The History, Status, and Future of Regional Science: An American Perspective

Abstract

This comprehensive paper examines the roots and dreams of early regional science, focusing on its scholarly association, its concepts of science and region, and its claim to be a separate discipline. Regional science never became a science or a discipline, and it has had a peculiar relationship to regions. Yet, it has had spectacular success as an international, interdisciplinary scholarly forum, and it has produced noteworthy contributions to several disciplines. This paper also assesses the standing of contemporary regional science within economics, geography, planning, and other academic fields and points out its achievements and failures. It discusses the place of regional science in academic space, intellectual space, and real world space and proposes future directions with respect to each.