Structural Complexity vs. Situational Practices of Action? - Towards an Explanation of Emergence Processes in Regional High-tech Clusters

Abstract: In the field of regional cluster research, it is argued that it is possible to differentiate between the output of an individual actor and the output of a group of actors within the same cluster. In this discussion, the term 'emergence' isoften connected to the observation that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and that emerging phenomena are created bottom-up from individual actions or communications. In this short essay the general question of how to explain emergence phenomena in regional high-tech clusters is raised. In order to answer this question, two sociological approaches - Luhmann's functional systems theory on the one hand and practical theory on the other - are explored and a look is taken at how each theory understands these processes and the resulting phenomena. Finally, a conceptual framework combining suitable elements from both theories and applicable to emergence processes and phenomena within regional high-tech clusters is outlined.;