Narratives and stories have always played a crucial role in shaping human understanding and perception of the world around them. In recent times, there has been an increasing interest in exploring the role of narratives and stories in regional economic development. Narratives and stories are especially powerful tools that can shape economic policy, business strategies, and public perception of regional transformation and innovation processes.  

This session invites studies exploring the relationship between regional techno-economic developments and their presentation in narratives, news, and public discourses. Building on the literature streams of narrative economics, geographical discourse studies, and media sentiment studies, this session seeks to understand the power of stories (topics, wording, type of presentation) for economic developments with a focus on new technologies and transformation processes.

We are particularly looking forward to empirical studies employing quantitative approaches and tools of modern text analysis such as topic modeling, language models, sentiment, and emotion analyses. Mixed methods approaches are equally welcome.