Editing Regional science (section)

==Developments after 1980==
Regional science has enjoyed mixed fortunes since the 1980s. While it has gained a larger following among economists and public policy practitioners, the discipline has fallen out of favor among more radical and [[post-modernist]] geographers. In an apparent effort to secure a larger share of research funds, geographers had the [[National Science Foundation]]'s Geography and Regional Science Program renamed "Geography and Spatial Sciences".

===New economic geography===
In 1991, [[Paul Krugman]], as a highly regarded international trade theorist, put out a call for economists to pay more attention to economic geography in a book entitled ''Geography and Trade'', focusing largely on the core regional science concept of agglomeration economies. Krugman's call renewed interest by economists in regional science and, perhaps more importantly, founded what some term the "new economic geography", which enjoys much common ground with regional science. Broadly trained "new economic geographers" combine quantitative work with other research techniques, for example at the [[London School of Economics]]. The unification of Europe and the increased internationalization of the world's economic, social, and political realms has further induced interest in the study of regional, as opposed to national, phenomena.  The new economic geography appears to have garnered more interest in Europe than in America where amenities, notably climate, have been found to better predict human location and re-location patterns, as emphasized in recent work by Mark Partridge.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1435-5957.2010.00315.x | volume=89 | title=The duelling models: NEG vs amenity migration in explaining US engines of growth | journal=Papers in Regional Science | pages=513–536 | last1 = Partridge | first1 = Mark D. | year=2010| doi-access=free }}</ref> In 2008 Krugman won the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] and his Prize Lecture has references both to work in regional science's location theory as well as economic's trade theory.<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2008/krugman-lecture.html Paul Krugman's Nobel Prize Lecture 2008]. Nobelprize.org (2008-12-08). Retrieved on 2011-06-04.</ref>

===Criticisms===
Today there are dwindling numbers of regional scientists from academic [[planning]] programs and mainstream [[geography]] departments. Attacks on regional science's practitioners by radical critics began as early as the 1970s, notably [[David Harvey (geographer)|David Harvey]] who believed it lacked social and political commitment. Regional science's founder, Walter Isard, never envisioned regional scientists would be political or planning activists. In fact, he suggested that they will seek to be sitting in front of a computer and surrounded by research assistants. [[Trevor J. Barnes]] suggests the decline of regional science practice among planners and geographers in North America could have been avoided. He says "It is unreflective, and consequently inured to change, because of a commitment to a God’s eye view. It is so convinced of its own rightness, of its Archimedean position, that it remained aloof and invariant, rather than being sensitive to its changing local context."<ref>Barnes in ''Canadian J of Reg. Sci''. [http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~tbarnes/CSRA%20new.doc 1]  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050310040429/http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~tbarnes/CSRA%20new.doc |date=March 10, 2005 }}</ref>
However, such critics have failed to provide empirical evidence for their claims and ended up criticizing for the sake of criticizing.