POLITECNICO DI TORINO Repository ISTITUZIONALE Annual review of TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS Original Annual review of TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS / Cotella, G.. - In: ANNUAL REVIEW OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS. - ISSN 2707-9384. - STAMPA. - 2/2020(2020), pp. 1- 174. Availability: This version is available at: 11583/2858718 since: 2020-12-22T19:12:09Z Publisher: Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development and POLIS Press. Published DOI: Terms of use: openAccess This article is made available under terms and conditions as specified in the corresponding bibliographic description in the repository Publisher copyright (Article begins on next page) 08 October 2021 Annual review of TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS JOURNAL OF THE WESTERN BALKANS NETWORK ON TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE (TG-WeB) Governance in The eects of COVID-19 on Tourism in the Age Western Balkans Governance and Development of Uncertainty Municipal Finances in Water and Energy Learning from the the Context of COVID-19 for Resilience CENTROPE Initiative ISSUE 2 2020 Annual Review of TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS JOURNAL OF THE WESTERN BALKAN NETWORK ON TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE (TG-WeB) Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans Journal of Western Balkan Network on Territorial Governance (TG-WeB) Issue 2 December 2020 Print ISSN 2617-7684 Online ISSN 2707-9384 Editor-in-Chief Dr. Rudina Toto Editorial Manager Dr. Ledio Allkja Editorial Board Prof. Dr. Besnik Aliaj Dr. Dritan Shutina Dr. Sotir Dhamo Dr. Peter Nientied Dr. Marjan Nikolov Prof. Dr. Sherif Lushaj Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Cotella Dr. Dragisa Mijacic Language Editor Dr. Maren Larsen Design Klesta Galanxhi Aida Ciro Scope: Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans is a periodical publication with select policy briefs on matters related to territorial governance, sketching the present situation, the Europeanisation process, the policy and the research and development agenda for the near future. 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Publishers December 2020 Table of Contents Editorial: Adaptive Territorial Governance in the Face of COVID-19 8 Giancarlo Cotella Policy Debate: Government and Governance on the Western Balkans 19 Andreas Faludi Tourism Development in the Western Balkans: Towards a Common Policy 24 Enrico Porfido Tourism in Transition, the Post COVID-19 Aftermath in the Western Balkans 46 Peter Nientied, Dritan Shutina Universities and Socio-cultural Institutions in Highly Uncertain Contexts: Challenges 61 and Opportunities during COVID-19 in three Western Balkan Countries Ledio Allkja, Esmerina Hidri Municipal Finances in the COVID-19 Context: The Case of Gazi Baba and Shkodër 73 Municipalities Merita Toska, Marjan Nikolov, Vesna Garvanlieva Andonova Socio-economic Eects of COVID-19 in Bulgaria: A Spatial Analysis 96 Hristo Dokov, Kalina Milkova, Ivaylo Stamenkov Transboundary Water Management in the Western Balkans: Challenges of the Land-Water 118 Nexus in the Drin River Basin Francesca Vanelli, Besmira Dyca, Paul Rabé Economic Viability of Alternatives for Lignite-free Electricity Production in North 140 Macedonia: The Case of TTP Oslomej Vesna Garvanlieva Andonova, Marjan Nikolov CENTROPE Initiative – Lessons Learned and Inspirations for the Western Balkans 150 Maroš Finka, Milan Husár, Matej Jaššo Abbreviations 168 8 Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans, II, 2020, 08-18 https://doi.org/10.32034/CP-TGWBAR-I02-01 EDITORIAL Adaptive Territorial Governance in the Face of COVID-19 Giancarlo Cotella [email protected] Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino Keywords: Territorial Governance, Resilience, Adaptive Governance, COVID-19, Western Balkan Region, Sustainable Development Introduction During the last few decades, extreme weather events and global and regional economic crises have been forcing us to rethink the way that governments approach territorial development. The inherent links between social, economic, and ecological systems are proving to be increasingly signicant, and exist only in a complex whole characterised by multiple feedbacks (Berkes et al. 2002). In this light, managing the relationship between the social, economic, and ecological aspects of development is of paramount importance for those interested in establishing sustainable development trajectories in the long-run. This is particularly true since the COVID-19 pandemic has added further entropy to the picture of socio-ecological interactions. During the early stages of the pandemic, decision making, regulations, and communication had converged at the national level. However, throughout the course of the pandemic, there has been growing room for improvement in policy-making. As such, there is a need to rethink development objectives and their governance according to a new long-term perspective – one that takes better account of dierent issues and needs. Key concepts such as multi-level governance, place-based development, circular economy, and the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals can all help Western Balkan countries to achieve a better quality of life while preserving productivity, social inclusion, and the environment (Cotella and Vitale Brovarone, 2020). However, to develop territorial governance systems to support secure, long-term societal development is particularly challenging (Lambin, 2005), and requires the introduction of forms of territorial governance that explicitly take into account the possibility for immediate and long-term change (Dietz et al., 2003; Folke et al., 2005). ‘Adaptive’ governance models and mechanisms are those that are able to address uncertainty through continuous learning and feature the involvement of multiple actors and levels in decision and policy making processes. Continuous knowledge sharing and learning is indeed a critical component when facing complex dynamics and uncertainty. It can be stimulated by networks that enable interaction between individuals and institutions at multiple levels and use those interactions to draw upon various knowledge systems and develop better policies (Adger, 2001; Olsson et al., 2006). In this light, adaptive territorial governance models rely on polycentric institutional arrangements that operate at multiple scales (McGinnis, 1999), balancing between centralised Editorial: Adaptive Territorial Governance in the Face of COVID-19 9 and decentralised control (Imperial, 1999). At the same time, these models should be exible enough to re-organise and re-form through institutional arrangements that encourage reection and innovative responses (Brunner et al., 2005; Folke et al., 2005). Since the rst appearance of the concept in the early 2000s, (Dietz et al., 2003), the boundaries of adaptive governance have evolved signicantly, particularly in relation to the governance of territorial development. However, an explicit research agenda on the matter has yet to coalesce. A synthesis of the literature concerning adaptive governance may contribute to the quest for new models of territorial governance that address the dynamic, large-scale nature of the most pressing crises, such as the 2008 global nancial crisis that still projects its shadow over our economies and, more urgently, the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Serving as an introduction to the 2020 Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans, this editorial focuses on the concept of adaptive territorial governance in the face of COVID-19, with particular reference to the Western Balkan Region. After this brief introduction, the concept of adaptive governance is detailed in relation to its evolving boundaries. The challenges that may undermine the implementation of adaptive governance in practice are then reected upon before a number of tentative research avenues in relation to the Western Balkans are brought forward. Finally, the various contributions that compose this volume and the way that each contributes to the debate are introduced to the reader. Adaptive Territorial Governance: Conceptual Boundaries The concept of adaptive governance rst emerged in relation to the management of institutional interactions in complex systems (Dietz et al., 2003; Walker et al., 2004; Folke et al., 2005), particularly as a consequence of the multiple uncertainties associated with global environmental change. According to these pioneering contributions, top-down territorial governance systems are unable to match the relevant scale of socio-economic and ecological complexity, especially in the face of rapid change (Cumming et al., 2006). Similarly, hierarchical governance often fails to provide eective solutions for highly contextualized situations, falling short in coordinating governance across multiple jurisdictional boundaries (Lemos and Agrawal, 2006). In response, a growing number of bottom-up approaches have emerged through local social networks, often under the collaborative initiative of community leaders sensing the need for alternatives to top-down government and