Dr. Pudup will reconstruct and compare manufacturing investment patterns in North Carolina and Tennessee for the period 1900 to 1985 with the goal of demonstrating the formative and enduring role of locally-sponsored industrial location strategies. The research will rely on state-level industrial development records that have not heretofore been exploited. Existing work in regional analysis and industrial geography focuses on labor markets as the primary source of regional economic differentiation. Such research tells us more about industrial dynamics than it does about regional dynamics. This project will highlight the role of regional industrial culture in long-term development processes and will have important theoretical, policy, and planning implications.
