Introduction: whither regional studies? / Andy Pike -- Regions and regional uneven development forever? Some reflective comments upon theory and practice / Ray Hudson -- Beyond the territorial fix: regional assemblages, politics and power / John Allen and Allan Cochrane -- Territorial, scalar, networked, connected: in what sense a 'regional world'?, Gordon MacLeod and Martin Jones. Accident of the region: a strategic relational perspective on the construction of the region's significance / Arnoud Lagendijk -- Observational equivalence? Regional studies and regional science / Philip McCann -- Power in firm networks: what it means for regional innovation systems / Susan Christopherson and Jennifer Clark -- Polycentric state: new spaces of empowerment and engagement? / Kevin Morgan -- What kind of local and regional development and for whom? / Andy Pike, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and John Tomaney.