People > Faculty Profies > Karen Polenske

Q. Who most influenced your work as a scholar of international development and why?

Polenske: My parents who continually encouraged me to do new and innovative work and who helped those in our farming community who were in need, regardless of age, sex, or social position, thus instilling in me the value of rural life and the desire to learn. Professor Wassily W. Leontief, who was my dissertation advisor, for his confidence in having me lead the regional work at the Harvard Economic Research Project and his desire to present the most complex issues in as simple a way as feasible.

Q. What is your research focus?

Polenske: I currently conduct research in three areas. (1) comparative analyses of energy use, pollution generation, and industrial-technology options in the People’s Republic of China (China), Brazil, and India; (2) land-recycling in China to examine effects of regional and industrial restructuring on the physical and social infrastructure, and (3) regional implications of fuel use on food security in the United States.

Q. Please tell us about of your most recent publications of note.

Polenske: The Technology-Energy-Environmental-Health Chain in China: A Case Study of Cokemaking, Springer January 2006 (published in Chinese by Higher Education Press, December 2006); The Economic Geography of Innovation, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming spring 2007; "Competition, Collaboration, and Cooperation: an Uneasy Triangle in Networks of Firms and Regions." In Regional Competitiveness, edited by Ron Martin, Martin Kitson, and Peter Tyler. London: Routledge: 39-53.

Q. What are some of your most recent public lectures?

Polenske: "Coke and Steel: The Strategic Significance of their Regional Development in a Global Supply Chain," Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, January 4, 2007; "Theories of Regional Economic Development: Case Studies of the Appalachian Region and New Orleans in the United States" Beijing University Shenzhen Branch, China. December 28, 2006. "Regional Economic Restructuring and Recycling Industrial Land in China." North American Regional Science Association Conference, Toronto, CA, November 17, 2006.