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This paper explores the roots of territorial cohesion thinking in the 'European model of society'. There is much to do about this model. Some regard it as a liability for European competitiveness. The Barroso Commission wants to safeguard the model by, albeit temporarily, giving priority to growth. There are those - not only in Europe, but also on the other side of the Atlantic - arguing that the European model forms a solid basis for a highly competitive economy. In these debates, 'European model' stands for moderating the pursuit of economic growth with concerns for social welfare and equity, sustainability and good governance. Before elaborating, the paper summarises the discussion about territorial cohesion and the struggle over current EU policy. Then the paper backtracks to the ideas of Jacques Delors responsible for injecting the European model into the integration discourse. What follows is an account of four reports in the wake of the hapless Lisbon Strategy, all invoking the European model. The paper concludes with reflections on territorial cohesion policy and the European model. [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 PUBLISHER]

It has been argued that the concept of “borrowed size” is essential to understanding urban patterns and dynamics in North-West Europe. This paper conceptualizes this idea and provides an empirical exploration of it. A place borrows size when it hosts more urban functions than its own size could normally support. A borrowed size for one place means that other places face an “agglomeration shadow” because they host fewer urban functions than they would normally support. This paper explores the extent to which size and function are related for places in North-West Europe and tries to explain why one place borrows size while the other faces an agglomeration shadow by examining the position of places within the regional urban system. The presence of urban functions was approximated using high-end cultural amenities. We conclude that the largest places in their functional urban area (FUA) are better able to exploit their own mass. The largest place in a FUA is also better able to borrow size from nearby places and from (inter)national urban networks than the lower-ranked places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 PUBLISHER]

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]

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]