Result: A behavioural theory of economic development: The uneven evolution of cities and regions: by Robert Huggins and Piers Thompson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2021. 336 pp., £83.00 (hbk), ISBN 978-0-19-883234-8
0034-3404
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A behavioural theory of economic development: The uneven evolution of cities and regions: by Robert Huggins and Piers Thompson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2021. 336 pp., £83.00 (hbk), ISBN 978-0-19-883234-8
Our scientific jargon, the theories we have built and the methodologies we invented, they all let us communicate in abstractions. The risk of all this human reasoning is that we may forget the human itself, which is the basis of every social phenomenon.
It is the behavioural model of urban and regional development that, hopefully, will determine the impact of their work. This model is outlined at the beginning of the book. It unravels different factors and links them to each other in a framework that has a high value, from both a theoretical and a heuristic perspective. It starts with what Huggins and Thompson call 'psychocultural behavioural patterns' which are built up from a reciprocal relationship between 'socio-spatial culture' and 'personality psychology'. Socio-spatial culture is a key concept in the intellectual endeavour, since it sticks human behaviour to a particular territory. Drawing on earlier work, the authors propose that 'the socio-spatial culture of cities and regions consists of the ways and means by which individuals and groups within place-based communities interact and shape their environment' (p. 18). This quotation reveals Huggins' and Thompson's answer to the structure–agency question. Human behaviour is indeed influenced by structures, such as the regional economic set-up of sectors and firms. But it is not determined by it; people can change the structure. In more abstract terms, they have 'agency'. This means that, translated towards the domain of urban and regional development, people can defend the old economic structures or they can change them into new directions and growth paths. These individuals have their own personality traits. They differ, for example, in their mentalities, in their sociability and in their emotional reactions, and in the extent to which they are open to change. All these people make up the socio-spatial culture of an area and, at the same time, are shaped by it. This reciprocal relationship is the fundament of the model: humans are part of groups (that might concentrate in cities and regions) and the group's behaviour influences the behaviour of the individual – but the individual can change the group's behaviour as well.
A pivoting point in these authors' behavioural framework is the nature of agency. They distinguish between 'Human Agency Potential' and 'Human Agency Actualization'. The former is the intention to take action with the goal of achieving a particular aim. We all have intentions, but not all of us act correspondingly. We have to actualize our intention first, and this is why Huggins and Thompson separate Human Agency Actualization from intentional behaviour. This distinction is pivotal because it leads to the central question: What influences the conversion of intentions to real action? And what spatial dimension influences this conversion process? In the behavioural theory outlined in the book, the answer lies in institutions. Institutions, being both formal rules and informal conventions, stimulate or hamper the conversion of intentions into action.
After a profound examination of the composing concepts of the model, the book delivers the empirical evidence for the theoretical propositions it delivers. Most of the empirical evidence concentrates on the nexus between personality traits and socio-spatial culture, and less on the idea of institutional filters that impact on agency. Huggins and Thompson demonstrate their deep knowledge and creative abilities with respect to quantitative methods. They summarize their own, earlier work that shaped psychocultural behavioural profiles by local authority in England, Wales and Scotland. These profiles are based on a compositional analysis of survey data that formed the primary source for personality traits. Subsequently, the differences between personality traits are translated in several categories. In doing so, the authors conclude, for example, that the north of England, Scotland and south Wales are 'inclusive amenable' because these territories show high social cohesion but low levels of openness, amongst others. The profile that characterizes London and south England most is 'individual commitment', because the values measured in these areas mirror individualism as well as an engagement with education and employment, amongst others. The authors extend on these profiles by linking them to data of European surveys on values and agency. Regression analysis gives the psychocultural profiles of cities and regions more width and depth.
However, the outcome of this quantitative approach is that the psychocultural behavioural profiles remain abstract categories, based on the compositional mix of pre-set personality traits based on surveys. The authors are aware of this, as they claim that they do not intend to reflect on 'culture as a whole' (p. 123). This methodological or, better, epistemological consideration reminds us of the anthropological distinction between etic and emic. Etic descriptions of behaviour are culturally neutral; the etic observer describes behaviour from the outside of a group, with abstract categories and replicable methods. An emic account is based on direct observations from within the group. It wants to understand what is meaningful to the members of a group. Independently from certain generalizations about personalities, it tries to capture the unique specificities of individual and group behaviour. In a methodological sense, an emic account requires examinations of the views of the group members. For Huggins and Thompson, this would 'blur' (p. 128) their results, but a real understanding of the relationship between individuals and the group cannot without an inside group perspective as well.
Notwithstanding these side notes,
By Marijn Molema
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