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The Politics of High Tech Growth

The Politics of High Tech Growth

The Politics of High Tech Growth

Developmental Network States in the Global Economy
Sean O'Riain , National University of Ireland, Maynooth
January 2008
Available
Paperback
9780521711876

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    This book argues that beneath the Irish trade and foreign investment boom lies a more interesting story of regional innovation promoted by an alliance between the state and local technical communities. This alliance was governed through a decentralized set of state institutions, drawing on 'global' and 'local' economic and political resources. This 'Developmental Network State' has had a significant impact on the growth of Ireland's high tech cluster and is central to the emergence of an international network of 'global high tech regions' from Silicon Valley to Ireland, Taiwan, and Israel. The book provides a detailed study of the rise of the software industry in Ireland and of the state institutions and political conditions which promoted it. It shows how new 'network state' policies and institutions have been central to high tech regions elsewhere.

    • This is the most detailed and comprehensive study of the social organization and political institutions of the Celtic Tiger economy
    • The book advances a new set of concepts for understanding the variety of ways in which states can shape economic development
    • The book challenges the interpretation of the rise of a global information economy as a market-led phenomenon

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Seán Ó Riain has written a splendid book. It contains a lot of new and novel evidence about the relationship between states and economic development, and it is particularly insightful in making sense of how small states adjust to the opportunities and constraints presented by the world economy. I highly recommend it.' Neil Fligstein, University of California-Berkeley

    'It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this book. It is in my view the most insightful account of the dynamics shaping modern Ireland since Professor Joe Lee's classic Ireland: Politics and Society 1912–1985.' Peadar Kirby, Village

    See more reviews

    Product details

    January 2008
    Paperback
    9780521711876
    288 pages
    226 × 150 × 15 mm
    0.338kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of tables
    • List of abbreviations
    • Preface
    • Part I. Development in the Global Information Economy:
    • 1. Networks of development: globalization, high technology, and the Celtic Tiger
    • 2. State developmentalisms and capitalist globalizations
    • 3. Explaining the Celtic Tiger
    • Part II. Software and the Celtic Tiger:
    • 4. 'Location Nation': remaking society for foreign investment
    • 5. Indigenous innovation and the developmental network state
    • 6. Making global and local
    • 7. The class politics of the global region
    • Part III. The Politics of the Developmental Network State:
    • 8. Institutions of the developmental network state
    • 9. Politics and change in developmental regimes
    • 10. Developmental bureaucratic and network states in comparative perspective
    • 11. Futures of the network state
    • Appendix A. Methodology of the study
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Author
    • Sean O'Riain , National University of Ireland, Maynooth

      Seán Ó Riain is Professor of Sociology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.