Page - (000214) - in Knowledge and Networks

208 may be seen as a major result of the platforming activities coordinated by eMO, for it signifies a fundamental shift away from wishful thinking to concrete and viable regional development activities compatible with the region’s initial resources, com- petencies, and knowledge bases. “Getting from mere application to value creation in Berlin—that is the core strategy” (Interview B011; July 2011). In summary, coordinating agencies were created in the Stuttgart and Berlin regions in 2010 and were implemented as platform organizers to facilitate a decid- edly interorganizational exchange among proliferating, divergent interests and to foster and accelerate learning processes. Followed by other FCEs, these pooled knowledge bases provided by eMO and e-mobilBW thenceforth became the central “locale” (Giddens, 1984, p. xxv) for regional coordinating activities. Within these regional platforms central actor constellations stabilized in the field; interaction increased between the various stakeholders from industry, government, and science; and these actors became generally aware that they were involved in a common proj- ect. The field has become structured nationally as well as regionally (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). The incipient coordinating mechanism that connects the nexus of place-specific practices with the rules and resources in the field was arguably the salient result of this early stage of platforming policies in the two regions. Above all, clarification and stabilization of future priorities and project tasks was the main legacy of these regional platforming strategies by the time this phase ended in early 2012. Bearing in mind the interplay of the national and the regional scale, one inter- viewee with an academic background from the Stuttgart region concluded: “We are beginning to discern the line of march of the regional actors—who are coordinating themselves, of course. This gives them all a measure of certainty. And with this national framework, now this is reinforced even a bit further” (Interview S008; October 2011). However, these positive effects of platforming were not all that was highlighted. One interviewee with the Berlin region in mind also expounded on the problems of potentially dark sides (e.g., premature rigidity) due to increased coor- dination in this early phase of path-forming activities: At some points you make decisions, but I think you have to be smart enough to reconsider [them] once in a while and ask yourself if this is the right path to take. ... I think there is a bit of a danger in wanting to stop or adjust the course once a train has begun moving. (Interview B007; August 2011) This quotation indicates how much reflexivity was involved in the platforming pro- cess; though not everywhere all the time. The upper part of Fig. 10.1 summarizes the development of the national context; the two bottom parts, the developments in the two regions under study—Stuttgart and Berlin—between 2008 and early 2012. Discussion: Platforming Toward Path-Forming? The development of urban mobility based on the automotive system in general and cars with a traditional powertrain technology in particular indisputably illustrates a path-dependent process that has locked-in certain regions, indeed even whole J. Sydow and F. Koll