Path development politics: contesting regional hydrogen economies in Northern Europe

This article uses empirical investigation of regional hydrogen investments and strategies in Northern Europe to develop a new conceptual approach to regional industrial path development which foregrounds politics and power as explanatory factors in understanding the logics, processes and outcomes of path development. This conceptualisation departs from Evolutionary Economic Geography approaches to industrial change through its focus on path development as political process. We build from and advance Geographic Political Economy approaches to path development to outline a multi-faceted conceptualisation of path development politics encompassing institutional, material, cultural and civil-welfare politics which entwine to shape and produce different path development processes and outcomes. We argue this represents a significant expansion of existing scholarship in the field. The article also makes an important empirical contribution through original international analysis of hydrogen developments in European regions, a highly topical area of research which has not yet been treated to detailed international comparative analysis. It finds that the four modes of politics identified are critical to understanding how ‘hydrogenated path development’ is taking shape.