Received: 4 October 2019 Revised: 29 January 2020 Accepted: 30 January 2020 DOI: 10.1111/pirs.12513 FULL ARTICLE Regional science: economy and geography in France and French-speaking countries Denise Pumain1 | André Torre2 1UMR Géographie-cités, University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France Abstract 2INRA—Agroparistech, UMR SAD-APT, The objective of this paper is to assess the French-speaking University Paris Saclay, France countries contributions to regional science since its creation in the 1950s. France, and other French-speaking countries, Correspondence André Torre, University Paris Saclay, INRA— very quickly adhered to the approach of the founding fathers Agroparistech, UMR SAD-APT, France. of regional science. French-language research developed for Email:
[email protected] several years without maintaining major relations with the main streams that flow through regional science. However, the years 2000 and 2010 saw the emergence of streams of thought that strongly irrigate at the international level. The authors of this paper are part of this movement. Here we trace the origins and development of the French-speaking contribution to regional sciences, while highlighting the orig- inality of the French-language approach. First, the question of academic and institutional contexts is discussed, with the role of the founders and the peculiar place of Journals and public institutions. Further sections analyse the main contri- butions coming from economics (local systems of production and innovation, innovative milieus and proximity analysis) and geography (regional development at a global scale, and urban systems and complexity). We conclude with cross- disciplinary contributions including intra-urban organization and mobility, territorial governance and territorial develop- ment, as well as other approaches to the social sciences, in the contemporary issues of city and territorial governance.