Internationalization, and institutional and regional change: Restructuring post-communist networks in the region of Lanskroun, Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to establish a framework for the analysis of regional change drawing on a combination of network theory and the concepts of social and symbolic capital of Bourdieu. It argues that regional change in the Czech Republic can be analysed as a combination of network restructuring and struggles for the redefinition of symbolic capital. The case study section presents an example of restructuring in the Lanskroun region, previously entirely dominated by one single employer. Using evidence from this region, the paper argues chat a combination of symbolic capital of foreign investment can be combined successfully with parts of local pre-1989 networks of social capital and that such a combination can reinvigorate regional economies.