Expanding the "Region" in Regional Science: How Third World Experience Can Enrich Our Research

The 40th anniversary of regional science, celebrated in 1994, closely coincided with the closure of the Regional Science department at the University of Pennsylvania. Consequently, it is not surprising to find that commentaries on the future of regional science invariably go together with a critical analysis of what we may have done wrong in the past. My commentary here is no exception. I argue that our collective scholarship to date has sorely neglected the Third World as a region, and that our research can greatly benefit by paying close attention to the economic and social transformation under way in developing countries.