Human behaviour and economic growth: A psychocultural perspective on local and regional development

Huggins, Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9798-8614, Thompson, Piers and Obschonka, Martin 2018. Human behaviour and economic growth: A psychocultural perspective on local and regional development. Environment and Planning A 50 (6) , pp. 1269-1289. 10.1177/0308518X18778035

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Abstract

A renewed emphasis on behavioural traits has emerged as a means of explaining regional and local differences in economic performance and development. Given this, the aim of this study is to identify distinct local psychocultural behavioural profiles, and to examine the extent to which these are associated with economic growth. Combining theories of community culture and personality psychology into a holistic spatially oriented perspective, the paper argues that the types of human behaviour found across local places emerges from the co-evolution of cultural and personality factors. An empirical analysis of localities in Great Britain identifies and explores three underlying psychocultural profiles: Diverse Extraversion; Inclusive Amenability and Individual Commitment. It is found that inclusive amenable and individually committed psychocultural behaviour generally appear to hold back local economic growth, with the exception of recessionary periods. The reverse relationship is somewhat the case for diverse extravert behaviour. It is concluded that a better understanding of the holistic relationship and co-evolution of the cultural and psychological behavioural make-up of localities and regions has the potential to provide new insights into expected development outcomes as well as the forms of policy intervention that are required within regions and localities, each of which has its own individual psychocultural character.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Additional Information:	Released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0308-518X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 April 2018
Date of Acceptance:	18 April 2018
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 17:59
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/110886

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