Universities and regional engagement

This chapter undertakes a review of the literature on universities and regional engagement with the core aim of investigating whether a classic divide amongst scholarly traditions has been bridged. Most notably, we investigate the extent to which social science scholars belonging to the three applied fields of regional science studies, science and innovation studies, and higher education management and governance studies refer to each other&s;s works in their scholarly contributions in the context of unpacking the dynamics and complexities associated with universities as organisations/institutions on the one hand and regions as socio-economic, cultural, political, and spatial entities (related processes of regional development) on the other. Our findings show that there have been some positive developments in the cross-fertilisation of ideas across sub-fields, but that more needs to be done if we are to take full advantage of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.