Negligence of Two Paradigms of Space Economics and Conventional Economics in Iranian Regional Development Policies

In this paper, while reviewing the place of “space economics” in the classified theories of economic development, the aspects of its similarities and differences with respect to conventional economics are highlighted. Then, the concept of space economics, its origin, the challenges of the foundations of the two kinds of paradigms between the space economics and conventional economics are discussed. These challenges have not only led to the new regional development policies in the 21st century, but have also brought about new challenges. On the one hand, the World Bank’s annual report, first addresses the issue of reshaping economic geography in the framework of “place neutral” or “place blind”, which appears to be the basis of regional development policies. In contrast to that, European Union (EU) embraces the role of “place-based” and “place-bound” theories for analyzing regional development policies. Taking these two paradigms into accounts and also considering the five decades of regional development policy experience in Iran, this paper seeks to answer the following question: “which one of the two paradigms has been used as the basis of analysis in the regional development policy in Iran?” Findings indicate that for various reasons, regional development policies in Iran have no theoretical support for regional development economics.