Showing papers in "European Urban and Regional Studies in 2011"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the dominant explanations of the current financial and debt crisis are mainly macroeconomic and financial but this paper argues for its geographical components/foundations.
Abstract: The paper discusses certain issues of regional development theory in combination with long-forgotten conditions of uneven geographical development in the context of the current financial and debt crisis in the eurozone. The dominant explanations of the crisis are mainly macroeconomic and financial but this paper argues for its geographical components/foundations. After a short descriptive comment about the current debt crisis in the eurozone and particularly in Southern Europe as part of the wider global crisis of over-accumulation, an alternative interpretation is provided based on uneven geographical/regional development among Euro-regions, especially since the introduction of the euro. The paper also discusses the shift towards what we may call the neoliberal urban and regional development discourse, which is responsible for a de-politicized shift in regional theory and hence downplaying or simply overlooking questions of socio-spatial justice. The discussion about justice and solidarity goes beyond th...
241 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply an experience economy framework to analyse city festivals as potentially transformative practices, helping re-imagine urban space and reshape urban identity, and examine the tension between controlled image production and carnivalesque celebration and the extent to which the meanings and flow of urban space can be managed.
Abstract: In a global market, cities aim to develop a distinct profile to attract mobile consumers. One means increasingly used to attain distinction is to brand the city as experience space. In particular, the urban festival has become a popular organizational form for creating experience spaces and for marketing cities. Festivals are often strategically conceived with the purpose of promoting a 'distinctive city', in line with uniqueness being the keystone of success in the experience economy. This paper applies an experience economy framework to analyse city festivals as potentially transformative practices, helping re-imagine urban space and reshape urban identity. Building on empirical studies of the Stockholm Culture Festival and the Nowy Kercelak Fair in Warsaw, it examines the tension between controlled image production and carnivalesque celebration and the extent to which the meanings and flow of urban space can be managed. Using Lefebvre's notion of the production of space and Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of de-territorialization and re-territorialization, this paper critically assesses the possibility of reshaping urban practices through the staging of festivals, and the potential for creativity and expression extant in managed staging of experience. © The Author(s) 2011.
114 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods in the analysis of rural quality of life in Ireland, including focus groups, locally-specific surveys and two representative surveys of individuals carried out in 2001 and 2007.
Abstract: Much of rural Europe has witnessed vast changes over the past two decades, including major demographic and economic change. The question of how these changes have affected individual well-being and quality of life remains largely unanswered. This paper aims to shed light on this topic by employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods in the analysis of rural quality of life in Ireland, including focus groups, locally-specific surveys and two representative surveys of individuals carried out in 2001 and 2007. We use the respondents’ self-reported life satisfaction level as a proxy for their well-being to examine the determinants of quality of life and also examine how attitudes have changed over this period. Results show a consistently high life satisfaction in rural Ireland. The greatest changes are witnessed in attitudes to the provision of facilities and services. Respondents’ perceptions of the benefits and limitations of rural living remain constant between the two periods, focusing on q...
94 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the pattern of regional convergence and the determinants of regional growth in Europe, providing a discussion of the issues that are of relevance to the theoretical conceptions a...
Abstract: The paper examines the pattern of regional convergence and the determinants of regional growth in Europe, providing a discussion of the issues that are of relevance to the theoretical conceptions a...
86 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the regional consequences of such policies and show that low-tech industries continue to have considerable economic importance in Europe in terms of jobs and value added, especially outside the main growth regions, but also in the major urban regions.
Abstract: The current European policy agenda strongly accentuates the importance of research and development (R&D) as a driver of economic growth. The basic assumption is that high European wage levels make it unlikely that less research-intensive parts of the economy can withstand competition from low-wage countries with increasingly skilled labour forces. Thus, the inferior growth of the European Union (EU) in the 1990s compared with the USA has been explained by the latter’s higher rate of R&D investments. The paper challenges this rather simplistic view of innovation and examines the regional consequences of such policies. EU growth has caught up with that of the USA during recent years and low-tech industries continue to have considerable economic importance in Europe in terms of jobs and value added, especially outside the main growth regions, but also in the major urban regions. Empirical evidence from Denmark and the UK provided in the paper suggests that low- and high-tech industries are closely interconnected because low-tech firms play important roles both as partners in the innovation processes of high-tech firms and as buyers of high-tech products. Therefore, EU industrial policy is not appropriate because it overlooks the continuing significance of low-tech industries. Furthermore, the rather uniform focus on R&D is associated with a strong emphasis on large city-regions where research-intensive industries are concentrated and, thus, increasing regional inequality in Europe is being produced.
85 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role envisaged for the Opera House in Oslo, which opened in April 2008, and examined the motivations and justifications for the building, examined through interviews with individuals who played an important role in the project.
Abstract: New cultural buildings are justified via reference to a range of objectives including city image enhancement, national identity, tourism development, cultural engagement, economic development and physical regeneration. This paper examines the role envisaged for the Opera House in Oslo, which opened in April 2008. The study looks at the motivations and justifications for the building, examined through interviews with individuals who played an important role in the project. Research findings suggest that the Opera House is best understood as a cultural and national symbol, although it was also designed to assist urban regeneration and development. One of the interesting aspects of the project is the way artistic and regeneration justifications were coupled to ensure the project came to fruition. Other roles seem to have emerged that were not necessarily planned or expected. Tourism effects have been witnessed and its innovative design means the new Opera House functions as both a marketing symbol and a visitor attraction in its own right. The case demonstrates the value of focusing good urban design, with the possible bonus of external image enhancement, rather than relying on an iconic building and a ‘look at me’ effect. Thus, the Opera House may represent a less speculative type of iconic building — where bombastic design and external focus are replaced with more attention to public access and a local orientation.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate why, how, for whom and when the North/South divide is held to be a relevant "policy geography" and explain the accompanying debates about the internal geography of this divide.
Abstract: Despite the entrenched and long-term nature of the Italian and English North/South divide, this has not always been considered a relevant scale at which to redress spatial inequalities. To explain this apparent conundrum, this paper has two interlinked aims: (1) to investigate why, how, for whom and when the North/South divide is held to be a relevant ‘policy geography’ and (2) to explain the accompanying debates about the internal geography of this North/South divide. To do this, the paper develops a cultural politics of scales approach that compares the discursive (re)construction of the North/South divide in Italy and England by focusing on key moments, particularly the Keynesian consensus after the Second World War and the more current turn to neoliberal policies. Two parallel trends are identified: that support for an interventionist state and regional subsidies to poorer regions has decreased and that the North/South divide as a dual national partition has been dissolved into a micro-diverse geograp...
70 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical review of the multiplication of concepts today regarding the interrelationships between knowledge and urban development is presented, and complementary perspectives, such as knowledge-based cities, learning cities, intelligent cities and creative cities, as the foundation for the proposal that there are four main channels whereby cities join the knowledge society: by innovation systems, by economic structure, by human capital and by networking.
Abstract: The article begins with a critical review of the multiplication of concepts today regarding the interrelationships between knowledge and urban development. An overview is given of complementary perspectives, such as knowledge-based cities, learning cities, intelligent cities and creative cities, as the foundation for the proposal that there are four main channels whereby cities join the knowledge society: by innovation systems, by economic structure, by human capital and by networking. On this basis Spanish cities are subjected to a comparative analysis of their knowledge indicators in each of these four components. From the exploratory analysis it is concluded that a sizeable share of Spanish cities are not involved in the process of joining the knowledge society. The rest of the cities are observed to follow one of two contrasting trajectories: cities in metropolitan sectors that are highly prized socially and environmentally have strengthened the presence of knowledge-intensive services and highly qual...
69 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the origins of the Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system and speculate about its role in the series of events that eventually led to the downfall of the banks.
Abstract: In this commentary, the crisis that hit Iceland in late 2008 and involved the collapse of the country’s entire banking system is discussed briefly and its impact on regional employment levels is outlined. Currently, unemployment is highest in south-west Iceland, including Reykjavik. Fisheries-dependent communities have performed better, but fisheries management is yet again a major issue in the political arena. We trace the origins of the Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system and speculate about its role in the series of events that eventually led to the downfall of the banks. Ongoing attempts to reform the fisheries management system are discussed. These include the re-establishment of open-access coastal fishing and the gradual recall of ITQs by the state. Finally, some issues regarding the future of Iceland’s economy are discussed briefly.
59 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship between the stranger and the spatial formations of the city and the nation in a dual sense and argued that it is not possible to simply "be" a stranger; one becomes a stranger through specific, embodied encounters.
Abstract: The paper explores the relationship between ‘the stranger’ and the spatial formations of the city and the nation in a dual sense. On the one hand, it discusses the construction of the stranger as a figure, both generally and in relation to formation of the city and the nation in particular. On the other hand, it explores the experiences and practices of people designated as ‘strangers’, that is, the experiences and feelings arising in the multiplicity of everyday signifying encounters and the possibilities of identification afforded by the city and the nation respectively. This twofold aim is pursued through an integrated reading of literature on the stranger and material from an interpretative analysis performed in Copenhagen among citizens of Pakistani origin. The main point argued throughout the paper is that it is not possible to simply ‘be’ a stranger; you become a stranger through specific, embodied encounters. The stranger is a relational figure, constituted in a spatial ambivalence between proximi...
54 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the spatial distribution of agricultural productivity in the European region was examined for the period 1990-2000, using a twofold descriptive and explanatory approach, which enabled the authors to overcome the drawbacks of conventional convergence analysis.
Abstract: This paper examines the spatial distribution of agricultural productivity in the European
regions for the period 1990-2000, using a twofold descriptive and explanatory approach,
which allows us to overcome the drawbacks of conventional convergence analysis. The
spatial distribution of agricultural productivity is summarized in a regional typology that
enables us to evaluate the different trends of the European regions. The various
inequality indices and estimated density functions reveal a decrease in regional
agricultural productivity disparities, while intra-distribution mobility is found to be
relatively limited during the study period. Additionally, the results obtained from the
regression analysis are in line with those obtained at the national level. Finally, our nonparametric
approach allows us to assess the role of variables such as economic
development, agricultural structure and productive specialization in the dynamics of the
distribution under analysis.
TL;DR: In this article, a survey study among rural teenagers in a remote rural region in Norway, the Mountain Region, showed significant correspondence between informants' location in the rural class structure as measured by parents' economic/cultural capital resources and occupation, their evaluations of rurality and, finally, their preferences along the rural-urban dimension for a future place to live.
Abstract: Drawing on Bourdieusian social theory, the paper combines class and social constructionist perspectives to reconceptualize youth’s rural-to-urban migration. It discusses how structural properties of everyday lives, e.g. class background, inform rural youth’s evaluations of rurality, and how these evaluations generate specific rural/urban residential preferences and migration practices. The theoretical discussion is informed by a survey study among rural teenagers in a remote rural region in Norway – the Mountain Region. The results show significant correspondence between informants’ location in the rural class structure as measured by parents’ economic/cultural capital resources and occupation, their evaluations of rurality and, finally, their preferences along the rural–urban dimension for a future place to live. The findings indicate that the social background of rural youth has a greater influence on migration decisions than has been acknowledged in contemporary and predominantly social-constructionist...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors confront theories of justice with results in economic geography about the territorial basis of economic efficiency, and open up a research agenda on the normative bases of inter-territorial relations and on the possible criteria for redistribution of resources.
Abstract: What is a ‘just’ or ‘equitable’ territorial distribution of resources or economic and social development? As in the other social sciences, the normative dimensions of territorial development — of what would constitute ‘just’ cities, regions and global patterns of development — cover the process of resource creation and allocation, as well as the geographical (place) and interpersonal (people) outcomes of such processes. A geographical approach to justice and equity must consider the interaction of place distributions and people distributions of income and opportunity. Place and people distributions may conflict with one another. Moreover, different such distributions have different impacts on economic efficiency and thus on aggregate output. This article confronts theories of justice with results in economic geography about the territorial basis of economic efficiency. It then opens up a research agenda on the normative bases of inter-territorial relations and on the possible criteria for redistribution o...
TL;DR: This article analyzed the distribution of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe and found that regions with similar educational conditions tend to cluster, often within national borders, and a North-South and an urban-rural dimension are evident.
Abstract: The geography of education, especially at subnational level, is a huge black box. Little is known about the distribution of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by mapping educational attainment and inequality in 102 regions in Western Europe, using data extracted from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) covering more than 100,000 individuals over the period 1995-2000. The results of this Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) reveal a strong correlation between levels of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. Regions with similar educational conditions tend to cluster, often within national borders. In addition, a North-South and an urban-rural dimension are evident. Northern regions and large European metropoli have not only the most-educated labour force but also the lowest levels of inequality. Educational inequality seems to be, in any case, a fundamentally within-region phenomenon: 90 percent of the educational inequality in Europe occurs among individuals living in the same region.
TL;DR: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, European Urban and Regional Studies 18 (4) 2011, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2011: on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
Abstract: “The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, European Urban and Regional Studies 18 (4) 2011, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2011: on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/”
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explain the reasons for and the possibilities of such global convergence, paying particular attention to the reasons and implications of the financial crisis and the extent to which China's fiscal stimulus contributes to a new model of Chinese development.
Abstract: The financial crisis indicates the underlying bankruptcy of the last of a series of attempts to restore sustained growth in advanced countries since the end of the post-war Golden Age: Italian flexible specialization, Japanese and Rhine-style lean production, the new economy and Anglo-American financialization. Over the same period a number of emerging economies and in particular China have sustained high rates of growth. In the years to come, developed country growth is likely to remain slow because no alternative high-growth model is on the horizon. A country such as China conversely has the potential to continue to grow relatively fast provided it can profoundly alter its model of development in ways that address global and national imbalances. If it and other large emerging economies do achieve further sustained growth, this will in effect reverse the gap created by industrial revolution, colonialism and imperialism. The aim of this paper is to explain the reasons for and the possibilities of such global convergence, paying particular attention to the reasons for and implications of the financial crisis and the extent to which China's fiscal stimulus contributes to a new model of Chinese development.
TL;DR: This paper examined the production of geographical expertise inside the European Union (EU) bureaucracy in Brussels, focusing empirically on one facet of one policy: the eastern direction of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the efforts of the new or post-2004 member states to project regional expertise about the eastern neighbourhood within EU institutions.
Abstract: This article examines the production of geographical expertise inside the European Union (EU) bureaucracy in Brussels. My question is not what EU policy professionals know, but how they deploy specific knowledge claims as expertise. Drawing from 62 interviews with 42 policy professionals, mostly in Brussels, I focus empirically on one facet of one policy: the eastern direction of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the efforts of the ‘new’ or post-2004 member states to project regional expertise about the eastern neighbourhood within EU institutions. In conceptual terms, I investigate the intellectual and social technologies by which expert authority is accomplished. The article illuminates the ways in which policy professionals script political space in terms of particular kinds of places to be dealt with by specific agents in specific kinds of ways. The interview material enables me to examine such processes of knowledge production in greater detail than is allowed by the conventional ‘big picture’ an...
TL;DR: In this paper, the contradictory dynamics inherent in policies and political strategies to achieve social cohesion in cities, given the current European political-economic conjuncture of miscalculations, are discussed.
Abstract: The article reflects on the contradictory dynamics inherent in policies and political strategies to achieve social cohesion in cities, given the current European political-economic conjuncture of m...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the main voting patterns in Turkey by means of cluster analysis, and classified the 81 provinces according to vote shares of the major parties and independent candidates, and repeat this exercise for each election held between 1999 and 2009.
Abstract: Using province-level data from five nationwide elections held during the past decade, we examine the main voting patterns in Turkey. By means of cluster analysis, we classify the 81 provinces according to vote shares of the major parties and independent candidates, and repeat this exercise for each election held between 1999 and 2009. We find that three-way and five-way partitions of the country adequately capture the main political cleavages in Turkey. Although the conservative right-wing parties receive a plurality of votes in all regions of the three-way partition, they receive significant challenge from left-wing and Turkish nationalist parties in the west and from the Kurdish nationalist parties in the east. In addition to these patterns, the five-way partition brings out shifts in the relative strength of the parties within each main division. Our results also show that, despite the major political realignment that occurred during the period under examination, the groupings of provinces remain mainl...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on entrepreneurial and deliberative perspectives on urban governance, and work out criteria for assessing network performance, and ask whether it is possible to strike a balance between democratic procedural standards and producing the desired outcomes.
Abstract: Governance networks are increasingly important in urban planning, in policy implementation and in service provision, and are often organized to improve efficiency and innovation in the pursuit of some public purpose. We argue that their democratic merits, in addition to their efficiency and output aspects, must be taken into consideration if they are to be understood as legitimate problem solvers on behalf of a local democratic authority. Here we draw on entrepreneurial and deliberative perspectives on urban governance, and work out criteria for assessing network performance. The insights of both perspectives are needed, we argue, to study legitimacy in contemporary urban policies, and we ask whether it is possible to strike a balance between democratic procedural standards and producing the desired outcomes. Empirically we compare the performance of a network with a strong entrepreneurial orientation with that of a network with a deliberative orientation, both located in the same city and operating withi...
TL;DR: The academic debate shows a bias towards categories and descriptions based on North American and, to a large extent, Euro-centric models as discussed by the authors. But, as stated by the authors, "the academic debate has a bias toward categories and description based on the North American model".
Abstract: The governance of metropolitan affairs emerges as one of the crucial issues in many countries. The academic debate shows a bias towards categories and descriptions based on North American and, to a...
TL;DR: In the early days of 2009 the city of Limerick in the mid-west region of Ireland was dealt a massive blow by the PC manufacturer Dell as discussed by the authors after months, if not years, of speculation, the company had fi...
Abstract: In the early days of 2009 the city of Limerick in the mid-west region of Ireland was dealt a massive blow by the PC manufacturer Dell. After months, if not years, of speculation, the company had fi...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the ways that a powerful local industry can be regarded as a local ideological hegemonic bloc, which supports the industry's status while simultaneously legitimating exploitative actions.
Abstract: The paper explores the ways that a powerful local industry can be regarded as a local ideological hegemonic bloc. The concept of the local hegemonic bloc is deployed in a case study of the Rhodes tourist industry to provide a way of analysing how a specific spatial industrial concentration creates and sustains an ideological atmosphere locally, which supports the industry’s status while simultaneously legitimating exploitative actions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of regional industry structure for regional productivity convergence was investigated, and the authors used county-level data to show that less productive regions catch up with more productive regions.
Abstract: Are less productive regions catching up with more productive regions? In this paper we investigate the importance of regional industry structure for regional productivity convergence. We use county ...
TL;DR: The authors examine concrete instances of cosmopolitan practice that actually promote the maintenance of the nation-state reality currently characterizing the European Union and show that, at the intersection of the subnational/supranational and supranational/national levels, contradictions are instrumentalized, creating bottom-up and top-down flows of power and influence between all European scales.
Abstract: Although much has been written on the process of Europeanization, there is a lack of research on its nuances and implications. The academic literature to date focuses on debating the contradictions inherent within the politics of Europeanization without attempting to conceptualize what those contradictions mean in actual practice. This paper draws upon the work of Beck and Grande to analyze the myriad of contradictions shaping all levels of European space. To do so, this paper examines concrete instances of cosmopolitan practice that actually promote the maintenance of the nation-state reality currently characterizing the European Union. These examples show that, at the intersection of the subnational/supranational and supranational/national levels, contradictions are instrumentalized, creating bottom-up and top-down flows of power and influence between all European scales. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that these flows are unintended side-effects that drive Europeanization processes in a...