RISE: Regional Integrated Strategies in Europe:Final Report

Over recent decades it has become increasingly obvious that the skills and resources of a variety of sectors – not just the public but also voluntary and private sectors – must be brought together in order to achieve successful regional development. This new approach necessitates the creation of new more inclusive forms of governance, with a movement away from traditional hierarchical institutions towards flexible cooperative networks, clusters and partnerships. It also involves a recognition that policy-makers operate within a system of multi-level governance, and that the interventions of different levels of governance may not necessarily be aligned with one another. In this report we set out the findings of the RISE project, which examines the pursuit of integrated strategies in four European regions: the Randstad (NL), West Midlands (UK), Västerbotten (SE), and Zealand (DK). These regions illustrate the diversity of Europe. The Randstad contains the Netherland’s two major conurbations and encompasses a complex range of powerful governance centres. The West Midlands includes the urban centres of Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry, as well as an extensive sub-urban and rural hinterland of shire counties. Västerbotten and Zealand are both primarily rural with low levels of urban concentration, although Zealand is adjacent to the capital region of Copenhagen. Despite their differences, these regions are amongst the more economically advanced territories of the EU

RISE: Regional Integrated Strategies in Europe:Final Report

Over recent decades it has become increasingly obvious that the skills and resources of a variety of sectors – not just the public but also voluntary and private sectors – must be brought together in order to achieve successful regional development. This new approach necessitates the creation of new more inclusive forms of governance, with a movement away from traditional hierarchical institutions towards flexible cooperative networks, clusters and partnerships. It also involves a recognition that policy-makers operate within a system of multi-level governance, and that the interventions of different levels of governance may not necessarily be aligned with one another. In this report we set out the findings of the RISE project, which examines the pursuit of integrated strategies in four European regions: the Randstad (NL), West Midlands (UK), Västerbotten (SE), and Zealand (DK). These regions illustrate the diversity of Europe. The Randstad contains the Netherland’s two major conurbations and encompasses a complex range of powerful governance centres. The West Midlands includes the urban centres of Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry, as well as an extensive sub-urban and rural hinterland of shire counties. Västerbotten and Zealand are both primarily rural with low levels of urban concentration, although Zealand is adjacent to the capital region of Copenhagen. Despite their differences, these regions are amongst the more economically advanced territories of the EU

EURODITE: Regional Trajectories to the Knowledge Economy:A Dynamic Model

The significance of knowledge for economic activity has grown exponentially since the 1980s with an increasing proportion of the workforce described as knowledge workers. The popular perception is that the ‘old economy’ based on manufactured goods is giving way to one where less tangible products and services are key to economic success in advanced economies. Policy makers have thus sought to create conditions in which the economic and social returns of the ‘knowledge based society’ can be realised. The strategic goal established at the Lisbon Summit was “that Europe should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”. However, progress has been slow and, despite good intentions, neither macro nor micro level policies have to-date delivered innovation returns at the hoped for rate. In part this lack of success stems from a limited understanding of the nature and composition of the knowledge economy. This is most obviously apparent at regional level.<br/

EURODITE: Regional Trajectories to the Knowledge Economy:A Dynamic Model

The significance of knowledge for economic activity has grown exponentially since the 1980s with an increasing proportion of the workforce described as knowledge workers. The popular perception is that the ‘old economy’ based on manufactured goods is giving way to one where less tangible products and services are key to economic success in advanced economies. Policy makers have thus sought to create conditions in which the economic and social returns of the ‘knowledge based society’ can be realised. The strategic goal established at the Lisbon Summit was “that Europe should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”. However, progress has been slow and, despite good intentions, neither macro nor micro level policies have to-date delivered innovation returns at the hoped for rate. In part this lack of success stems from a limited understanding of the nature and composition of the knowledge economy. This is most obviously apparent at regional level.<br/

Undoing metaphysics:the spatial metaphor debate revisited

The spatial turn that was observed towards the end of the last century was accompanied by a controversy surrounding the use or abuse of spatial language in, for example, the proliferation of spatial metaphors (‘subject position’, ‘cognitive mapping’, ‘displacement’). This controversy can with hindsight be seen as one skirmish within a wider disagreement between dialectical and deconstructive orientations. In the present paper I revisit the spatial metaphor debate to consider what it tells us about the relationship between dialectics and deconstruction, and about their intersection in the recent history of social science. I begin by reviewing the roots of the debate, and by arguing that these roots can be traced back to the philosophies of Hegel and Nietzsche. I then describe the contours of the debate, and its evolution through positions that were set out by its main protagonists (Foucault, Lefebvre, Smith, Rose). The writings of Derrida have been decisive for the development of contemporary deconstructionism, and they provide a sophisticated commentary on the concept of metaphor. These writings were, however, ignored during the spatial metaphor debate, and so the paper concludes by sketching a Derridean supplement to this debate

Spatial Articulation of the State:Reworking Social Relations and Social Regulation Theory

The dominance of the nation state as overarching power and taken for granted societal unit has been thrown into doubt since the 1960s by transnational economic integration, by territorial disparities between political and economic organisation, and by the revaluation of regions and localities as commercial or political spaces. Increased locational flexibility and the economic integration of capitalism have brought a ‘relativisation of scale’ which deprives dominant territorial units at whatever level of their taken for granted primacy, placing nations alongside continental and global spaces on the one hand, regional and local spaces on the other hand in theoretical and political discourse. This process has highlighted not only the position of the ‘nation state’ but also the significance of borders around and within states, borders in both functional and territorial senses

Undoing metaphysics:the spatial metaphor debate revisited

The spatial turn that was observed towards the end of the last century was accompanied by a controversy surrounding the use or abuse of spatial language in, for example, the proliferation of spatial metaphors (‘subject position’, ‘cognitive mapping’, ‘displacement’). This controversy can with hindsight be seen as one skirmish within a wider disagreement between dialectical and deconstructive orientations. In the present paper I revisit the spatial metaphor debate to consider what it tells us about the relationship between dialectics and deconstruction, and about their intersection in the recent history of social science. I begin by reviewing the roots of the debate, and by arguing that these roots can be traced back to the philosophies of Hegel and Nietzsche. I then describe the contours of the debate, and its evolution through positions that were set out by its main protagonists (Foucault, Lefebvre, Smith, Rose). The writings of Derrida have been decisive for the development of contemporary deconstructionism, and they provide a sophisticated commentary on the concept of metaphor. These writings were, however, ignored during the spatial metaphor debate, and so the paper concludes by sketching a Derridean supplement to this debate