Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413 www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum 0016-7185/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.10.001 Everyday eVects, practices and causal mechanisms of ‘cultural embeddedness’: Learning from Utah’s high tech regional economy Al James Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, England, United Kingdom Received 2 June 2006; received in revised form 30 September 2006 Abstract In recent years, economic geographers have drawn extensively upon notions of ‘cultural embeddedness’ to explore how spatially vari- able sets of cultural conventions, norms, values and beliefs shape Wrms’ innovative performance in dynamic regional economies. However, our understanding of these causal links remains partial, reinforced by an ‘over-territorialised’ conception of cultural embeddedness which sidelines the role of institutional actors operating outside and across the boundaries of ‘the local’. So motivated, this paper oVers a theo- retically-informed – and theoretically informing – empirical analysis of the high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah to explore the everyday causal mechanisms, practices and processes – both local and extra-local – through which Wrms’ cultural embedding within the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)produced. In so doing, this paper aims to further our understanding of the constitutive entanglement and complex interweaving of cultural/economic practices, and to contribute to the development of an in-depth empirical corpus of work which compliments the exciting conceptual developments that have largely dominated cultural economic geog- raphy over the last decade.  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Embeddedness; Innovation; Culture/economy; Region; Mechanisms; Salt Lake City 1. Introduction Received wisdom in economic geography has long held ‘economy’ and ‘culture’ as separate spheres, each with their own discrete set of institutions, rationalities and conditions of existence. However, since the early 1990s, economic geographers have increasingly rejected these economy ‘ver- sus’ culture dualisms in favour of a range of more Xuid and hybrid conceptions that emphasize the mutual constitution of these two spheres (see e.g. Castree, 2004; Crang, 1997; Gibson-Graham, 1996; Lee and Wills, 1997; McDowell, 2000; Ray and Sayer, 1999). In so doing, scholars have brought to the centre of their analyses the so-called ‘soft’ sociocultural aspects of economic behaviour previously ignored in conventional economic analyses but which fun- damentally organise the workings of the space economy (Wolfe and Gertler, 2001). This shift has been particularly apparent within the post-Fordist regional learning and innovation literature in economic geography. Here, schol- ars have drawn extensively upon the concept of ‘cultural embeddedness’ to explore how Wrms’ production processes operate within, and impact on, the spatially variable sets of social conventions, norms, attitudes, values and beliefs of the societies within which economic decisions and practices take place. Indeed there has now emerged a strong consen- sus that it is simply impossible to explain the continuing advantage of some regional economies over others if we fail to take into account the ways in which Wrms’ activ- ities are culturally constituted (Storper, 1997; Saxenian, 1994). However, despite the widespread popularity of this con- cept, the economic consequences of cultural embeddedness, E-mail addresses: al.james@geog.cam.ac.uk, aj210@cam.ac.uk