Zagadnienie bliskości w badaniach nad rozwojem terytorialnym. Podejście instytucjonalne

Abstract

Despite the growing role of the international scale of the economic development, also the local and regional level still remains its important factor. This conclusion has led to a re-definition of the meaning of proximity where, next to its pure geographical dimension, also a cognitive, social, organizational or intuitional one, should be taken into account. In this context, every place is being perceived more and more often as so called “territory”, having its own (and different from other) development trajectory The main thesis of this paper is that an important role of the territory within the global economy is derived from the merging of the complex relationships between different types of proximity (spatial, social, cognitive, etc.). A derivative of this thesis is the assumption, that what can contribute as a tool for studying the relations between proximity and territorial development, is an institutional economics. This paper has a theoretical character and consists of fours parts. The following part is an attempt to define “territory”, especially in the economic context. The second part contains a description of the concept of proximity and its various dimensions, in terms represented by the so-called economics of proximity. Next part is a tentative to identify the possibilities of interpreting the meaning of proximity in equally rich as internally diverse theoretical achievements of institutional economics – a rapidly developing field of knowledge. In the last part the author attempts to indicate the possibility of using different trends of institutionalism, as research methods and directions in the studies on the local and regional development.