INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND TERRITORIAL DIVERSITY: REFLECTIONS FOR A RESEARCH AGENDA

The plurality of methodological perspectives currently at hand to geographical analysis has encouraged the discipline to explore new research subjects, as well as to see longstanding theoretical issues and problems under a different angle. Proposing a dialogue between the sub-fields of Political and Economic Geography, this article explores the potential and limits of an institutionalist approach to geographical research. After a theoretical review of the key contributions of institutional theories in different areas of the social sciences, the article underscores the usefulness of the institutional perspective to tackle two relevant issues in territorial analysis: territorial governance policies and regional development policies. The paper's key conclusion is that the attention given by the institutionalists to the contexts of (inter)action and to the heterogeneity of possible institutional arrangements and environments at different geographical scales puts in a different light the issue of territorial diversity, and improves territorial analysis.