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This paper is concerned with the various policies which encourage rural entrepreneurship and support for rural enterprise in the 10 case study areas covered by the FERP (The Future of Europe's Rural Peripheries) project. After introducing a typology of existing policies, the paper addresses some lessons drawn from the experiences of existing policies before discussing the kinds of policies needed to stimulate potential sources of entrepreneurship and overcome the barriers to enterprise development. The paper concludes by arguing for a more strategic and coordinated approach towards building the entrepreneurial capacity of peripheral rural areas, based on a clearer vision of the role that enterprise can play in future rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to describe the potential of urban transport infrastructure projects such as metro, regional rail and tram, to indirectly work as a catalyst for the development and redevelopment of urban areas as well as the regeneration of declining areas. The paper presents the outcome of research on a sample of 12 European cities—Athens, Bratislava, Brussels, Helsinki, Lyon, Madrid, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Stuttgart, Valencia, Vienna and Zurich. This research is part of the Transecon project which was funded by the European Commission under the competitive and sustainable growth programme of the fifth framework— and concerned with all kinds of different indirect effects (economic, social and spatial) of new transport infrastructure investments in European cities. The outcome of the research points out that urban transport infrastructure may have a catalytic effect on the development, redevelopment and regeneration of urban areas but there are a lot of other influencing factors which make such re-urbanization processes a successful or unsuccessful story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a couple of decades now revitalization of historic urban quarters has become popular throughout the world especially in many European cities. In some cases the positive transformation of these valuable places has not been achieved. However, there have been some success stories. The aim of this paper is to question the background of these differences and try to reach a proposal of a model for the determination of the most appropriate strategic approach for their revitalization. The method, which is employed in this paper, rests upon a thorough literature survey, which has conveyed an understanding of the revitalization rationale. The validity of the proposed model has been examined on many different examples of revitalization projects in European cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) is being promoted as an alternative in policy are as where the Community method does not apply, such as in employment, social security and pensions. The paper discusses the origins of OMC and the thinking behind it. Then it explores OMC features of the process of making the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). The work of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) on indicators facilitates OMC being invoked. Indicators need to be supplemented with mutual exchanges about national and European planning and also by joint work on transnational and European spatial visions. Assuming that, as proposed in Art. 3 of the European Constitution, territorial cohesion will become an accepted goal of the Union, on a par with economic and social cohesion, the paper ends with a scenario of the application of OMC in formulating European Union Territorial Cohesion Strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the factors determining a region's ability to produce Internet content and tries to identify relationships with the role of the same region in the national and global economy. The number of .de-domains is used to measure Internet content production, which serves as an indicator for the innovativeness of the regions in an emerging part of the service economy. Data used for the spatial distribution of .de-domains (1.2 million names at the end of 1999) is original and has not been published before. In the first part of the paper the development of the number of Internet domain names in German regions is described and independent variables to explain the spatial structure are analysed. Results show that those variables that are associated with potentials to create and commercialize new knowledge are especially suited to explain the regions' relative frequencies in domain name counts. However, no single hypothesis alone is able to explain the spatial structure of .de-domains, rather a mixture of factors indicating external economies, creation of knowledge and highly qualified labour is best. The knowledge and attitude of these individuals is crucial for the adaptation and diffusion of an innovation like the Internet. Thus, the Internet does not create new regions but it replicates, at least in Germany, the well-known ranking of regions in terms of high-tech. Concerning high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive services, Munich has stood at the top of German regions for about 15 years; this region will be analysed in the second part of the paper. Munich's national and global competitiveness depends mainly, as for other regions, on the innovativeness of its firms, research institutions, and people. The capability of Internet domain names as an indicator for regional innovativeness is the better the younger this innovation is. Despite the rather decentralized spatial structure of Germany (see the very low primacy index), compared, e.g. with the UK and France, Munich stands out in terms of the number of domain names. Munich's role in the national and global economy is supported by the early adoption of the Internet by the local firms and private users - and vice versa! If one considers the Internet as a basic innovation in the sense of Schumpeter's long wave approach then new combinations of resources in new or old regions can lead to strong national growth, but attended by increasing disparities between regions within the respective nation. We may distinguish two driving forces: the Internet as the basic innovation and the export of the respective content production to other parts of the global economy. Munich serves as a proof for the hypothesis that regions with a large potential of Internet production are also able to export these contents into other parts of the world. Zook's work on regional economic impacts of the Internet on US regions shows that regions with above-average Internet content production and marketing activities do profit significantly from the multiplicator and spin-off-effects of the related exports. Thus, although information can be distributed by the Internet in very short time to all places in the world, it nevertheless produces uneven economic landscapes (and in part manifest the old landscape) that sees the regions with strong Internet content production in a much better position than regions where the Internet consumption prevails, although this still has to be analysed for German regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the growing body of European literature exploring the nature of contemporary partnerships. Some common themes emerge, but there also appear to be differences in the way partnership is viewed in different national contexts. The paper then describes the relationships between organizations involved in the process of redevelopment of an area of Paris and an area of London. These relationships are examined using the conceptions of partnership identified in the literature. The paper concludes by identifying some features of partnership which may be common to different national contexts and some which may vary according to context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of escalating problems in European urban areas caused partly by economic and technological changes in the European and global economies. The most visible representation of these changes has been a growth in urban unemployment and social exclusion. The European Commission has taken a growing interest in these issues and attempted to develop an European Union (EU)-wide approach to urban change. The focus of this paper is on the Commission's attempt to develop an 'urban agenda' and to promote policies which are more 'urban sensitive'. With reference to the 'urban agenda' this paper examines the contribution of, and problems associated with, two Urban Communications recently published by the Commission and the European Spatial Development Perspective. It then assesses the prospects for the development of an EU Urban Policy, arguing that an 'explicit' urban policy is unlikely to emerge in the short or medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up the discussion on the relationship between culture and economic development and places it in the context of one British and several German case studies whose main interest it was to demonstrate the importance of cultural aspects (in the widest sense) for understanding regional development in general and the development of the study areas in particular. Despite the growing interest in the issue during the recent past in various academic disciplines there is as yet no consistent theoretical approach to it. This paper does not venture to fill that gap, but it addresses some of the open questions by looking into the case studies. The lessons learned are mainly two-fold. Firstly, the findings emphasize the general importance of the socio-cultural dimension for understanding regional development. Secondly, not least because of the empirical slant of the studies a closer link between the different theoretical approaches would seem very desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents one of the most advanced pieces of water policy developed during the last decades. Since its introduction in 2000, several technical and political issues arose regarding this Directive and its implementation, and have to be managed by European Member States at the national level, but in strict collaboration with local authorities and stakeholders. Whilst several studies have analysed the WFD from a technical point of view, a few are available that assess and compare the quality of public participation processes in river basin management at the European level. The present paper shows the outcomes of an own-developed questionnaire sent to European water and environmental authorities during 2015, which highlights the variable situation in terms of stakeholders' involvement and methods adopted to interact with them, and also points out the scarce results that the consultation has obtained in terms of innovative measures to fulfil the requirements of the WFD. In light of the present situation, a better consideration of public consultation and associated methodologies is necessary for future management cycles, as well as a better coordination between Member States sharing river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second-tier cities have been experiencing renewed interest within policy and research contexts, which is reversing a tradition of relative neglect due to the long-standing focus on large cities and capitals. This paper compares European second-tier and first-tier cities with regard to the presence of urban functions and how these are spread over their urban regions. The analysis shows the existence of a substantial ‘first city bonus’: a surplus of urban functions in first-tier cities which cannot be explained by their size or network embeddedness. We also show that second-tier cities are better served with urban functions in the absence of a dominant capital. In first-tier urban regions, the core municipality exploits the critical mass of the urban region to support its own functions, leaving that region functionally underserved. Second-tier cities lack this absorptive capacity, and their urban regions are endowed with more urban functions. These functional differences mean that second-tier cities demand a differentiated research and policy approach, in which city-regional integration becomes an important territorial development strategy. Rather than the dispersion process in first-tier cities leading to a ‘regionalization of the city’, integration in second-tier urban regions may be seen as a process of ‘citification of the region’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue addresses the influences of planning cultures and histories on the evolution of planning systems and spatial development. As well as providing an international comparative perspective on these issues, the collection of articles also engages in a search for new conceptual frameworks and alternative points of view to better understand and explain these differences. The articles focus on three main aspects: the change in planning systems and its impact on spatial development patterns; the interrelationship between planning cultures and histories from a path-dependency perspective; and the variations in physical development patterns resulting from different planning cultures and histories. Papers from different parts of the European continent present evidence at different scales to illustrate these aspects. In all cases, the specific combinations of political, ideological, social, economic and technological factors are important in determining urban and regional planning trajectories as well as spatial development patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the implementation of the RIS3 policy agenda. Based on two surveys and various phone interviews, it underlines that Europe's diverse pattern of institutional arrangements poses locally contingent policy challenges in which regional governance capacities are at least as important an issue as techno-economic potentials. In detail, it demonstrates how Southern Europe profited from novel practices while Eastern Europe had to invest substantially to change existing routines. Concluding, it argues that the main merit of RIS3 processes may, in fact, lie in their contribution to changing routines and practices of governance even if those, for now, remain without measurable effect on policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a land-use change analysis of five Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We utilize CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) Land-Cover and Urban Audit data for two distinct time periods: 1990–2000 and 2000–2006 aggregated at urban, suburban and non-metropolitan geographies. The literature on post-socialist cities suggests that urbanization rates and patterns in the post-socialist period are quite variable and divergent, both “inter”nationally and “intra”-nationally, and we expect to find both spatial and temporal differences. We compare and contrast urbanization patterns at the national scale, using cities and their functional urban regions as the unit of comparative analysis. Our results show that unlike other eastern European countries, metropolitan areas in the former German Democratic Republic began sprawling (defined as a decline in urban density) in the 1990s. Similar changes only became visible in other CEE countries later during the 2000s. We also demonstrate that larger cities which were better connected to the political elite and more economically integrated with global investment patterns experienced more extensive urban sprawl than their smaller and mid-sized counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim to enhance the prevailing structural perspective on metropolization by pointing to the mutual relationship between the processes of metropolization and polycentric development. We claim that a processual view is needed to emphasize the temporal dependencies between different layers of polycentricity, and to reveal that European city–regions are situated in different stages of polycentric metropolitan development (PMD). To illustrate this empirically, we first analyse Bratislava and Vienna as two European city–regions that recently decided to jointly approach metropolitan development, while their contextual conditions and development trajectories differ significantly. It is shown upon an indicator-based analysis that the two are in different phases of the metropolization process. Confronting this evidence with stakeholder assessments of the need for strategic intervention in metropolitan development further uncovers the importance of the strategic dimension in metropolitan research. Building upon that, we conduct cluster analysis for a sample of 50 European city–regions by the same indicator set. It is shown that even this large sample of agglomerations can be grouped by different types of metropolizes, reflecting distinct effects of the metropolization process on urban-regional transformation. Hence, we conclude that a processual understanding in strategic approaches to PMD is necessary. Only if the different phases, paces, and effects of the metropolization process are taken into account, we can formulate serious recommendations for the polycentric development of distinct European urban territories. The move from structural to processual understanding is an essential foundation to learning processes for the governance of future PMD. Furthermore, the emphasis on different types of metropolizes should be taken into account in the formulation of future European policies on metropolitan development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces indicators of regional related variety and unrelated variety to conceptually overcome the current impasse in the specialization-diversity debate in agglomeration economics. Although various country-level studies have been published on this conceptualization in recent years, a pan-European test has been missing from the literature until now. A pan-European test is more interesting than country-level tests, as newly defined cohesion policies, smart-specialization policies, place-based development strategies and competitiveness policies may be especially served by related variety and unrelated variety conceptualizations. We test empirically for the significance of variables based on these concepts, using a cross-sectional data set for 205 European regions during the period 2000–2010. The results confirming our hypotheses are that related variety is significantly related to employment growth, especially in small and medium-sized city-regions, and that specialization is significantly related to productivity growth. We do not find robust relationships that are hypothesized between unrelated variety and unemployment growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 15 years, empirical evidence has emerged about the fact that European first-rank cities have not always led national economic performance, and when they did, the difference between first- and second-rank cities in explaining national growth has not been significant. A recent work [Dijkstra, L., Garcilazo, E. & McCann, P. (2013) The economic performance of European cities and city regions: Myths and realities, European Planning Studies,21(3), pp. 334–354] claims that second-rank cities have in fact outperformed first-rank cities, becoming the main driving forces in national economic performance. In the debate that emphasizes the role of second-rank cities in national growth, a simplified view of the role of agglomeration economies is provided; they are taken for granted in small- and medium-sized cities and only in large cities will the problem of a downturn in urban returns to scale emerge. In this paper, a more complex view is assumed, claiming that the oversimplified interpretation that urban economic performance simply depends on the exploitation of agglomeration economies and that these agglomeration economies merely depend on urban size alone should be abandoned. Some already existing theoretical frameworks in urban economics can help in recalling the role of possible bifurcations in the development path of cities, linked to the capability to attract or develop new and higher-order functions, increase internal efficiency and reach scale economies through cooperation networks with other cities (the city-network theory). All these elements work as conditions for fully exploiting agglomeration economies and ways to overcome urban decreasing returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great number of contributions regarding shrinking cities correspond to generic discourses on urban problems, which cover planning policies with approaches and strategies developed in somewhat diverse or even very different urban contexts. The debate on shrinkage is still feeble and fragmented. Perhaps this is owing to the character of shrinkage or its relative novelty. An explicit, unequivocal, and comprehensive theoretical debate and framework on the topic of planning for shrinkage is lacking. This entails a previous reflection about what shrinkage means or should mean, the role of urban and regional planning, and the contradictions of planning for shrinkage, which cause the paradox of planning for shrinkage. How can planning deal with shrinkage? What should policies for shrinkage look like? Is planning for shrinkage, planning for population decrease? Is it managing population decrease? Is it business as usual: planning to resume growth? What does managing shrinkage mean? The paper presents a theoretical debate and some preliminary conclusions addressing these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased policy interest in geographical mobility necessitates a fuller understanding of the uneven spatial patterning of migration in Europe. This paper reports on research exploring the experience of cities and regions in respect of migration, and the socio-economic factors associated with disparities in net migration across sub-national areas. This involved modelling the relationship between net migration over the period 2001-2006 and the underlying socio-economic circumstances across European cities and regions, and generating an area typology that captured variable experiences with regard to migration. The results of multivariate analysis suggest that urban areas are more likely than other types of areas to have net in-migration levels which exceed those expected given their socio-economic characteristics, both for places with flourishing economies and unmet demand for labour as well as those whose economic fortunes are less buoyant. The results also suggest that the experience of cities and regions is polarized, with large urban areas featuring prominently among the best and worst performing areas in respect of net in-migration. The potential implication of this complex pattern is that bespoke, rather than blanket, policy interventions are required to address the variable experiences of cities and regions in relation to migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more European cities are confronted with population decline in a structural sense. This development of “urban shrinkage” has different causes, but similar effects: the city's hardware, software and mindware deteriorate. In this paper, we explore and assess policy strategies to respond to urban shrinkage in a European context. Four strategies are identified: (1) trivializing shrinkage, (2) countering shrinkage, (3) accepting shrinkage and (4) utilizing shrinkage. We suggest that accepting shrinkage by improving the quality of life for the city's existing residents is the most suitable and sustainable strategy. Dealing with shrinkage is a complex urban governance process that asks for a mental transformation from growth to shrinkage as well as regional rather than local thinking. Moreover, due to the fiscal burden of shrinkage, city governments will be increasingly dependent on the willingness of citizens to help. Civic engagement, however, is not something that can be simply dictated. Therefore we conclude that the authorities of Europe's shrinking cities should first enable their citizens to care for their community before asking them to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effects of R&D expenditure in the higher education sector on the scientific production across regions in Europe 15. Our research questions relate to the regional production of science and the role of academic R&D expenditures on regional scientific output. The results show that money affects the production of scientific results in regions. On average, we found different impacts and lags of R&D expenditure according to the level of regional development. Our findings also suggest that scientific specialization is a significant factor affecting scientific outputs, although its effects differ across disciplines and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent developments of the economic theory suggest that due attention to territorial context increases efficiency and improves delivery of the policies. This in turn calls for better linkages between spatial and socio-economic efforts. The paper analyses the concept of policy territorialization and proposes policy tools for that purpose. The relevant theoretical models are used, mainly evolutionary economics and new economic geography. The key outcome is a set of territorial keys supposed to enhance territorial approach in developmental policies. Also some plausible ways of making use of those keys are proposed and then tested using Polish territory as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 15 years, the subject of urban logistics has preoccupied many stakeholders, including both private and public decision-makers. The purpose of this paper is to present a study of the limits of public policy regulations restricting vehicle access to limited traffic zones to promote the use of urban consolidation centres (UCCs). After examining the main technical and economic aspects of implementing an UCC, we present the case of Vicenza (Italy), which has implemented very restrictive regulations. We study the municipal regulations and their legal consequences, by analysing court rulings issued between 2006 and 2009, following a lawsuit brought by an association of freight transport carriers due to these restrictions. Although this case seems applicable to a specific context, we identify several lessons that can be extrapolated to other cities. Therefore, the lessons drawn for other urban areas in Europe are presented, and their advantages and possible transferability studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote “cohesion, competitiveness and cooperation” across Europe, the EU has established a common regional policy to support underdeveloped territories. This EU regional policy required to set up a very complex mechanism to implement such a huge effort to coordinate many interventions across highly differentiated territories. However, those territories are provided with very different institutional settings, and then the mechanism to coordinate all of them becomes particularly complex. The aim of this paper is to discuss the EU multi-level governance for structural funds (SFs), revising the origin, rationale and evolution of this policy in order to identify the limits of the institutional mechanism for the implementation of this policy. These limits will show their effects on the unstable distribution of SFs across the EU regions on a long-term perspective. Results show that the intervention of the EU is neither constant nor stable across regions, independently from their development paths. This instability should provide further arguments on the discussion about the SF policy and governance in order to take into considerations also institutional limits of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern cities in the open European space-economy are powerhouses of creative ideas, smart technologies, sustainable developments and socio-economic wealth. They play a pivotal role in the future of an urbanized Europe, but they are also confronted with grand challenges, notably far-reaching demographic transformations, environmental decay and climatological change, unequal social participation and ever-rising mobility trends. The challenges for urban environments may be turned into new opportunities, in particular, in such domains as advanced infrastructure and logistic systems, environmental and climate-neutral facilities, creative and knowledge-intensive strategies for socio-economic prosperity and well-being. Cities—and in particular metropolitan areas—may thus act as spearheads of sustainable economic growth for European countries. These observations call for appropriate long-range policy strategies for metropolitan areas—and networks of cities—in the highly diversified European space-economy. Such policy actions would need to be supported by solid, multidisciplinary and evidence-based research on the challenges and opportunities of urban environments in Europe. The main contribution of this paper lies in the systematic strategic approach to transform urban megatrends and challenges into research and policy concerns for Europe. The analytical framework employed to highlight and better understand such research and policy response in Europe from a typological perspective is built around four interconnected pillars (cornerstones) that form the focal points for identifying strategic future images that may be instrumental in mapping out the research and policy challenges for the “New Urban Europe”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article to the present collection outlines a comparative research perspective that focuses on processes of post‐socialist urban transformation and strategies of urban regeneration in different cities of Central Eastern Europe. In particular, urban regeneration will be discussed within the context of post‐socialist urban governance and processes of institutional change. This paper consists of three sections. The first deals with trends of socio‐spatial change, including “shrinkage”, socio‐economic polarization, industrial restructuring and simultaneous tends of gentrification and “downgrading” within inner city neighbourhoods. Discussion then follows with an overview of urban development challenges associated with these socio‐spatial changes. We will also describe at length conceptual approaches of strategic planning as a form of governance that addresses processes of urban decline. Critical sources of debate that stem for the experiences of West European cities will be summarized and their relevance to East German and Central European contexts discussed. The last part of the essay provides brief overviews of the six essays featured in this special issue of European Planning Studies, indicating how they address questions of urban regeneration and the strategic management of urban development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansion of territories targeted by travellers and growth of attendance rates make tourism sector of significant interest for the implementation of policies on environmental protection at the European Union (EU) level. The need to protect local natural heritage, to integrate tourism industry development policies with the ones pertaining to other sectors that characterize a given territory and to enhance the overall environmental performance are some of the priorities that may appear conflicting at times. This paper discusses a method of analysis and planning aiming to promote potential directives of local governance. This method, representing the outcome of a process coordinated and shared across territories, is oriented towards the sustainable development of the area and refers to the implementation of integrated policies, The Interreg Eco Tourism (INTER.ECO.TUR) project, co-financed by the European Commission under the EU's INTERREG IIIC, provided the research with a useful case study to analyse the dynamics of sustainable tourism development within the European Mediterranean area. The debate of its results offers evidences on the possibility to develop such a governance process effectively, providing insight into an assessment methodology enriched by a clear-cut analysis of its applied experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While researching intersections of regional cultures and corporations the question arises which spaces are relevant for corporations? Instead of researching regions as fixed and bordered administrative or political entities, regions need to be deconstructed as varying and overlapping spaces. After a discussion of space in theory, three European regions are researched in this paper. Thinking in different space-layers is not only an academic exercise, but also has relevance for regional policy at different policy levels. It is of interest to understand companies' transaction spaces and the spaces perceived as relevant, to capture spaces for which companies are willing to take responsibility and to understand identity spaces. The sums of these spaces build the territory, which in contrast to the region as an administrative entity; comprises the social, cultural and historical spheres. In order to understand and govern territories, however, “Multispace-Governance” research in vertical structure is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the interaction between corporate cultures and regional cultures in seven different regions. First, we develop the hypothesis that under certain conditions, the interaction between corporate cultures and regional cultures becomes a virtuous circle, in which corporate performance and regional performance reinforce each other. Based on the literature on corporate and regional (innovation) cultures, nine different fields are identified in which the interaction between corporate culture and regional culture takes place and potentially contributes to the “virtuous circle”. The interaction of regional and corporate actors in the seven regions is then analysed for each of these fields of potential tension and synergy, resulting in a comparative overview of the regions, detailing where virtuous circles appear to be present and where the interaction appears to be absent or even counterproductive. Subsequently, the analysis zooms in on the cases where interaction between corporate and regional actors resulted in virtuous consequences, in order to identify actions of companies and regional actors that contributed to the “virtuous circle”. It is concluded that successful regions are regions that are handling the potential tensions in a balanced way. This requires mutual orientation in the actions of companies and regional actors and the development of change competencies on both sides. The results underline that the circle of interaction between corporate and regional cultures must be an open circle, so that external events can be used as an opportunity to trigger change and to set the “virtuous circle” in motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which regional culture informs the organizational culture of incumbent firms in specific regions and vice versa. To achieve this, we draw on a repertoire of conceptual and theoretical instruments, few of which have featured in the analysis of regional evolution hitherto. For example, the ideas of innovation systems of paradigm and regime are deployed as regional paradigms and regimes to access the dynamics of regional evolution. The concept of “spacing” is used to reveal the ways actors shape given places by meanings or symbols. Subsequently, the methodology of “cultural framing” is used to position key regional narratives and their meaning for regional evolution. This approach is then tested in a stylized manner against the main focal regions of the CURE project before being used in more detail to compare and contrast two of the more distinctive regional and corporate settings, Westphalia and Wales. In conclusion, we show the path inter-dependences and new path creations of both cast a new light on regional evolution in general and that of these regions in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrád Four (V4). This region—comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia—relied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of “business services” by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human-capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the new Europe based on knowledge strengthens the role of the regions and offers great potential for generating higher levels of growth and employment and greater prosperity and cohesion. In this paper, the geographical distribution of knowledge produced by European universities in the regions has been analysed by means of a sample from 213 regions in the EU-15, comparing its degree of concentration with that of economic activity and verifying whether a process of convergence of relevant indicators has taken place during the period 1998-2004. Finally, an evaluation as to whether this convergence of university scientific and technological knowledge affects the regional economic convergence has been carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important economic and social facts concerning the European Union consists in the mismatch among its regions in terms of unemployment rates. The paper aims at examining and measuring the efficiency of Italian policies for labour market carried out in the last 10 years, in terms of reduction in the regional disparities in comparison with the whole European distribution of unemployment. We question whether these policies have been successful or the territorial dimension has still a relevant role on the unemployment in Italy. We try to answer to this question by calculating the Theil Index using data from 1996 to 2006 on unemployment and participation from Eurostat at NUTS 2 level, comparing Italian data with those of other EU countries. Our results show that Italy has still a prominent role in the geographical disparities among regions and that its contribution to the geographical concentration of unemployment is still high (especially if we consider female and youth unemployment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enlarged Europe is addressing the challenge of territorial cohesion on the basis of a disciplinary and operative framework formed by a number of evolving documents and provisions to be applied and developed at different administrative and planning levels. Rapid and profound changes have occurred in previous decades as far as institutional framework, the role of actors and issues to be tackled are concerned, within a re-scaling process of territorial governance. In this context, small territories can take advantage of European funds, but experience a hard confrontation with the market economy and supra-local visions, use of resources and infrastructure projects. A decisive role, in many countries, has been gained by regional authorities, which must mediate among various territorial levels, institutions and actors involved in a multilevel governance process. The paper focuses on spatial and regional/territorial planning processes among the European dimension, Member States and regions, on the basis of a case study conducted in Northern Italy. The aim is to determine the role of European spatial planning as a 'learning machine' [Faludi, A. (2008) European Territorial Cooperation and Learning, disP 172, (1/2008), pp. 3-10.] able to support processes of mutual learning and cooperation, overcoming the attitude of compliance to upper level schemes and financial programmes rather than innovating usual procedures and territorial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses differences in the degree to which European Union countries have achieved the renewable electricity (RES-E) targets set by the European Commission for each Member State for 2010. After defining an RES-E target achievement (TA) indicator, both conventional and novel techniques are used to examine the main features of its distribution, including the degree of inequality, external shape and intra-distribution dynamics, for the 1996-2006 time period. The analysis demonstrates that disparities in TA have been strongly reduced and that intra-distribution mobility was very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated approach to environmental policy and urban spatial planning has not yet been adopted by many local administrations in Europe. However, such integration is likely to provide a more streamlined planning process that incorporates environmental measures in the physical development of urban areas. In this paper, we argue that among many local governments there is already a growing wish to apply environmental policy integration (EPI) principles in spatial planning in an effort to achieve better quality of life in the cities and to preserve natural resources. Within Europe, most attempts to develop EPI approaches can be found in western countries, while efforts to find integrated approaches to the urban environment and spatial planning in Eastern Europe are in their infancy. The main reason for this is that most of the post-communist countries are still addressing the challenge of reconstructing their political, social, and economic systems. In this research, we analyse and compare policy practices for EPI in urban planning in the Netherlands and Bulgaria. We first discuss the Dutch area-oriented policy approach, which has gained popularity during the last decade as a means of integrating environmental qualities in urban land use plans. We then go on to analyse the effectiveness of specific area-oriented methods developed and applied in Rotterdam, and define their applicability in the planning practice of the local authorities of the city of Burgas in Bulgaria. The main conclusion of the study is that the degree of effectiveness of an area-oriented policy is dependent on the impact of specific success factors. Despite the differences between Rotterdam and Burgas in terms of the presence of these success factors, we assert that the area-oriented policy approach applied in Rotterdam can be transferable, and can be adapted to the specific local circumstances in Burgas and used as an instrument for integrating EPI into urban land use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land fragmentation can be an important drawback for the development of rural areas. Due to the small size of the units, land management and planning are difficult from both the private and the public point of view. In some regions of Europe, land fragmentation can lead to the collapse of land-based activities such as agriculture and forestry. This process triggers land abandonment, which causes social, economic and environmental problems. Traditional interventions such as land consolidation have not worked because of the scale of land fragmentation, which leads to huge transaction costs. New planning instruments and governance structures for land management that balance the relations between property rights, management and labour force can be developed, in order to avoid the problems of land fragmentation. In this paper, we present two innovative examples of land management and governance structures for dealing with land fragmentation in rural areas of Galicia northwestern Spain. They were able to combine the use of individual and common property rights to make land use more sustainable, instead of trying to change land ownership. The new governance structures helped to increase efficiency and sustainability of the land use by, for example, increasing labour productivity, clarifying property rights and diminishing land abandonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative regions are nowadays seen as foci of innovation and growth and are hence regarded strategic areas in a fierce—and often global—competition. This paper aims at providing an operational assessment framework for evaluating the innovation potential of competing regions on the basis of statistical indicators that mirror the indigenous regional creative resources. A set of five distinct evaluation methods is proposed to assess this innovation potential, on the basis of a comparative study on nine regions in Europe. This approach enables us to identify and rank the most promising regions. The robustness of the findings is tested by applying a meta-multicriteria analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the large volume of resources employed in policies financed by the Structural Funds and the importance of the Objectives pursued, this paper seeks to perform an analysis of the efficiency of the application of these resources to increase productivity and employment by those regions classified as Objective 1 over the period 2000-2006. In the first place we are going to identify which are the most efficient regions by calculating both the level of efficiency according to the results obtained from the resources used (pure technical efficiency (PTE)) and the degree of efficiency according to their optimum production capacity (scale efficiency (SE)) and we have determine the “Reference Set” for inefficient regions. Finally, we will analyse the extent to which certain factors have repercussions on the efficiency such as country, geographical location and contribution of agriculture of GDP. The result indicates that the PTE of the regions are higher level although it does operate on an optimum scale. Furthermore, the country, geographical location and contribution of agriculture of GDP have significantly influences of PTE and SE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial policies are currently the focus of resurgent interest, in particular in the context of seeking to stimulate innovation. This interest has developed alongside a gradual shift in industrial policy-making capabilities to regional and local governments, such that the corresponding policies require analysis on multiple geographical scales. This paper introduces a special issue on territorial industrial development policies that are directed towards stimulating innovation. The issue has its roots in the 11th annual conference of the European Network of Industrial Policy (EUNIP), an academic network with specific interests in the analysis of industrial development and public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new institutional economics account of the broad issues of governance in European rural development. It is argued that rural governance is determined by rural development stakeholders' property rights which in turn reflect their interests in rural development. On this basis, rural governance is explained in terms of the property rights structures reflecting the growing commonness of interests of rural development stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines existing disparities in technical efficiency levels across the European regions over the period 1986-2002. The results reveal that technical efficiency is not randomly distributed across space in the European setting. On the contrary, the different tests performed highlight the presence of positive spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity in the distribution under consideration. In fact, we have detected several regional clusters characterized by similar efficiency levels distinguishing them from the rest of the sample. Nevertheless, the estimates carried out show the existence of a process of regional convergence in terms of technical efficiency during the study period. Our findings also reveal that factors such as the regional stock of capital per worker or the patterns of productive specialization are relevant in explaining the changes in technical efficiency experienced by the European regions between 1986 and 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides some empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the “open innovation” model in the life science cluster of Emilia Romagna (a region of Italy), comparing the network of R&D collaborative activities in public research organizations (PROs) and the network linked to R&D collaborative activities in private firms. By presenting the main results of a field research in the life science sector in Emilia Romagna, we are contributing to the recent debate focused on the crises of the old “closed innovation” model and the rise of the “open innovation” model. Our survey consists of both primary data deriving from face-to-face interviews with researchers and entrepreneurs, and secondary data extracted from the Internet, the PubMed database, and from the European Patent Office. Our work is based on the analysis of a representative sample of 30 research groups in PROs, 2173 scientific articles published by the interviewed scientists, and a representative sample of 78 private firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Knowledge-based Economy spatial distribution across the European Union (EU) regions (NUTS II), linking recent research approaches on innovation and structural change with approaches to regional economics. As a means of conducting this research, we classify economic activities according to six sectors based on their knowledge/technology intensity. Our results show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher the concentration level of the activity. We find that some service activities (those considered knowledge intensive) have similar concentration levels to those operating in high or medium tech manufacturing. With regard to specialization, the most outstanding result is the strong presence of high and medium knowledge intensive service activities in metropolitan/capital regions. In general, our results reinforce the notion that an oligocentric model persists in Europe, with the southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing, the south-east of England leading in high knowledge-intensive services, and with the mid-core model exemplified by the European metropolitan archipelago (particularly capital cities) in both northern and southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys transnational city networks for sustainability to determine the substance of their work and the potentials for more efficient and successful implementation of sustainable development through networking. It also analyses the challenges and limits of sustainability-oriented networking, taking into account issues such as network organization, priorities, strategies, and communication methods as factors for success. A wide breadth of goals and means characterizes sustainability networks although most are organized and maintained in a very similar fashion. The large gap existing between regions active in networking and others and the fact smaller, more regionally-oriented cities play a dominant role in sustainability-related networks demonstrate the latent potential of such networking and the unique dynamics at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article draws on a thematic evaluation of Research Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) related actions supported by the Structural Funds to assist declining industrial areas or Objective 2 regions, during the period between 1989 and 1999. Over the 10 year period, three main approaches were identified in Objective 2 regions, the last two becoming predominant during the latter part of the period: technology push with funding of large projects such as science parks and research facilities; technology transfer with measures to disseminate technology; and demand pull with clearly identified and self contained RTDI priorities. While drawing lessons from the last decade, the paper also integrates some preliminary observations on structural funds investments for innovation during the current 2000-2006 programming period and concludes with a review of possible scenarios for the further development of RTDI in lagging regions in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the recent academic literature on spatial planning in Europe focuses on either cross-national comparison of planning frameworks and planning practices or on transnational and transregional initiatives and their impact on planning in European countries. From those publications, it can be gleaned how similar themes are translated differentially in different national contexts. Although it is also a great source of European integration and harmonization, the phenomenon of the knowledge exchange within transnational expert networks of European planners at the level of cities has received less attention. In this paper, the knowledge exchange among planners in such a network is studied, highlighting the role of "transfer agents" (academic and/or policy experts operating in communities in different policy arenas) in the exchange process. It builds on the insights from existing literature on policy transfer and policy learning, and tries to add a new perspective on this body of literature from an insiders' perspective, i.e. participatory observation. The idea is that policy transfer can be fruitfully approached as a process of knowledge and information transfer between producers, senders, facilitators and recipients. Often this exchange is to a very large extent a process of absorbing appealing labels for policy solutions from the international or national policy levels, and then adopting an interpretation of it suitable to one's own context. The authors try to give meaning to this exchange process by using two mechanisms, i.e. social interaction and conceptual replication. By combining these two mechanisms the authors try to uncover which policy lessons are being transferred among seven European cities that joined the expert network on European sustainable urban development (Pegasus). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we contribute to the longstanding discussion on the role of knowledge to economic growth in a spatial context. We observe that in adopting the European policy strategy towards a competitive knowledge economy, the Netherlands is—as most European countries—mainly oriented towards industrial, technological factors. The policy focus is on R&D specialized regions in their spatial economic strategies. We place the knowledge economy in a broader perspective. Based on the knowledge economy literature, we value complementary indicators: the successful introduction of new products and services to the market (“innovation”) and indicators of skills of employees (“knowledge workers”). Using econometric analysis, we relate the three factors “R&D”, “innovation” and “knowledge workers” to regional economic growth. We conclude that the factors “innovation” and “knowledge workers” are more profoundly related to urban employment and productivity growth than the R&D-factor. Preferably, urban research and policy-makers should therefore take all three knowledge factors into account when determining economic potentials of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the analysis of the process of spatial agglomeration of innovative activities by investigating directly its determinants. Our main purpose is to identify the extent to which the degree of specialization or diversity in a region may affect the innovative activities in a particular local industry. Other local factors are also tested such as home market effect and other agglomeration phenomena. In other words, we pursue to identify to which extent the organization of innovation is either concentrated or alternatively consists of diverse but complementary innovative activities, and how this composition influences innovative output. Moreover the use of spatial econometric techniques should allow the nature other than the spatial scope of the diffusion of technological spillovers to be analysed. The analysis is based on a databank set up by CRENoS on regional patenting at the European Patent Office classified by ISIC sectors (23 manufacturing sectors), which considers 175 regions of 17 countries in Europe. The possibility to have a rich database, furthermore, allows replicating the analysis for two periods, 1994–1996 and 1999–2001, in order to check the robustness of some results along the time dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formerly sleepy, rural county of Oxfordshire is now one of Europe's leading centres of enterprise, innovation and knowledge. It is a hotspot for high-tech manufacturing and service employment. But what is behind this phenomenon, and to what extent has it been managed? This paper sets out the facts, and explores the underlying factors. It starts with a number of definitional questions and approaches used in the research. It concludes with an examination of the role of planning in the process—and the extent to which is has helped or hindered the rise of “Enterprising Oxford”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing realization among scholars and policy-makers of the role of local contextual factors and circumstances in influencing the behaviour of key economic agents, including the entrepreneur. This approach has stretched the boundaries of academic inquiry well beyond mainstream conceptualizations of economic agency as isolated from its setting. This paper, drawing upon the findings of extensive research in 10 rural areas across five European countries sets out to explore the localization of dynamic entrepreneurial ventures. It is argued that although the degree of localization may be significant in rural areas, delocalization is an essential element of the enterprise strategy among certain entrepreneurial ventures. This is particularly the case among larger, firms located in areas with developed transport and communications infrastructure, that are led mainly by individuals with a distinct demographic profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]