PD Dipl.-Kfm. Dr. Maximilian BENNER, M.Sc. LL.B.
Senior Scientist
Department of Geography and Regional Research
Universitätsstraße 7, 5th floor, Room: D0501
1010 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43-1-4277-48625
Personal details
Maximilian Benner is an economist and economic geographer with a habilitation degree (venia docendi) in human geography. As senior scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Vienna, he focuses on the geography of emission-intensive industries (e.g., chemical regions), just transitions and their place-based political, economic, institutional, and power-related foundations, as well as the ideational and discursive foundations of regional sustainability transformations.
His conceptual perspectives include institutional, evolutionary, and ideational economic geography and the geography of sustainability transitions, and specifically the interplay between agency, institutional context, ideational and discursive processes, power, and policies.
Research interests
- Geography of emission-intensive industries (e.g., chemical regions)
- Just transitions and their place-based political, economic, institutional, and power-related foundations
- Ideational and discursive foundations of regional sustainability transformations
Publications
Trippl M, Benner M, Kastrup J. Breaking out of old paths? Towards a research agenda on path decline. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 2026 Mar 1;19(1):31-47. rsaf045. doi: 10.1093/cjres/rsaf045
Benner M, Grünenwald VC, Kastrup J. The geography of just transitions: a place-based framework. Regional Studies. 2026 Jan 22;60(1):2606364. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2025.2606364
Jolly S, Asheim B, Benner M, Calignano G, Eadson W, Gong H et al. Future-oriented green and just regional industrial path development: Towards a critical examination. Progress in Economic Geography. 2025 Dec;3(2):100049. doi: 10.1016/j.peg.2025.100049
Benner M. Imaginaries: The Ideational Foundation of Sustainability Transitions. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. 2025 Jul;116(3):265-279. doi: 10.1111/tesg.70003
Benner M. Multiple-challenge regional industrial transitions: The example of chemical regions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 2025 Jun;55:100971. doi: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.100971
Trippl M, Benner M. Climate-changed economic geography. In Aoyama Y, Haberly D, Horner R, Schindler S, editors, A Research Agenda for Economic Geography: Reframing 21st Century Capitalism . Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 2025. p. 133-146. (Elgar Research Agendas). doi: 10.4337/9781035339921.00016
Lehmann T, Benner M, Kapo A. Institutional asymmetries in a low-coordination economy: the smart specialization paradox in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Innovation - The European Journal of Social Science Research. 2025;38(2):855-883. Epub 2022 Jul 4. doi: 10.1080/13511610.2022.2092075
Trippl M, Benner M, Baumgartinger-Seiringer S. Regionale Innovations- und Wirtschaftspolitik in Zeiten transformativen Wandels: Der CORIS-Ansatz als Orientierungsrahmen. Standort - Zeitschrift für Angewandte Geographie. 2024 Dec;48(4):286-292. doi: 10.1007/s00548-023-00890-x
Benner M, Trippl M, Hassink R. Sustainable and inclusive development in left-behind places. Review of Regional Research. 2024 Sept;44(3):237-249. doi: 10.1007/s10037-024-00216-w
Benner M. An ideational turn in economic geography? Progress in Economic Geography. 2024 Feb 24;2(1).
Benner M, Shilo S. Discourse as a carrier of history: wine tourism in the Negev and its evolution. European Planning Studies. 2024;32(4):739-759. Epub 2023 Jun 20. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2023.2221310
Benner M. Making spatial evolution work for all? A framework for inclusive path development. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society (CPES). 2023 Nov 1;16(3):445-462. doi: 10.1093/cjres/rsad015
Benner M. Revisiting path-as-process: agency in a discontinuity-development model. European Planning Studies. 2023;31(6):1119-1138. Epub 2022 Apr 11. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2022.2061309
Giustolisi A, Benner M, Trippl M. Smart specialisation strategies: towards an outward-looking approach. European Planning Studies. 2023;31(4):738-757. Epub 2022 May 3. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2022.2068950
Benner M. System-level agency and its many shades: path development in a multidimensional innovation system. Regional Studies. 2023;58(1):238-251. Epub 2023. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2023.2179614
Benner M. An institutionalist perspective on smart specialization: Towards a political economy of regional innovation policy. Science and Public Policy. 2022 Dec 1;49(6):878-889. scac035. Epub 2022 Jun 29. doi: 10.1093/scipol/scac035
Benner M. Legitimizing path development by interlinking institutional logics: The case of Israel’s desert tourism. Local Economy. 2022 Nov;37(7):564-583. doi: 10.1177/02690942231172728
Reiner C, Benner M. Cooperation bias in regional policy: is competition neglected? Annals of Regional Science. 2022 Aug;69(1):187-221. Epub 2022 May 6. doi: 10.1007/s00168-022-01114-0
Benner M. A tale of sky and desert: Translation and imaginaries in transnational windows of institutional opportunity. Geoforum. 2022 Jan;128:181-191. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.12.019
Benner MKP. Retheorizing industrial–institutional coevolution: a multidimensional perspective. Regional Studies. 2022;56(9):1524-1537. Epub 2021 Jul 27. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2021.1949441