Regional Development Processes Research Articles

A Review on EU Transportation Projects within the Case of Turkey for European Union Regional Development Policy

The transportation issue is one of the thematic priorities which give policy makers great inspiration and demand background. Today’s transport networks are leading the way in sustainable, efficient and safe mobility, increasing access to all regions. Large scale projects, infrastructures, networks, EU Cohesion policy’s nearly 22% fund support were mostly emphasized in this sense. This is also valid for candidate countries for Union. This paper discussed the case of Turkey, i.e. she is a candidate state for European Union, and benefiting from the financial instruments for funding regional development process as European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Social Fund, EU Solidarity Fund, IPA and Turkish Cypriot community, Turkey only benefits from the IPA program. This study was prepared in order to present a review upon the transportation projects within the regional development policy of EU. Today, the available member countries are part of a policy mechanism via being joined the mostly known transport projects as Baltic Sea, Interrag V-A sub projects, and Central Europe integration in transportation manners. Those projects were also analyzed in order to show the inspiration themes for the future and today’s concepts and needs of Turkey to be fulfilled in the regional development politics on transportation issue. The number and budgets of transport themed projects and major projects and Turkish TEN-T and similar IPA supported projects were also evaluated in this study.

Regional Sustainability and Local Officials in Ama Town : Dynamics of the Regional Development Process.

Regional Sustainability and Local Officials in Ama Town : Dynamics of the Regional Development Process.

Local content in emerging growth poles: Local effects of multinational corporations’ use of contract strategies

ABSTRACTThe article analyses ‘local content’ in the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs). Local content is explored as a link between MNCs and growth poles emerging through contract systems that encourage regional firms to connect with global networks entering a region. With a theoretical starting point in literature on local content and growth pole development, the analysis contributes to developing theories of growth poles by adding novel elements such as MNCs’ procurement strategies and their influence on growth poles through local content in contracts. Three aspects of MNCs’ contracts able to secure local content and thus increase contributions from extraction projects to regional development processes are analysed: (1) whether and how MNC projects are divided into subcontract modules, (2) the position and use of framework contracts, and (3) how transportation costs to sites are included in the biddings. It is concluded that further research on MNCs and local content would need to be aware of the following: factors that facilitate or maintain discrimination between bidders included and not included in global networks; reasons why advantages of geographical proximity are underexposed; and how public authorities (states) establish rules that give equality to local enterprises in their competition with firms entering from outside.

The Role of Culture in the Regional Development Process. Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007

In the recent years, an increased interest in the use of culture as an instrument of politics and economics has expanded and influenced regional development. This paper aims to highlight the ability of culture to generate wealth for the community, on the one hand, and on the other as a catalyst for sustainable economic recovery by developing innovative and creative sectors based on arts activities. We will, however, single out the city of Sibiu and implicitly the “European Capital of Culture”, city that aims to highlight the richness and diversity of cultures in Europe, the contribution of culture to urban development, the increasing international profile of cities and a better image in the eyes of the inhabitants.

Evidence of Place: Becoming a Region in Rural Canada

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to investigate whether place is emerging in practice as a critical dimension in the development of Canadian rural regions. Recently, Jones and Paasi set regional researchers the task of better understanding how regions ‘become'. In researching this question, we are particularly interested in the definition and expression of place‐based identity as a mobilizing force for regionalism. Our findings suggest that, while identity plays a critical role in fostering regional development processes, it is either too emergent or actively resisted within our research sites to be a significant force for place‐based regional development.

Karakteristik Pengembangan Wilayah Sebelum dan Sesudah Pemekaran Kabupaten Jayapura

<p>Isu pengembangan wilayah di Jayapura tidak dapat dipisahkan dari isu pemekaran wilayah.<strong> </strong>Pemekaran wilayah di Kabupaten Jayapura pada hakekatnya dilakukan untuk menciptakan pemerintah yang efektif dan efisien serta diharapkan mampu menciptakan lapangan pekerjaan, mengurangi tingkat kemiskinan, meningkatkan pelayanan baik kesehatan maupun pendidikan yang diikuti dengan bertambahnya sarana infrastruktur yang memadai. Di samping itu, pemekaran wilayah di Kabupaten Jayapura bertujuan untuk memeratakan persebaran penduduk dan mempercepat proses pengembangan wilayah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengembangan wilayah di Kabupaten Jayapura sebelum dan setelah pemekaran, dengan rentang waktu 2002 dan 2012. Analisis pengaruh pemekaran terhadap pengembangan wilayah dibatasi pada aspek ekonomi, sosial kependudukan dan infrastruktur. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif untuk untuk membandingkan kondisi variabel-variabel terpilih sebelum dan sesudah pemekaran. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa secara makro pengaruh pemekaran di Kabupaten Jayapura memiliki kecenderungan positif, baik dari aspek ekonomi maupun sosial kependudukan. Secara mikro, pengaruh pemekaran di Kabupaten Jayapura pada aspek ekonomi di variabel angka pengangguran menunjukkan kecenderungan perkembangan yang negatif. Pada aspek sosial kependudukan hanya pada variabel rasio guru terhadap murid yang menunjukan kecenderungan negative, sedangkan pada aspek infrastruktur menunjukkan kecenderungan perkembangan yang positif.</p>

Does Size Matter? Knowledge-Based Development of Second-Order City-Regions in Finland

Achieving knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) depends profoundly on not only encouraging the development of economic activities, but also strengthening the societal, environmental and governance bases of city-regions. In recent years, a number of global city-regions have been investigated from the angle of this multidimensional perspective, which has provided a new comprehension of the development processes of primate city-regions. However, there is a knowledge gap in understanding how KBUD works in the second-order city-region (SOCR) context. This warrants more attention as SOCRs potentially help secure balanced development and territorial cohesion. This paper aims to empirically investigate KBUD performances of SOCRs in order to generate new insights. An assessment framework is utilised in the Finnish context, where the findings provide a nationally bench-marked snapshot of the degree of achievements of SOCRs based on numerous KBUD performance areas. The results shed light on the unique Finnish urban and regional development process, and provide lessons for other SOCRs.

International territorial cooperation and local development: the case of Canelones (Uruguay) with spanish territories

This paper analyzes the recent cooperation of Spanish territories (mainly the Canary Islands and Deputation of Barcelona) with Canelones, Uruguay from 2005 to 2010. The study uses information from in depth interviews, a survey to key actors, as well as bibliographical sources. The aim is to contribute to understand the motivations and foundations of cooperation between these territories, in order to analyze the advantages and opportunities of territorial cooperation to support processes of local and regional development. The paper argues that the most important contribution of territorial cooperation is not the support in physical infrastructure or the monetary amount of aid itself (funds), but refers to the generation of intangible assets for development. For instance, the joint learning resulting from the exchange of experience and the transfer of know-how and specific knowledge about dealing with similar challenges.

Editorial 10 (1)

Editorial 10 (1)

Crisis phenomena in Russia and cooperation of enterprises to improve the development of monotowns

This article discusses the crisis in Russia, provides suggestions for improving the interaction between the main participants of the socio-economic regional development processes. AS such members large and small enterprises are regarded Emphasis is placed on the promotion and creation of favorable conditions for small business development, a key factor in overcoming territorial problems enhancing the innovative development of the socio-economic system in monoprofile cities. The executive authorities are often inclined to oppose the large-scale enterprises to the small ones, the emerging conflicts are solved in favor of large enterprises. This situation proves that despite declared recognition of the small business importance in practice the small business is discriminated because they are believed to turn out the low efficiency. The involvement of the Russian economy into the global processes implements searching for and finding places where the operation will allow to get the maximum benefit from participation. Such places are presented for instance by «niches» for the provision of resources, primarily oil, gas and partially recycled metal and wood. This situation does not allow the economy of single-industry towns to develop effectively, partially due to lack of developed small businesses interacting with a large enterprise. It becomes clear that today it is impossible to ensure balanced growth of the mono cities economy providing the parallel development of small and large enterprises. The emergence of favorable conditions for the successful solution of local problems is possible when authorities will directly participate in the small business establishment including concrete measures aimed to its development.

Vulkanland Case Study: Transformative Regional Development

After being an economic backwater, the southeastern Austrian border region enjoys economic boom today. The decisive factor for the turnaround was a regional development process that had its first steps in 1995. The region was suffering from low education, had the national lowest income rate, no industrial development, no infrastructure, little self-esteem and a lack of job opportunity. The initiators of the project were thinking of a different way of measuring progress and started imagining a future built on different standards. Due to profound research activities, the initiators came to the conclusion that mega projects won’t entail sustainable solutions or future-competence. Hence, they turned their focus to their habitat – their region. To in-valuate the living space, a new identity that was representative, gained recognition and reinforced the peoples self-confidence. In 2001 the new identity ‘Steirisches Vulkanland’ was born. The vision throughout the entire development process was to transform the border region with little chances into an innovative, worth living region ‘Steirisches Vulkanland’ within a period of 15 years. In 2010 their vision seems to be achieved, 79 municipalities together promote successfully local, green, self-sustaining businesses. Yet, the development process is still going on, heading for new, courageous, challenging visions like achieving energy independence by the year 2025.

Acquaintance or partner? Social economy organizations, institutional logics and regional development in Australia

The social economy as a regional development actor is gaining greater attention given its purported ability to address social and environmental problems. This growth in interest is occurring within a global environment that is calling for a more holistic understanding of development compared to traditionally economic-centric conceptions. While regional development policies and practices have long considered for-profit businesses as agents for regional growth, there is a relatively limited understanding of the role of the social economy as a development actor. The institutional environment is a large determinant of all kinds of entrepreneurial activity, and therefore understanding the relationships between the social economy and broader regional development processes is warranted. This paper moves beyond suggestions of an economic-centric focus of regional development by utilizing institutional logics as a theoretical framework for understanding the role of social enterprises in regional development. A multiple case study of ten social enterprises in two regional locations in Australia suggests that social enterprises can represent competing logics to economic-centric institutional values and systems. The paper argues that dominant institutional logics can promote or constrain the inter-play between the social and the economic aspects of development, in the context of social enterprises.

Classification of labour markets in the Silesian Province (Poland)

Abstract The purpose of this article is to try to classify labour markets of the Silesian Province on the municipality level. The proposed solution of grouping labour markets is based on three criteria: the size of the labour market measured by a number of jobs, the weight of the labour market expressed with a proportion of the number of jobs to the size of the population and that scale of the impact that is a proportion of the commuters to the ones leaving for work. As a result of the assumed criteria the municipalities have been grouped according to their meaning on the labour market, at the same time identifying weaker and stronger labour markets. The first stage of the research was to divide the municipal labour markets according to the number of the employed. As a result territorial units were grouped into 4 classes (small, medium, big and huge) including in total 9 subclasses. Then the municipal labour markets were sorted according to their weight and the scale of their impact, verifying their position in this way. The research pointed out that a lot of labour markets in the Katowice conurbation showed lower levels than the assumptions. Consequently, it suggests polarization of the labour market of this urban unit that is mainly focused on Katowice and Gliwice. Higher parameters than the assumed ones were reached by several municipalities that are small or medium labour markets. In many cases these are municipalities where there are huge businesses connected with coal mining. A beneficial situation was noted in the southern part of the province that has a relatively steady situation on the labour market. The presented classification of labour markets can support the management process of local and regional development.

Actor Analysis in Case Studies for (regional) Sustainable Development

Specific local situations or phenomena pose specific challenges for regional (sustainable) development. These challenges require mostly local or regional solution paths for existing social-environmental systems that have to be investigated. Here the balance between studying and developing solution options can have a high impact on decision making and community choices.Processes of regional (sustainable) development are controlled by social players and these are the ones who finally decide and interact. These processes can be investigated with practical relevance in order to contribute (information) for sustainable solutions, for examples how to steer regional development processes, how to solve existing conflicts and to deliver information for strategy development.In this article, the method actor analysis is introduced and different options for implementation in practice are provided by using a case study conducted in the Ore Mountains as illustration. The described steps of an actor analysis can be read as guideline for implementing an analysis, but also the examples given are intended to show the potential and different options which aspects of social interactions could be in focus of investigation and how ideas or solutions with practical relevance can be generated.

The role of culture in the regional development process. Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007

In the recent years, an increased interest in the use of culture as an instrument of politics and economics has expanded and influenced regional development. This paper aims to highlight the ability of culture to generate wealth for the community, on the one hand, and on the other as a catalyst for sustainable economic recovery by developing innovative and creative sectors based on arts activities. We will, however, single out the city of Sibiu and implicitly the “European Capital of Culture”, city that aims to highlight the richness and diversity of cultures in Europe, the contribution of culture to urban development, the increasing international profile of cities and a better image in the eyes of the inhabitants.http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1647-6336_12_8

Financing Pro-Ecological Investments by Public Funds in the Lubuskie Province in the Years 2009-2013

The article discusses the issue of financing pro -ecological investments by the public funds, basing on the example of Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Zielona Gora in the years 2009 -2013. It also defines the essence of the implementation of these investments by the regional business sector in terms of the regional development process. Furthermore, apart from providing the compilation of the basic information concerning ecological funds, focusing on the origin, division, and the rules of their functioning, the analysis of the volume of expenditure in the years 2009-2013 has also been performed in the form of individual instruments supporting pro -ecological investments of the business entities in the region of Lubuskie Province. The summary contains the conclusions and forecasts for the coming years.

Zur Bedeutung endogener Potenziale in klein- und mittelstädtisch geprägten Regionen – Überlegungen vor dem Hintergrund der Territorialen Agenda 2020

Small and medium-sized towns are often the losers in times of economic crisis, as their internal innovation and growth potentials are low. Such places are especially reliant on external investment and public funding, a fact which aggravates the economic, social and demographic repercussions of the current crisis. Against this background this paper discusses the role that endogenous growth potentials—also highlighted in the EU’s Territorial Agenda 2020—might play in stabilizing such regions. The argument rests on two case-studies in old industrial regions, where the strategic utilization of such potentials by local actors is analysed and their overall influence on regional development discussed. By linking these examples to discussions from the 1980s and 1990s on endogenous potentials, the paper points out that today the primary consideration is not the direct economic impact of potentials. Instead the focus is on the role of endogenous potentials in triggering regional development processes (catalyzing function), highlighting regional uniqueness (identification function) and strengthening regional self-confidence (symbolic function).

Determination of the Support Level of Local Organizations in a Model Forest Initiative: Do Local Stakeholders Have Willingness to Be Involved in the Model Forest Development?

Voluntary cooperation and the support of stakeholders carry a major importance in the development of Model Forests. The identification of the support level of local organizations as stakeholders in the Bucak Model Forest initiative, located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, constitutes the theme of this study. Within this scope, the views of the stakeholders comprising local government units (LGUs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), village councils (VCs), professional organizations (POs) and forest products enterprises (FPEs) located in the district of Bucak were collected by utilizing a survey technique. The data were analysed by using non-parametric statistical analyses due to the absence of a normal distribution. The results show that the information provided about the Model Forest concept to the stakeholders located in the district on the Bucak Model Forest initiative was identified as a factor impacting the support level. Moreover, it was also observed that the stakeholders were more willing to provide advisory support rather than financial support. NGOs and VCs were identified as stakeholders who could not provide financial support due to their restricted budgets. We discuss the benefits for a Model Forest initiative of establishing international cooperation to strengthen the local and regional sustainable development process.

Historical Regional Demographic Divergence in Latvia: Lessons of the Common Past with Eastern Partnership Countries

Abstract In recent decades, scientific literature on demographic research is increasing attention on spatial data analysis. It is considered a useful and reliable analysis methodology in evaluating complex regional development processes. However, due to its complexity and reliance on properly captured and quantified spatial relations, it remains a difficult topic for many scholars and practitioners. In Latvia, spatial demographic analysis may prove useful, providing opportunities for uncovering new dimensions of long-term regional demographic and economic development issues. Here, the author analyses spatial distribution aspects of key demographic indicators in Latvia’s municipalities, the associated socio-economic factors and their impact. The implications of the identified spatial processes and dependencies for regional development policy and aid are discussed, including possible lessons learned from or shared with the EU Eastern Partnership countries facing similar challenges.

Supporting Emerging States: Kosovo — Hungary : Relations after the Independence of Kosovo

Emergence of new states is a rather complicated concept of an international system that entails political as well as legal implications. As Danilo Turk clearly points out:“Legal issues arising from dissolution of states, emergence of new states and recognition of the latter require a thorough understanding of the relevant facts. While it is obvious that any legal discourse must proceed from firm factual foundations, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of the circumstantial dimensions of the issues, given that the views on the pertinent facts usually diverge, at least during the policy making stage”.Indeed, the recognition of emerging states needs a profound assessment and comprehension of facts, historic and political circumstances, especially the factual reality; the latter sometimes supersedes eventual legal disputes. However, the factual reality, if legitimate, as in the case of Kosovo is something that should not be ignored but rather supported, especially in the state building process. Hence, the paper will give a depiction of the case of the independence of Kosovo as a sui generis case, and will continue with an outline of the Hungarian support, namely the evolvement of Kosovo-Hungary bilateral relations after the declaration of independence. The paper will tend to highlight the fact that the support of Kosovo as an emerging state, serves peace and long–term stability, regional development and other integration processes. It contributes to regional security, as well.