Today Dr. Jos van den Broek successfully defended his PhD thesis on Cross Border Innovation Spaces. In his PhD research he focused on the how successful Cross Border Innovation Spaces are very dependent on institutionalisations and institutional entrepreneurs, to sustain them. The dynamics of this institutionalisation needs to be seen as an evolutionary process, which is not necessarily one-directional. This PhD thesis contributes to the better understanding of these processes and of what is really taking place in this respect in cross-border regions.
To speak of cross-border innovation spaces, is, however, to a certain degree already re-producing the border as a barrier, and less as an opportunity for innovative practices, and therefore only partly does justice to the role of the border for regional innovations, as suggested by some of the opponents at this public defence.
Innovative spaces, or, given the main topic of this web-blog, probably it would be better to speak of innovative places, in general seem to thrive in (hyper)diverse milieu’s. The diversity, creates tensions, uncertainties, risks, and challenges but also seems to stimulate, inspire, and create unexpected combinations, and sparks new ideas, and offers possibilities for the impossible. These differences are thus always burdensome, sometimes even obstructive (the border as barrier) and need continuous investments and efforts, but the innovative opportunities these diversities offer are constitutive for any kind of innovation process. So probably it would be useful to re-conceptualise the border not just as barrier but also as opportunity. This would also imply a totally new look at the fuzziness of these places. Fuzziness as a resource and as something to celebrate. Jos van den Broek, with his main focus institutionalisation, speaks e.g. of ‘fuzzy governance spaces’ as a precondition for successful cross-border innovation processes.
The PhD thesis of Jos van den Broek, inspires us to these kinds of thought experiments on ‘cross-border placemaking’. A worthwhile reading…
