one reason i like storper is because he eschews traditional urban economics, which i too find rigid and at times anachronistic. to counter location theory, storper argues that cities and regions, given the recent changes to capitalism, evolve along a path of cumulative knowledge, such that knowledge and learning gain economic value and hence competitive advantage. individuals, firms, and public institutions are codependent. knowledge creation is a process unique to cities/regions and even more compelling unique to individual cities/regions. while a few cities might be technology or financial hubs, their culture and inhabitants influence the way activities are conducted such that their output is also unique. therefore no recipe for economic development and policy can be given - you have to use your brain and think. cities are not machines, but reflexive entities which assume the characteristics of their constituent parts. he concludes, "heterodox regional economics, like economics in general, continues to be controlled by the metaphor of economic systems as machines, with hard inputs and outputs... this focus on economic development must now be complemented by another focus, where the guiding metaphor is the economy as relations, the economic process as conversation and coordination, the subjects of the process not as factors but as reflexive human actors, both individual and collective..."