Search

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]

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]

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]

The US has been a world leader in innovation and knowledge activities since World War II. Because the US has become accustomed to a position of leadership, there is widespread insecurity—maybe even paranoia—regarding threats to its dominance in technology, beginning with Sputnik in 1956. This paper provides some details of US decline relative, in particular, to European countries over the past two decades, when both strengths and the weaknesses are evident in US innovation and technology. The US has moved from a position of dominance to a position of first among equals, in line with a more widely distributed pattern of science and technological capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the knowledge creation process linear or characterized by feedback relations among actors involved in the regional innovation system? How can the innovation process of ‘lagging’ regions be strengthened? What is the role and extent of inter-regional knowledge spillovers? The paper aims at providing satisfactory answers in investigating a knowledge production function framework adapted to the specific questions and which is tested on an extended sample of European regions. On the basis of the results, concrete policy measures are derived aiming at upgrading the knowledge creation capacity of European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many European metropolitan regions, new economic centres have emerged at the edge of large cities or in their (post-)suburban areas. This paper explores the possible contribution of these new centres to a more sustainable regional development of European metropolitan regions. The realization of sustainable business parks is even more complicated at 'greenfield' sites than at 'brownfield' sites. With the absence of space scarcity or congestion problems, the temptation to choose easier, less sustainable solutions is hard to resist. Nevertheless, in the Dutch Randstad region, some edge-city and suburban business locations try to meet high sustainability standards. Two case studies in Hoofddorp and Almere illustrate the tough road towards truly sustainable business parks, focusing on the role of the various stakeholders that either encourage or discourage the realization of sustainability potentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the current trend among traditional industrial regions in Europe to launch initiatives in the field of 'industrial heritage tourism'. Increasingly, restoring and exploiting former industrial sites for touristic purposes is regarded as a useful strategy for regional renewal. After having discussed its background and categories, we argue that, theoretically, industrial heritage tourism could be an interesting 'new combination' for industrial areas in the European service economy. In practice, however, its effects for regional restructuring might be limited. Therefore, we suggest to re-use Europe's industrial heritage also for other economic activities than only tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Second European Congress on Commerce and City was held in Lille between 15 and 17 November 2000. It was organized by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry under the umbrella of the French Presidency of the European Union. Its major aim was to discuss how, and under what conditions, the evolution of commerce in Europe can contribute to the renaissance of European cities. The congress included plenary sessions, the presentation of two major studies on commerce and urban regeneration in Europe, three guided study tours, and the discussion of 25 European best practices aggregated into four thematic workshops: city strategies, enterprise strategies, public-private cooperation, and urban planning tools and programmes. This paper identifies those best practices, highlights some of the discussed issues, and presents a synthesis of the congress's declaration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against a general climate of liberalization, the Spanish Government has made a concerted effort to bring about a reduction in house prices. A legislative reform in April 1998 has sought to liberalize land and planning, through (a) refining the category of land previously excluded from development to enable residential development to take place, (b) allowing for greater flexibility of land uses and building controls, and (c) reducing administrative controls. This paper discusses the extent to which such reforms are likely to meet their anticipated objectives, resulting in beneficial effects in the land and housing markets, as well as the territorial impact of such reforms from a sustainability perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper summarizes some of the main results of the European Regional Innovation Survey (ERIS) as far as they are discussed in this special issue of European Planning Studies . The overall target of the ERIS project is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of determinants crucial for the innovation potential of any region, i.e. innovative and non-innovative manufacturing firms, business services and research institutions, as well as the innovative linkages and networks between these actors. Empirical research is based upon almost 8600 questionnaires collected in 11 European regions. Results confirm some of the common hypotheses on the relationship between space and innovation networks but others are contrary to existing scientific knowledge. Obviously the impact of national innovation systems on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in a given European region is-at least-as strong as the impact of the respective regional innovation system. The spatial range of innovative linkages significantly depends on the size, the type of the cooperation partner, the R&D intensity and the industry of the analysed manufacturing firm. For example, the higher the technology intensity of the industry, the greater is the need of each firm to use intraregional knowledge via innovation linkages. It is therefore an important task in regional innovation policy to promote network-building among firms and other actors of a regional innovation system and to interlink these intraregional networks with national and international knowledge sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Using the concepts of national and regional innovation systems as an analytical framework for analysing the cross-border networking activities between Baden and Alsace, the empirical analysis presented in this paper reveals that despite the political promotion of cross-border relations the reality in innovation networking looks different. In the industry sample used for empirical analysis, no firm in Baden had research contacts with an Alsatian research institute, while at least 7% of the Alsatian firms cooperated with research and transfer institutes in Baden. Although spatial distance does not matter, cultural and institutional distance does. The neighbouring region is not looked at as a significant knowledge source for firms in both regions. Despite technological and economic internationalization, for many firms innovation-relevant learning still takes place mainly within their own national and regional system of innovation. For the two regions under review, the Rhine is still a cultural and institutional barrier which needs more networking bridges to be crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the provenance and potential significance of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), considering questions of whose policy is it, who had an input into its preparation, who is the client and/or audience, and the significance of its preparation by the Committee on Spatial Development (CSD). The preparation phase from 1993, and the more public phase from the Noordwijk draft of 1997 to completion of the Potsdam text in 1999 are reviewed in order to consider whether the overall time-scale is reasonable and whether the transnational seminars can be regarded as a form of public participation. The paper goes on to discuss what follows after adoption, threats to its role in EU policy-making, and concludes that there are some benefits from the process of preparation by the CSD, and from the form of élite participation that took place, but that the ESDP must become a Commission policy if it is to play a significance role in achieving territorial and social cohesion at the EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of regional alliances among sub-national governments has become a common feature of Europe in the past decade and a half. However, examples of such alliances spanning the Triad, Europe, North America and Japan, are far less common. In a brief outward-oriented phase in the late 1980s, the Four Motors for Europe expanded abroad and Ontario signed a formal agreement with them, establishing a number of exchanges, as well as a series of more targeted research projects with two of the Motors. The relationship between Ontario and the Four Motors was somewhat unique in terms of its transcontinental reach. This paper analyses the factors which led to the establishment of the alliance and assesses some of the benefits achieved and problems encountered in developing it. It concludes that transatlantic alliances must surmount additional barriers of space and cultural differences to survive and require a strong degree of policy and institutional continuity to ensure they have sufficient time to mature and develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automotive industry faces the challenge of digital transformation at present, especially the autonomous vehicle. To explore the innovation links between different regional innovation systems, this study proposed a theoretical framework combining actor network, regional innovation and open innovation systems. Through the social network analysis and non-parametric test of patent data, the research findings show many significant differences between Europe and China. Finally, some suggestions are provided for strategy planning and policy implementation of open innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, regional innovation policies across Europe have relied on the smart specialisation approach to support new path development. However, its focus on endogenous knowledge flows remains a major weakness of the approach. This article argues that smart specialisation has to adopt an outward-looking approach that combines knowledge flows external and internal to the region. Based on four stylised types of regions, the article proposes generic strategies that can be pursued through smart specialisation. In terms of its policy implications, the article argues that policymakers should develop their regions' external connectedness strategically to leverage complementarities in global knowledge flows for new path development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The understanding of the innovation process has changed cosiderably in the past years. Models have shifted from linear and firm-based conceptions towards interdependent and systemic approaches. Both national and regional innovation systems have been discussed in recent literature. The present paper investigates on the basis of data for several European regions, collected in the course of a European project, to which extent companies engage in networks in their innovation process. Also, the types of partners, their respective locations as well as differences between the regions are explored. Results show that for many firms innovation is still a rather internal process. Reliance on internal competence and lack of trust to other firms are among the reasons for this. Nevertheless, for another group of companies networks are much more relevant. They draw on ideas, know-how and complementary assets.from customers, suppliers, consultants, universities, funding and training institutions. These networks can be observed from regional to global levels. There are considerable differences between company types and regions, however. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a framework for the discussion of the disparity issue in central and eastern Europe. From disorganized to regulated space; Typology of regions; Globally minded regional policies in central and eastern Europe.

Rural regions are considered a key element to allow a shift towards sustainable development. However, to what extent they are able to innovate and how they integrate into interactive innovation processes considering their distance from urban centres remains unclear. By drawing on 15 case studies of interactive innovation in agriculture and rural development in a variety of rural regions across Europe, and combining a rural-urban typology with data on the quality of AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems), four classes of ruralities were defined. In them, the innovation process was analysed by paying special attention to the analytical aspects of: (i) organizational structure; (ii) initial idea; (iii) finance; (iv) access to extraregional resources. The results show that innovation in more rural regions is often inspired by external ideas, while drawing on already well-established networks. Rural entrepreneurs as individual actors drive innovation, but struggle in 'thin' environments with little support and scarce private funding. The private sector can buffer lack of AKIS support, but embedded NGOs and producers' organizations act as last resorts in more remote regions. The study contributes to a profounder understanding of how rurality impacts innovation processes, offering an analytical framework for future rurality studies and policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue including the performance of European second-rank cities, the effect of agglomeration economies on second-rank urban and the role of second rank cities in polycentric urban system.

This research briefing provides a timely assessment of European Union (EU) intervention in the urban mobility policy field, by examining the relationship between forms of policy design and the EU institutionalization process. More precisely, it questions whether or not this continued intervention has benefited EU institutions. In order to do so, it analyses evolving relationships between three dimensions of EU policy design-namely policy objectives, policy structures and policy instruments-in a long-term perspective. Drawing on an original dataset, the article shows that in the absence of a stabilized understanding of the issue at stake, the lack of dedicated financial and organizational resources, and the import of policy instruments from other policy domains, the institutionalization of urban mobility at EU level is incomplete. These findings contribute to current debates on the Europeanization of cities and urban policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New High-Speed Rail stations are often expected to act as catalysts for regional and local urban and economic development. Accessibility improvements are assumed to increase locational attractiveness for households and companies, motivating municipal decision-makers to allocate land for urban development projects, particularly in the immediate vicinity of new stations. However, most empirical studies call such automatic effects into question, pointing to the importance of additional local factors, such as station location within the urban context. We construct a dataset of 232 stations in 11 countries in Europe to analyse evolving station placement strategies as well as land use changes in the surroundings of High-Speed Rail stations before and after construction. We find that stations close to the existing urban fabric and well connected by complementary regional and local public transport are on average associated with more land use change, while peripheral stations outside of metropolitan regions hardly attract any development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the role of administrative capacity in explaining the performance of eight Central and Eastern European countries in managing Cohesion policy over the 2004–2008 period. Drawing on a conceptual framework from the Europeanization literature, it explores whether pre-accession administrative adjustment to comply with the “acquis” continued in the post-accession period, against a backdrop of critical assessments about the state of administrative capacity for managing Cohesion policy. We conclude that administrative capacity was developed faster and more substantially than commentators predicted. The findings have implications for our understanding of the post-accession compliance record of the EU8, challenging the contention that they fall within a “world of dead letters”. Administrative capacity has been underestimated and insufficient attention has been given to the dynamics of capacity evolution and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to critically situate co-production methods such as that of the urban living lab within contemporary planning theory and in particular to the ideas of 'agonistic planning' and the 'trading zone'. By critically review relevant literature and discussing the results of an ongoing interdisciplinary project, we will show a number of potentials and issues when translating the urban living lab idea to planning contexts. Potentially our urban living labs have opened up opportunities for local planners to discuss controversial issues by using the idea of nature based solution as a boundary-object/trading-zone. On the other hand, planners' positivistic and incremental understanding of city making hinders a transformative understanding of the urban living lab and nature based solution in favour of more fashionable technological fixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between institutional settings and Entrepreneurial Families (EFs) is two-fold. Extant literature has attempted to understand how institutional settings can affect Family Businesses' embeddedness. Both perspectives are complementary and necessary to recognize that EFs are not only locally embedded in their territories, but they are also entrenched in institutions. Despite this, how different institutional settings impact on EFs' local embeddedness remains unexplored. To fill this gap, we combine institutional theory and family business research to perform a qualitative investigation. Drawing on the Varieties of Capitalism institutional categorization, an exploratory study is carried out by including four European regions from countries that are positioned as a Coordinated Market Economy (CME) (Germany), a Liberal Market Economy (LME) (United Kingdom) and two cases of Mediterranean capitalist system (France and Spain). Forty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted across the regions and analysed through an open-coding process. Findings unveil that EFs' local embeddedness is conditioned by different institutional settings in different ways, namely through codified mechanisms (CME and Spain) and through non-formalized mechanisms (LME and France). These are unfolded in 20 mechanisms, which contribute to territorial policies adjustments depending on the category of institutional setting where EFs are locally embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-increasing concentration of people and economic growth in the largest cities relative to the rest of the country has slowed down or even reversed in many of the developed European countries over the last decade. This trend contradicts what the global cities, urban economics and new economic geography literature would predict. This trend can be interpreted from two points of view: (1) the trend is due to large obstacles to further large city urbanization and thus is inefficient or (2) this trend highlights alternative pathways to growth than the mega-city approach and may be as, if not more, efficient. This trend may be linked to Europe's uniquely polycentric urban structure with high number of small- and medium-sized cities. In addition, improvements in the access to services, including broadband, outside large cities may have facilitated the higher growth rates of smaller centres and rural regions and increased their appeal for residents and firms. Last but not least, negative externalities in the large cities, such as congestion costs, pollution, labour crowding and high cost of living, may increase the appeal of smaller centres and rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the discussion about spatial planning in and for Europe by discussing territoriality in the strategies and practices of the territorial cohesion policy of the European Union (EU). The need for new ways of thinking and acting spatially are strongly promoted within the EU's spatial development policies, and the addition of territorial cohesion as one of the main objectives of the EU alongside the economic and social cohesion has brought the debate on European spatial planning back onto the political agenda. Territorial cohesion policy advocates the idea of soft planning, where new soft planning spaces cross the administrative borders within the EU territory. Accordingly, strategic planning and development policies at national and regional levels are engaged with the policy by promoting soft spatial imaginaries characterized by relational understandings of space. The article explores through two empirical materials related to the Member States’ definitions about territorial cohesion and the case of the Bothnian Arc, whether, and if so, how, the new soft planning spaces are visible in the conceptualizations and regional-level practices of territorial cohesion policy. The study illustrates that the conceptualizations of territorial cohesion and regional practices still lean on traditional understandings of territoriality. Clearly, there are mismatches between the soft planning visions for single European space and the practical development governed through traditional administrative territories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to give an overview and systematic characterization of different national approaches to developing strategies of climate change adaptation from a spatial planning or regional development perspective, respectively. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made for the implementation of the Territorial Agenda of the European Union. The central research hypotheses addressed in this article are: (1) climate change impacts in Europe are distributed differently in European regions which influence the design of national adaptation strategies (NASs) in Europe as well as the planning-related fields of action; (2) the legal framework and the political-administrative system significantly determine how national adaptation responses are designed and by which institutions they are implemented and (3) spatial planning has the potential to play an important role in climate change adaptation due to its integrative, cross-sectoral character. In order to discuss the hypotheses, a meta-evaluation of already existing assessments of climate adaptation strategies was carried out, as well as nine in-depth country studies (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK). The results show that spatial planning is only given minor attention in the assessed analyses and national strategies and that it is rather a matter of political willingness and capacity building than particular instruments or a high climate change vulnerability if spatial planning, however, plays an important role in an NAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the Corporate Culture and Regional Embeddedness (CURE), European integration, and capital markets.

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]

Following the discourse about sustainable development based on the Brundtland Commission's report and the processes in the UN Committee on Environment and Development, a sustainable urban development would require considerably more ambitious policies than today in order to limit energy consumption, reduce pollution and protect natural areas and arable land. Re-use of urban areas and more effective utilization of building sites is a possible strategy to this end. However, continuous growth in the building stock will make it increasingly difficult to bring urban development in wealthy countries within the frames of what is ecologically sustainable and equitable in a global perspective. Planning for a sustainable urban development must be oriented towards long-term goals and utilize knowledge about the environmental consequences of different solutions, but should not be based solely on means-ends rationality. Rather than aiming at consensus including all stakeholder groups, planning for sustainability should facilitate alliance-building among those population groups who can support the basic equity and environmental values of a sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, based on case studies of plan 'construction' in the 1980s for large scale residential development near Bristol, England and in Poitiers, France, argues that the form and content of these local land use plans were the product of the coordinative planning strategy adopted. This strategy embodied assumptions about implementation and established relationships between development interests and the plan 'constructors' during the process of plan preparation. These relationships in turn were a consequence of the contrasting powers and resources available to local government to ensure the implementation of local land use plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, city regions have received a great deal of attention as important policy objects. Documents like Europe 2000 + and the German European Metropolitan Regions are cases in point. Academic debate has provided a number of paradigms which understand city regions as complex structures. The local innovative milieu and urban governance represent two of the more interesting examples of such paradigms. When applied to a region, evidence substantiating both paradigms can be found despite reality not simply following model assumptions. However, both help to get to grips with another layer of interpretation; that of the role of structure and agency in city regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of 2020 saw the global spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a systematic closure of national borders across the world, which we refer to as the 'covidfencing' panorama. As expected, in Europe, where close to two million commuters cross national borders on a daily basis to work, this new reality has provoked significant setbacks to their lives. Based on evidence already available from several sources, this article presents some of the main impacts of the covidfencing process in the European cross-border (CB) areas. It does so by relating this process to the components of a proposed deterritorialism conceptual framework. In essence, it was possible to conclude that social related components like the sharing of health facilities and the need to work across borders show the existence of a high degree of deterritorialism in several parts of Europe. Nevertheless, more integration and deterritorialism is required everywhere, and simultaneously at the social, economic, physical and institutional levels. Crucially, covidfencing has highlighted the need for improving cross-border cooperation (CBC) with a view to mitigating persistent CB barriers and European integration processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on innovation networks, collective learning and industrial policy in European regions. Examination of the extent to which firms rely on external contributions and partners in the innovation process; Description of innovation networks; Barriers for networking at the regional level; Extent to which regions should focus development strategy on innovation networks.

Presents information on a study which explored European developments in strategic spatial planning. Dynamics of economic and social change in spatial planning practices; Research methods; Consequences in strategic spatial plan-making; Conclusions.

Presents information on a study which focused on the importance of developing the `everyday life concept' in Europe. Conceptual models of infrastructure for everyday life; Proportion of women of working age that are in the labor market in Europe; Mainstreaming the infrastructure for everyday life; Conclusions.

A growing literature discusses the effectiveness of business innovation modes on innovation performance. In particular, the innovation mode based on the application of science and technology drivers -STI- (e.g. R&D; collaboration with universities) is analysed and compared to the mode based on learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting -DUI- (e.g. teamwork, collaboration with suppliers). These modes express the archetypical strategies firms use to innovate. The literature has long identified specificities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, in this study we segment this group of enterprises and inquire the peculiar innovation modes adopted by these firms as we expect SMEs to be less homogeneous than typically expected. Here, we distinguish between internal STI and DUI drivers, and external STI and DUI drivers as we expect firms of different sizes to compete through different combinations of drivers. Complementarily, we investigate the impact of these drivers on innovation output across these types of firms. The results show the effective adoption of internal STI drivers across micro/small firms, and the well-rounded approach taken by medium-sized firms. Large firms show a more limited effectiveness of external STI and DUI drivers, which seems to be linked to a selective approach to innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the functions of spatial governance and planning systems are generalizable, 30 years of comparative studies, especially in Europe, have shown the heterogeneity characterising these 'institutional technologies'. This contribution builds on the materials of the recently concluded ESPON COMPASS research project to propose a European typology on the capacity of public authorities to control spatial development, a crucial aspect for the life of entire cities, regions and countries. Based on the opinions expressed by respective national experts, the systems of 39 countries (28 EU and 11 non-EU) are compared in relation to the mechanisms to allocate land use and spatial development rights as well as to the prevalence of the state vs. the market in guiding the development decisions. As a result, the European systems are placed on an X-Y diagram, which makes it possible to cluster them in consistent types that raise new comparative observations and general findings. In summary, the capacity for public control of spatial development looks variegated in Europe, although limited overall. Even if the power relations between state and market established in each institutional context are certainly influential, the models adopted for allocating spatial development rights also play a role in determining the observed trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines basic dimensions of research and policy. Focus on the user rather than the producer role of large firms; Issues relating to evolving patterns of work and employment; Perspective of the European Union on what is effectively a global agenda on the future of work in the information society.

Summarizes the historical development of European Union and member state thinking on European Spatial development policy. Implications of such thinking upon actual planning policies for future policy developments; Role of Germany in advocating such thinking with respect to the Intergovernmental Conference and the future of the Structural Funds; Prospects for a coordinated European Spatial development policy.

Discusses issues surrounding local and regional economic development and governance in the European context. Increasing relative importance of the structural funds in British regional policy; Structural funds allocation for Great Britain; Issues of contested governance.

Focuses on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in technological networks, with emphasis on how SMEs can successfully fight the competition. Characteristics of technology networks in Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom (UK); Information on the way in which firms in networks interact with the technological service environment; Reference made to networking examples occurring in Italy, Denmark and the UK.