PublicationArticle (with peer review)

How the organisation of mission arenas regulates attention away from regional problems and solutions: An attention-based view

Abstract

Mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) are promoting the formation of ‘mission arenas’ (MAs) where actors collectively try to address societal ‘wicked problems’. Yet, little is known about how attention — and subsequently time and effort — towards specific problems and solutions, and their geographical dimensions, unfolds within MAs. We conducted a multiple-case study of four MAs mandated and granted public funding to address self-articulated ‘missions’ in public health. We identify four distinct types of MA organisation with different attention-regulating properties that contribute to significant variation in MAs’ flexibility and breadth of attention. We propose a model explicating how all four MA organisations regulate attention in ways that impede future attention to regional problems and solutions — a finding that serves to problematise assumptions about attention in the MOIP literature

Bergkvist, J.-E., Essén, A., Wennberg, K., & Krohwinkel, A. (2025). How the organisation of mission arenas regulates attention away from regional problems and solutions: An attention-based view. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 18(3), 465–480.

Details

Author: Bergkvist, J.-E., Essén, A., Wennberg, K., & Krohwinkel, A.
Publication year: 2025
Published in: Economy and Society

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Karl Wennberg
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