Much of the inspiration of the ‘contextual turn’ in economic geography and regional development studies comes from institutional economics, and its focus on economic life as both an instituted process and a socially embedded activity. The concept of institution has been used in a variety of ways, however. Often the concept is defined in a broad and all-inclusive manner, or it is just stated that institutions are important, without discussing the content of the concept in any depth. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the concept of institutions and the relevance of an institutionalist approach in studies of local and regional development. It starts with a brief overview of the various schools of institutional theorists and the controversies and divergence among them. I argue for the value of a broad conception of institutions, which includes cognitive constructions and normative rules as well as regulative structures. The theoretical discussion is exemplified by a presentation of how an institutionalist approach can be utilized as an analytical framework in a study of the restructuring of four small Norwegian mining communities. The study identifies several types of institutions that in various ways have influenced the process of restructuring and its outcome. These institutions are operating at different geographical levels and reflect regulative constraints, normative obligations and expectations, as well as cognitive classifications and identities. A better insight into the functioning of these institutions will enhance our understanding of the capabilities, problems and prospects of this kind of community.

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Dale, B. and Sjøholt, P., 2007: The changing structure of the central place system in Trøndelag, Norway, over the past 40 yearsviewed in the light of old and recent theories and trends. Geogr. Ann., 89 B (S1): 13-30.ABSTRACT. The IGU Symposium on Urban Geography in Lund in 1960 was a path-breaking event towards new nomothetic thinking within the discipline. In nearly half of the papers, the state of the art in central place research was presented and debated. The symposium was the main source of inspiration for a study of the central place system in Midt-Norge in the 1960s, a research project that has been followed up in stages over a 40-year period. The result is a unique collection of data, covering all central places in the region and the location of approximately 200 service functions of different categories in the 1960s, 1980s and c. 2000. Despite the profound changes that have taken place on the part of the consumer, as well as the supplier, the main structure of the central place hierarchy has been surprisingly stable. However, when looking at the growth and decline of each of the different service functions, considerable dynamics have been found. There are tendencies of centralization/concentration as well as decentralization/dispersion. Furthermore, the functional division of labour by vertical steps and tiers in the 1960s has been supplemented by horizontal specialization between places, and also in the lower levels of the central place hierarchy. In this paper, we present and discuss some of the main changes that have taken place in the system in the light of older and newer theories and trends.

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