that there is a great diversity of existing approaches and methodologies; from macro analyses of the quantitative type, where the spotlight is normally on the effects of formal laws and regulations, the mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth and regulation of the markets, among others; to qualitative approaches on a micro scale that typically look at daily practices such as conventions, confidence or social capital. In contrast, interest in how economic development shapes institutions is also present, which also takes us back to the matter of institutional change. To summarise, economic geography, specially that influenced by the institutional turn, can help unlock some key elements of the when, how and in what conditions institutions are important. Furthermore, in many of the works there is an underlying desire to turn this knowledge into action that makes it possible to boost innovation processes, entrepreneurship and competitiveness. As one of the authors rightly suggests, the integration of institutions into regional policies remains an ongoing challenge.

The contents of the book are organised following the logic of these four broad areas. It has three distinctive parts. The first, under the heading «Challenges in Insti- tutional Research», includes works by the academics Henry Farrell, Diego Coraiola, Roy Suddaby, William M. Foster and Rainer Diaz-Bone. They start by reviewing and commenting on the dominant schools of thought within institutional theory in order to then identify the main challenges for current research. The second part, which looks at «Institutional Dynamics Between Continuity and Change», includes contributions from the academics Andreas Hess, Johannes Glückler, Regina Lenz, Jerker Moodysson, Lionel Sack, Tiina Ritvala and Tammar B. Zilber, who talk about the mechanisms and processes for change and the replication of institutions, drawing from examples in different sectoral and territorial contexts. Finally, the third part, titled «The Impact of Institutions on Regional Learning and Development», compiles works from the academics Michael Storper, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Riccardo Crescenzi, Marco Di Cataldo, Harald Bathelt, Nicolas Conserva, Pamela S. Tolbert and Ryan Coles. The case studies, centred on the innovation processes in Los Angeles - San Francisco, the role of infrastructures in Europe, the industrial districts of Italy and entrepreneurship understood as an institution, give rise to debates on the institutional factors that are behind uneven spatial development, regional path dependence in institutional change processes and the ability to adapt of different territories and the role of local actors in the improvement of conditions for economic performance, either by adopting appropriate policies or by engaging in entrepreneurship.

In short, the book Knowledge and Institutions stands at an interesting crossroads between geography, knowledge and institutions and boldly takes on the challenge of broadening understanding of the spatial context and time dynamics of institutions, as well as the effects that these have on the creation of knowledge and regional develop ment. Important lessons can be learned from this book in terms of scientific progress and the design and implementation of regional development strategies. It talks about the importance of the institutional contexts that shape the regional economic development, promoting key drivers; such as the creation and dissemination of knowledge and innovation within the production system, which facilitates the renewal of both traditional sectors and the most advanced clusters, or the boosting of entrepreneur- ship. In essence, the case studies confirm the key role of institutional factors, collectively understood as a type of relational infrastructure which provides support for development processes. By contrast, it also notes the existence of adverse effects, for example in the development of infrastructures or the protection of the environment, in relation to matters such as corruption, a lack of transparency and the lack of accountability in large investments. In fact, it is common in the specialised literature to talk about competitiveness problems that hinder lagging or declining regions, deriving from certain lock-ins, where institutionalism is part of the problem and/or the solution.

To summarise, this work embodies the intense dialogue among the social scienc es that is proposed at the start of the book. The depth of the analysis of the theoretical considerations, along with an opening of new ways forward for empirical research, confirm that the approach was pertinent.