Globalization and economic restructuring in Ontario: From industrial heartland to learning region?

Recent contributions suggest that the current period is characterized by a paradoxical consequence of globalization in which the ever greater integrat ion of national and regional economies into the global one accentuates, rat her than minimizes, the significance of the local context for innovative ac tivities. This paper sketches out the implications of this argument by draw ing on the case of Ontario, Canada's largest province and industrial heartl and. The restructuring triggered by the broader processes of globalization was accentuated after 1990 by Ontario's deeper integration into the North A merican economy following the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the US and its successor, the North American Free Trade Agreement. These change s forced a number of critical responses on both firms and the government of the province, as they face the challenge of becoming more innovative and a dopting the characteristics of learning regions. This experience is highly relevant to regions elsewhere that are attempting to shift their traditiona l industrial base to a more knowledge-intensive economy.