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Human Capital-Centered Regionalism In Economic Development: The Case Of Philadelphia’S Biosciences Sector, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

The paper, drawing on a case study of a regional "talent development" consortium in the Greater Philadelphia metro region, argues that the analytic tools developed to facilitate workforce- and occupation-led economic development are ahead of the institution-building required to put new approaches into practice, for two reasons. First, tensions persist around the role of the public sector workforce system in regional development initiatives. Second, regional stakeholders disagree about whether “knowledge economy” investments should include the training of manufacturing, transportation and logistics workers, leading to the frequent and controversial neglect of blue-collar occupations. The documentation of regional occupational specializations, “talent gap” …