Functional Regions – Towards a New Paradigm of Territorial and Cohesion Policy

Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences

Academic Division, Polish Geographical Society

Ministry of Regional Development, Republic of Poland

Committee for Spatial Economy and Regional Planning, Polish Academy of Sciences

WARSAW REGIONAL FORUM 2011 Functional regions – towards a new paradigm of territorial and cohesion policy

Warsaw, 19-22 October 2011

Warsaw Regional Forum 2011 is a scientific support of Polish EU Presidency.

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The Warsaw Regional Forum is organized on a regular basis once every two years (biennially) by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, together with the Polish Geographical Society. To date, there have been four meetings held under the common title Warsaw Regional Forum: Central and Eastern Europe: Changing spatial patterns of human activity (2004), The core and peripheral regions in Central and Eastern Europe (2005), Contemporary dilemmas of spatial development in Europe (2007) and Networking in the European, regional and local space (2009). During the four meetings of the Warsaw Regional Forum more than 170 papers have been presented. The research studies dealt with a wide spectrum of themes (e.g. Regional and spatial policy, Cities and metropolitan areas, Rural and peripheral areas, Infrastructure, Social issues, Transborder cooperation and Management of environment), and the analysis contained within them covered a wide spectrum o spatial scales – ranging from that of the European through the national and regional, to the local level. The participants of all four conferences came from 25 different countries.

This year’s Forum is focus on the functional regions as a new paradigm of territorial and cohesion policy. It is related to the now on-going works on the new shape of the European cohesion policy. Greater flexibility in delimitation of units that are primary focus of that policy is postulated, among others, in the Fifth Cohesion Report . The new results obtained from the evaluation studies carried out in the previous programming periods attest to the importance of adopting the new approach to the European space. A functional region constitutes a space whose basic element is different from a traditionally understood sectoral specialization. Its determinants are, to an increasingly larger extent, made up of such elements like size, directions and structure of linkages and flows. Interestingly, as regards the last, these can be both inner flows (commuting to work and services of general interests, production chains) as well as outer flows (trade exchange, migrations), including often the processes of global significance.

In particular, the Forum 2011 sessions are built upon the discussions on the following dilemmas:

• critical look at a spatial classification into urban and rural space. More and more often it is pointed out that a division of settlement units into urban and rural is imprecise and vague. In the modern spatial research, the concept of functional regions represents a shift from a dichotomic classification of administrative units in favour of capturing the differences in spatial organization, economic activity, conditions of living and functional structure. This permits us to conduct cohesive analyses (and also to gather statistical data) as regards the zones termed as an urban-rural continuum, as well as offering the new possibilities for developing territorial policy (separately from sectoral and administrative limitations).

• eco-system services as a support for development of functional regions. Today the environmental economy is associated with a diversity of views on the economic impacts of ecosystem services and pro-environmental investments, particularly those associated with the protection of the environment and the landscape and the effort to maintain or raise an area’s attractiveness. The aim of the session is to present some aspects of ecosystem services in support of regional development. In short, it is being treated as an important factor behind regional economic development, joining with the economic and social factors in determining directions that development is to take, ways in which it is to be achieved, means of implementation and consequences.

• flows as a basis for a new look at the cohesion policy. The uninterrupted flow of goods, capital, people and services involve the four fundamental rules governing the functioning of the EU single market. At the same time, there is a limited knowledge of that issue. In the majority of the European countries (in particular among the New Member States), the statistical systems gather data rather about places than flows. Under these circumstances, the important gap in knowledge is bridged by detailed spatial studies carried out on the ground of geography, economy, sociology, planning and regional sciences. Some of their findings challenge the established views concerning spatial structure of the European Union. Thus they should become the basis for a new look at the cohesion policy

• European space in light of the latest strategic documents. In autumn 2010, the Fifth Cohesion Report that included proposals for the future cohesion policy was published. In the nearest months it is planned to adopt the updated version of the Territorial Agenda of the EU . Ambition of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council is to prepare a background report concerning a transmission of the new Agenda into the principles of Cohesion Policy. Simultaneously, works in many of the projects related to the ESPON II Programme are in an advanced stage. All the aforementioned actions require a broader, sometimes critical, reflection based on the fundament of the empirical and theoretical scientific studies. Also, it is very important to compare the European documents with those prepared at the national, regional or transborder levels.

• Europe’s functional linkages in a global dimension (with a particular focus on linkages with neighbouring areas). Functional and transport linkages of the European Union (of the particular Member States as well) in a global dimension are of critical importance. These include transcontinental transport of goods, migration movements, as well as tourism. The problems associated with these issues are focused mainly in some of the European Union regions (metropolises, transportation hubs, outer parts of East and Mediterranean borderlands). In this context, among problems to be solved is a growing overburden of port and air infrastructure in West Europe. Concerning the overland transport, a fact to be taken into account is development of the railway and road networks in some of the Asian countries (especially in China and Iran), which have impact upon development of transcontinental overland transport (in particular railway). For that reason the exploitation of „dry ports” in the eastern borders of the EU is increasingly gaining in significance.

The Ministry of Regional Development of Poland is a co-organizer of the Warsaw Regional Forum 2011. For the first time in history took over the Presidency of the European Union Council. Ambition of Polish Presidency is to strengthen the territorial dimension in cohesion policy after 2013 - as expressed by a motto: Cohesion Policy as the effective and territorially diversified answer to developmental challenges . The Warsaw Regional Forum is one of the official conferences organized during that period of time in Poland. Conclusions reached during the discussion will become part of a support base making the best use of factual knowledge to deal with the Presidency tasks, especially as pertains to cohesion policy and to some of sectoral policies too.

Territorial potentials of a green economy

In the framework of the analysis of spatial aspects of the green economy, we have examined the territorial impacts of economic development on the basis of the logic of strategic action embedded in the sustainability approach. According to this concept, green economy is virtually the “greening” of the economy through green sectoral development processes, the reinvigoration of the economy through promoting the creation of sustainable industry and the relevant entrepreneurial environment, job creation, the reduction of environmental hazards caused by the industrial sector, the creation of an economy with low environmental pressure which would guarantee the long-term functioning of the ecosystem besides the creation of jobs. The examination of the spatial aspects of the existing efforts to establish domestic green economy was carried out through green sectors (energy saving building industry, renewable energy management, sustainable transport and agriculture, water management, environmental infrastructure), in the meantime, on the basis of the above written, due to the horizontal nature of spatial development, a global synthesis of the processes can only be realised through an integrated approach. The comprehensive objective of integrated “green” spatial development is the protection of biological diversity, the development of agribusiness and rural economies, and the simultaneous consideration of the aspects of social policy the exploitation of natural and cultural (traditional) opportunities in order to enhance the population keeping power of rural areas together with employment opportunities and to establish an economy adapted to local environmental constraints (ecological agrarian industry). All this must be harmonized with sectoral policy measures directed at the popularisation of renewable energy, the development of the agrarian sector and the preservation of natural and cultural values. An outstanding result of our research, agriculture may become a catalyst to green economic development in Hungary due to its strong attachment to other sectors. Thanks to the multiplicator effect of green agrarian development on other sectors, it may generate positive processes in environmental protection and rural society as well. The application of the competitive family farming model would be the most suitable on the sandy soiled areas of the Danube-Tisa Interfluve, on the southern areas of Békés county cultivated by a large number of small farmers, the main directions of which would be vegetable and fruit production and open-air animal husbandry in the framework of bio- production. This activity would also serve the interests of natural environmental protection, just let us consider the grasslands of the Kiskunság or Körös-Maros National Park. Hungarian agriculture is involved in energy challenges in two ways: on one hand, the energy efficiency of production must be enhanced, and this is crucial since the realization of efforts of WTO negotiations directed at the liberalisation of the agricultural trade would raise the competitiveness of Hungarian products, on the other hand, the utilisation of biomass for energy purposes would reduce the energy-import dependence of the country, increase the stability of the market of agricultural products, improve the profitability of the agrarian sector and promote the creation of rural jobs. Our research devoted special attention on how the theoretical foundations of green economy are validated in local spatial development policy (integrated urban development).

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Supporting Regional Development by means of Ecosystem Services – Fundamentals and Applications

Due to its integrative character as it links sciences and humanities with applied socio-economic issues and spatial planning procedures, the concept of Ecosystem Services gained more and more popularity in the global environmental discussion. Starting from the theoretical basis of ecosystem services, we address the space and time dependence of ecosystem services, and we present a specific methodological framework suitable for planning and development purposes. We will illustrate it on several examples from projects accomplished by the Leibniz-Institute of Ecological and Regional Development and partners: 1. the European Water Framework Directive, a political instrument that has lead to essential improvements of the ecological state of surface waters and ground-waters and the ecosystem services they supply; 2. the development of legal and regulatory frameworks and tools towards a sustainable growth and use of energy crops (biomass as renewable energy); 3. the role of ecosystem services to reach a higher appreciation and acceptance of protected areas; 4. the definition and the assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services, and 5. landscape preference analyses using the travel cost method.

Cohesion Policy in the mirror of social values

The paper investigates the interconnection of territorial and cohesion policy performance and social values of the country/regions. Data on European regions suggest that culture has a causal effect on economic development. Culture is measured by individual values and beliefs, such as trust. I apply an exercise in which I locate close to 50 societies of the world along the value axis defined by Inglehart. I will investigate the position of Hungary on the “value map” drawn by the value axis. According to the results closed (based on values of self-expression) and rational (based on secular- rational values) way of thinking is typical of Hungary. At the same time, this combination of values places our country in the vicinity of the countries with orthodox culture, away from the core of Western culture, typical of Hungary based on history and cultural heritage. The principles of Cohesion policy (like partnership, decentralization) require a high level of certain values. The claim that socio-economic partners should be actively involved in the process of regional development policy presumes adequate abilities of cooperation from local actors. In general the shift from government to governance means a big challenge from this point of view. Namely government is strongly associated with command and control from a top-down perspective, while governance refers to a self-governing group of actors working interactively as networks. As Putnam have shown in his seminal work, a critical factor in explaining effectiveness of regional governance and regional economic performance is that there are differences in traditions of civic engagement and the structure of the civic networks. Empirical findings of comparative value surveys show that Hungary (and other post-socialist countries) possesses hardly any of the above mentioned values. Finally, I argue that, as a consequence of this inconsistency between Hungarian social values and principle requirements of EU Cohesion Policy, the expected output of policy implementation is questionable.

eee e Regional innovation policy based on branching Related variety is important to regional growth because it induces knowledge transfer between complementary sectors at the regional level. This is accomplished through three mechanisms: spinoff dynamics, labour mobility and network formation. They transfer knowledge across related sectors, which contributes to industrial renewal and economic branching in regions. Since these mechanisms of knowledge transfer are basically taking place at the regional level, and because they make regions move into new growth paths while building on their existing assets, regional innovation policy should encourage spinoff activity, labour mobility and network formation. Doing so, policy builds on region-specific assets that provides opportunities but also sets limits to what can be achieved by policy. Public intervention should neither apply 'one-size-fits- all' approaches nor adopt 'picking-the-winner' strategies, but should aim to connect complementary sectors and exploit related variety as a source of regional diversification.

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Bulgaria between Competitiveness and Cohesion: FDI, Structural Funds and, Regional Disparities in a CEEC

The paper will analyse how Bulgarian authorities respond to the Lisbon Strategy targets on both demands in increasing European competitiveness and in strengthening cohesion. In Central and Eastern Europe countries (CEEC), these demands raise up a dilemma between competitiveness -at the risk of increasing territorial disparities- and, cohesion through territorial equity in redistributing growth benefits. By studying FDI in the framework of the Investment promotion Act, and mid-term financial implementation of the European Structural funds in Bulgaria we will show the spatial impacts of these financial flows regarding this dilemma. To explore this dilemma between competitiveness and cohesion, we will first focus on the Bulgarian policy in promoting investment and its seeking for matching competitiveness to cohesion. We will base our argument on the statistics provided by the Bulgarian agency for investment regarding sector-based and place-based measures. Mapping and studying the financed projects since 2004 lead to the following results: the strengthening of regional disparities in Bulgaria. Then, we will focus on ways to build up competitiveness into the framework of the European cohesion, through the Structural funds. The mid-term implementation of the European Structural funds will provide the analytical basis as far as data are progressively available. Finally, the paper will discuss the Bulgarian policies as the expression of a New Member State to cope both with globalisation and European integration.

Spatial classification of rural areas in Poland

Official statistics in Poland traditionally distinguish urban and rural areas on the basis of administrative criteria. Nowadays, rural areas cannot be considered strictly as agricultural and forest areas. In many cases their function has changed into touristic or residential. Central Statistical Office of Poland actively aims to classify rural areas to spatial and economic types. The aim of the methodological work “The typology of rural areas” is to create a standard of division based on the official statistic data for gminas with division of urban-rural gminas into urban and rural part. We assume that our typology should contain simple and easily interpretable indicators what provides its intelligibility. Spatial typologies of rural areas are commonly based on population density what we found could be substituted by land use. Population density and share of build-up and urbanized areas in total used land correlates highly (0.94) at the local territorial unit level. This dependence allow us to distinguish cities and diversify rural areas to agricultural, forest and partly-urbanized classes. Our work demonstrate the procedure which led us to spatial classification of rural areas in Poland. We use the share of build-up and urbanized areas determined by Central Geodesy and Cartography Office. This administrative data are based on the legal status of the plots. Build-up and urbanized areas include residential, industrial, urbanized non-built- up, recreational, transport, mining and other build-up areas. We recognize that shares should be counted not as a percentage of total area, but as a percentage of total use area. It means that we subtract from total area the land which could not be use like lakes, rivers, sea, wastelands and others. Whole use area could be trisect into agricultural, forest and build-up plus urbanized areas. This division allows us to show each unit on a trilinear-diagram. The question is, if there exist any natural borders between rural and urban areas considered as a share of build-up and urbanized areas. During detailed data analysis we found out that there is a share of build-up and urbanized areas higher than 6% in the rural units mainly in case of a unit where suburbanization or industrial investment take place. On the other hand we found out that there is a share of build-up and urbanized areas lower than 15% in cities only if there are vast surrounding agricultural or forest areas incorporated into the cities’ boundaries. None of these situations took place intensively in Warmi ńsko-Mazurskie voivodship, therefore we based classification on this sample. Spatial classification of rural areas in Poland distinguishes 7 classes: a) urbanized; b) forest, partly urbanized; c) agricultural, partly urbanized; d) intensively agricultural, partly urbanized; e) forest; f) agricultural; f) intensively agricultural. We recognized and analysed 32 cities (3.5% of the total number of cities) which are classified in non-urbanized classes and 18 rural units (0.8% of the total number of rural units) that belong to urbanized class. The urbanized rural units either lie near city in suburban area or there is a sizeable open pit mine within unit’s border.

Peculiarities of spatial transformations of Vilnius urban region

The development of any city involves transformations of its inner space together with transformations of surrounding areas. The latter processes, as a rule, involve collision between two different types of spaces and societies – urban and rural one. This inevitably causes various positive and negative social and environmental outcomes. Political and economic reforms together with natural processes of city fluctuations caused intense transformations in Vilnius urban region in recent decades. The knowledge and understanding of these processes should help to achieve rational and sustainable growth of Vilnius city and surrounding region. The research of these processes was financed by the Science Council of Lithuania. The main goal of this paper is to find out reasons, consequences and trends of spatial changes in post-soviet Vilnius city region concentrating on the areas where prevailing rural space is being transformed into urban one. Authors try to determine functional borders of Vilnius urban region and explain structural changes that have been taking place there. Transformations in Vilnius economy and society were mainly driven by local political reforms and main events took place in areas where differences between communist and democratic societies were the biggest during first decade of Lithuanian independence. In the second decade, global and inter-regional factors became more important. Research revealed, that demographic changes in outer Vilnius region were taking place at faster pace and wider scale than economic ones. Spatial transformations, especially territorial growth of economy (economic suburbanization), were mainly experienced by industrial sector. In the meantime traditional services with commerce and business sectors were concentrating in the central and middle parts of Vilnius. Territorial expansion for these sectors was smaller than expected. Smallest changes in territorial redistribution and growth happened for non-commercial service sectors. These sectors are still mainly determined by strict, often conservative and badly financed planning policies and various administrational or political factors. Fast evolution of regions’ economy creates huge amount of various social and environmental conflicts. Groups involved in these conflicts often change course of territorial transformations. This adds up to chaotic city growth.

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Ecosystem Services Assessment as a Ground for Equitable Development and Governance of Peripheral Regions (The Case of Batak Mountain, Bulgaria)

The paper's overall objective is to integrate socio-economic development, landscape ecology and spatial planning perspectives through the overlaying of supplementing theoretical and practical research experiences. It is focusing on the ecosystem services, their optional value and potential impact stemming from different estimation approaches and related development perspectives. The case of Batak mountain's social-ecological system, part of the Rhodopes mountain range is indicative peripheral situation with tight relation with the urban core of the Upper Thracian Valley in terms of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. A conceptual contradiction is found between the natural wealth of the mountainous region and the negative tendencies emerging there including unemployment and marginalization, poverty and depopulation, forest exploitation and succession, etc. There are many pieces of evidence which clearly show that the flows of wealth leaving the region or consumed for free there by the visitors coming from the core urban region are not compensated accordingly. We regard this as a case of market failure, i.e. the sole market is not capable to comprehend fully the value of the regional natural capital and fails to establish motivating price signals. In this respect the embedding of ecosystem services in the price formation process for different communal and regional services is essential for achieving equitable development. Thus we consider the methodological aspects of ecosystem assessment for the region of Batak mountain as a first step on the way to achieving more balanced situation in this extreme core – periphery system. Further on the spatial development planning and governance in the peripheral region is discussed in the light of several scenarios. Through these some redistribution issues and the possibility for promotion of sustainable local practices, aimed at preserving and enhancing the regional natural capital are examined closer. There are final recommendations for more adequate state response in terms of appropriate governance frameworks, market regulations and institutional arrangements, as well as investment and support for research and development of conservation and adaptation innovations.

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Innovation clusters in Russia: drivers for sustainable regional development

The role of technological innovation in enhancing the competitive advantages at the level of individual firms and industries, regions and even countries, increased attention to the innovation component of the cluster, which determined the revision of the concept, treatment of cluster effects and approaches to their study. Over the last two decades the link between innovation, spatial proximity and relationships between firms has become an important theme for research into competitiveness and sustainable economic growth. While the links between innovation and growth have long been discussed (Grant, 1996), more recently the work of Porter (2002), Sunley (2003), Hoffe and Chen (2006) has focused attention on the ways in which localized knowledge and technology spillovers may promote innovation. In this paper we propose to use “clusters” as a specific systemic approach (or driver) to stimulation of innovation activity in the region. Despite of the fact that different forms of cooperation can allow to gain special resources and competences, we could not see enough papers which confirm a positively impact cooperation indicators to firm financial results and its innovation absorption capacity (Immarino, 2006). The paper focuses on the advantages of interfirm relationships and cluster participation for stimulation of innovation activity. We used econometric procedures for more than 1000 firms (data of the accounting and statistical reports and interviews) of different regions in Russia. Regression outcomes allow defining the factors affecting to the participation in cluster relationship. Using the interviews results can allow us to supplement regression outcomes and to find several facts about different types of relationship forms between firms and institutes promoting innovations in the region in frame of cluster concept.

The Engagement of Central and Eastern European Actors with the European Spatial Planning Debate. Time to Make a Difference?

Over the last two decades, numerous authors have discussed the increasing importance and the evolving features of the spatial dimension of European Union (EU) policies. The recent enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007 and the concomitant eastward shift of the frontier of European integration have provided the context for the emergence of a new east-west dimension of EU territorial governance, and represent a particularly useful context for the exploration of the evolution of EU spatial planning ideas and approaches. Previously dominated by a strongly western perspective, the EU has been confronted with a dramatically different reality in terms of economic, social and territorial development. As a result, the debate over spatial planning has been opened up to new questions, new challenges and issues, new actors and arenas of action, taking its heterogeneity to an unprecedented level. However, whereas the opening of existing and emerging policy arenas to actors from both old and new member states could theoretically lead to the reformulation of EU spatial intervention to fully capitalise on this increased diversity, until now only limited efforts have been made in this direction, and it is as yet unclear the extent to which the north-west European hegemony on the European spatial planning discourse will be altered anytime soon. Aiming at providing an insight in relation to the above discussion, the paper explores the extent and nature of the engagement of actors from Central and Eastern European Countries with the main ‘knowledge arenas’ that have been influencing the evolution of European spatial planning over the last twenty years: the ESDP process, European Territorial Cooperation, the European Spatial Planning Observation Network, the EU Territorial Agenda process and the Territorial Cohesion Debate. It does so building on earlier works by the author that introduce a ‘knowledge’ perspective on the exploration of stability and change in spatial policy development, which explores the extent to which a variety of ‘territorial knowledge communities’ have engaged with different ‘knowledge arenas’ to advance and legitimize policy agendas and approaches through the strategic use of ‘knowledge resources’ (Adams et al 2011). In this light, the engagement of the different actors with the mentioned arenas is explored both quantitatively – taking into account their geographical distribution – and qualitatively – in relation to the main concepts and ideas put forward through this engagement. The gap between rhetoric and reality that characterises this engagement is also discussed, reflecting on the extent to which some actors restrict themselves to ‘talking the talk’ rather than ‘walking the walk’ by actively trying to shape EU spatial ideas and concepts. The analysis provides grounds for some initial reflections on the prospects and challenges for a full valorisation of the potential of increased diversity of the European planning community post enlargement.

References

ADAMS, N., COTELLA, G. and NUNES, R. (Eds) (2011) Territorial Development, Cohesion and Spatial Planning: Knowledge an policy development in an enlarged EU . London: Routledge.

Quality of life and ecosystem services in rural-urban regions

The aim of the presentation is offer a new view on the environment and its role as regards regional development, as well as to assess environmental conditions as factors potentially underpinning new spatial patterns. Also, it points out the multifunctionality of nature space to creating new challenges for regional policy in quest for attracts and viscosity of the regions. Today the environmental economy is associated with a diversity of views on the economic impacts of ecosystem services and pro-environmental investments, particularly those associated with the protection of the environment and the landscape and the effort to maintain or raise an area’s attractiveness. In line with the model for the creation of reality some aspects of ecosystem services has shown. In short, it is being treated as an important factor behind regional economic development, joining with the economic and social factors in determining directions that development is to take, ways in which it is to be achieved, means of implementation and consequences.

Transborder relations at the local level in the Polish-German borderland

Peripheral location of border regions usually causes their ‘underdevelopment’. A significant role in the process of its overcoming should be played by cross-border cooperation development, whose increase is currently observed across Europe. Its role was to help overcome unfavourable features of the location as well as help take advantage of the positive features of cross-border regions. The aim of the study was to analyse the transborder relations at the local level in the Polish-German borderland. In order to describe the character of relations all municipalities in the Polish part of the borderland and districts in the German part has been examined. Answering the question whether in relations between Polish and German territorial units co-operation or competition attitude is prevailing was also the aim of the analysis. To this end questionnaire survey has been conducted (in April 2011) among self-government authorities from Polish-German borderland. The area under investigation comprised of municipalities (NUTS 5) belonging to districts neighbouring border on the Polish side and districts (NUTS 4) situated along border on the German side. On the basis of empirical data intensity of co-operation has been evaluated. The study allowed also to determine the impact of the co-operation on borderland areas. Furthermore, the effects in different fields, i.e. socio-cultural, economic, infrastructural, have been analysed. The results obtained have been compared to analogous research conducted in 2003.

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Transformation of functionality of small towns during post-socialist transition in Estonia

Traditionally, small towns in Western countries in industrial era have had two functions: the location place for a particular industry (specialised towns) and the centre for surrounding inhabitants (central place). In socialist countries, specialised towns have often functioned as separated employment areas with high organisational employment concentration (as company towns) more than in rest of the world. Additional specific line in socialist countries was the location of industries also in historical local centres, so the local centres have there often also the characteristics of specialised towns. During post-socialist transition period, the importance of both functions has decreased as result of growing mobility of people and production factors. The aim of this paper is to explain how possibility to find new functions for small towns depends on present economic structure and history of the town. The paper bases on empirical study done in Estonia in 56 small towns (and other urban settlements) in 2008-2009: information was collected via interviews with local municipality leaders and company managers on economic (sectoral and organisational) structure, its formation ways during the history and development perspectives in place. Principally, there are possible four potential functions for small towns: first, to function as location place and employment area of a large company dominant in locality, second, to function as location for a number of small companies, third, to function as living place (without local workplaces) for people not employed (retirees) or employed outside the town, and fourth, the total outmigration of local inhabitants. Of course, in real world, a mixture of all 4 ways is conventional. As result of study there was possible to distinguish 5 types of settlements. The sectoral belonging was not crucial in the level of locality: particular companies, dominant in locality, may be productive and competitive even in generally declining industry. First factor determining the development options was the economic culture: we can distinguish settlements where in economic culture are dominant new entranced companies, settlements where dominant companies are the successors of Soviet-time companies and settlements where are dominant the functions of historical local centre. Settlements where new entranced companies are dominant are in most cases gone soon through radical changes in structure of local industrial organisation and therefore the mobility of local labour force is quite high and organisational structure is not very concentrated. But in this type of settlements is problematic the low embeddedness of companies into local community and therefore low use of local knowledge and low rate of value addition of present activities. Among the settlements where in local economic culture dominate companies of grown up from Soviet-time companies we can again distinguish three subtypes of settlements according to the fortune of dominant company: in cases where industry has left settlement during the transition period the option is development of local small entrepreneurship (functioning now on a very low level of efficiency). In towns where dominant company is still competitive the policy could be directed towards continuity of presently dominant activity but be prepared for need to a radical change. In most favourable situation are the towns with dominant functions of local historical centres.

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From urban sprawl to metropolitan development over the post- communist period in Romania

Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been undergoing radical socio-economic transformations following the collapse of the communist regimes in terms of marked economic changes and intensive spatial development in terms of deconcentration of both population and economic activities from the centre towards the hinterland, triggering a process of urban sprawl (suburbanization). Just like other major post-communist countries, Romanian urban system is still experiencing profound transformations which have triggered a dynamic reorganization of the urban/suburban landscape together with its functional and socio-spatial pattern. Therefore, under the current urban development in Romania nearly 7,500,000 (34%) inhabitants are living in metropolitan areas. Except for the Capital city, metropolitan areas are well under 400,000 inhabitants and polarise spaces that have fewer than 1 million inhabitants. The paper attempts to analyse the complex relationship between urban sprawl (suburbanization) and metropolitan development over the post-communist period in Romania with a special focus on the most significant metropolitan systems: Bucharest, Oradea, Ia şi and Constan ţa. Therefore, the present paper will seek to identify several suburbanization-related patterns of metropolitan development in Romania related to industrial relocation, residential development, new industrial and services units (huge shopping centres, warehouses, logistic parks) etc. The present study will combine spatial data (GIS mapping techniques), statistical data (housing, demographic etc.) and field surveys to undertake a complex assessment of the urban/metropolitan development over the post-communist period in Romania in order to support sustainable future spatial development.

Development of Lagging Regions in the Context of Functional Region’s Paradigm

Lagging regions are generally defined as regions characterized by economic decline. Economic declining is usually accompanied by the lack or even removal of capital and the emigration of labour force. Assessment of how lagging the region is, depends on the context i.e. situation of other regions selected for comparisons and their social, economic, and spatial characteristics, that have impact on the scale of regional development differentiation. The absolute economic decline involves the closure of manufacturing and other establishments. There are other regions that do not experience such dramatic situation, but they do not perform as expected and despite different measures used by public authorities from the central, regional and local level, to bring development incentives to these regions, they remain on the path of surviving not on the path of economic growth and social development. Regional development of Poland is characterized by significant differentiation. There is a group of regions that can be labelled “lagging regions”. Among them are mainly regions from the Eastern part of Poland. They are lagging according to Polish and international standards. In the first part of the paper development problems of selected Polish lagging regions are presented with use of results of the project implemented by OECD together with the Polish Ministry of Regional Development in 2010. Development problems are presented in the context of these regions development potentials, strategies and policies. This part of the paper contains also discussion on undertakings realized in order to improve performance of regions. In the second part of the paper the situation of Polish lagging regions is discussed from the perspective of formation of functional regions. An attempt is made to identify factors supporting and impeding formation of such regions and their functioning within broader spatial context. Eventually, potential measures in the sphere of spatial planning and regional development management, that may contribute to the change of current development path are presented and discussed.

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Trapped between concentration and cohesion? – Overcoming the dichotomous nature of strategic spatial development within the BSR

As a historic legacy the Baltic Sea Region hosts one of the largest east-west welfare gaps on the entire European continent. Recent rapid economic development indicates that this gap is quickly being diminished. In the wake of this eastern BSR catch up process, most countries of the BSR, east and west alike, have been laden with increasing internal polarisation. Many of the BSR countries are small in economic terms and are thus often simply unable to compete on a par with the major European economies, let alone globally. Due to their small size and marginal position in the European space, consistent policies aiming at creation of agglomeration effects are on a normative basis more than justifiable. This need for concentrational efforts should however be increasingly questioned and weighted against the trade-off on escalating territorial polarisation, especially between metropolitan or other urban areas on the one hand, and rural or peripheral areas on the other. Metropolisation strategies aiming at functional integration of larger secondary cities with their extended hinterlands may provide one first step on this path.

Urban and Rural Cultural Landscape in the Bratislava Functional Urban Region

Cultural landscape plays an important role in the hinterlands of big cities. It is present both in urban and in rural parts of the landscape but its structure, shape, use and functionality are different. Whilst in urban cultural landscape services, industrial and residential areas dominate; agricultural areas prevail in rural cultural landscape. The characteristics both of urban and rural cultural landscapes were studied on the example of the NE sector of Bratislava Functional Urban Region (FUR), consisting of 17 communes, with population of about 85,000 and an area of 408 km 2. The aim of the paper is to assess the settlement and population changes, living conditions and environmental quality in order to specify differences between the rural and urban cultural landscapes. Building of large concentrations of new residential areas in hinterland of Bratislava is one of the basic characteristics of the settlement and population developments nationwide. This process significantly changes the spatial organization of the area with a serious impact on the values of traditional cultural landscape. The suburbanising process and its impact are evaluated using migration statistics concerning Bratislava and hinterland communes as well as an index of new houses increase in all settlements. Analysis of the material equipment for life (living conditions) facilitated characterizing of differences between urban and rural communes and the urban-rural divide in the selected aspects of life quality. The environmental quality is a criterion with strong natural/environmental background. Two sub-criteria were assessed: a portion of artificial surfaces and ecological stability. The higher portion of artificial surfaces (category 1 in the Corine Land Cover - CLC), the higher level of urbanisation is manifested, and vice-versa. In general, the urban aspects are decreasing and the rural ones are increasing with the distance from the centre of the Bratislava FUR. Results of analysis offer some suggestions for the territorial policy to be pursued within the functional urban region and the management of cultural landscape.

Ethnic minority regions in light of cohesion policies. Case study: Poland and Lithuania.

The paper is an attempt to show unique regions inhabited by ethnic minorities in light of the proposals contained in the Fifth Cohesion Report (2010). The paper is focused on a number of aspects of the Vilnius region and the ethnically diverse Podlaskie Voivodeship. The goal is to analyse their cultural context in order to identify the best practices associated with a cohesion policy. The examples cited in the paper are located on the periphery of the European Union and may need to rely on transborder collaboration in order to pursue sustainable development. In the case of Podlaskie Voivodeship, a good external partner would be Belarus. The multicultural Vilnius region is an area of interaction between two different entities – the capital city of Lithuania and economically disadvantaged Polish rural areas near the capital city. This region may become a model of the strengthening of an Urban- Rural Partnership. Furthermore, the cultural cohesion of border areas in Lithuania, Belarus and Poland as well as the presence of large urban centres (Vilnius, Grodna, Białystok) and a neglected transportation infrastructure are all potential elements of the Promotion of Trans-National Competitive and Innovative Regional Clusters.

Functional regions in Bulgaria

The implemented regional policy in Bulgaria gives priority to the growing role of the towns, especially the big and mid-sized ones, and of the urban agglomerations in the regional development as well as to the cohesion between regions. The uneven distribution of cities and towns is one of the reasons for differences in the socio- economic development, for disparities between administrative districts, planning regions and primarily for intraregional differences, and for the available problem “centre-periphery” (Operative Program Regional Development, 2007). Thirty six agglomeration areas are identified in the country, being poles of growth in the national economy. On the highest hierarchical level are the agglomeration areas of the capital city and the other six largest cities. The urban zones of three of these cities are defined as European functional regions – Plovdiv, Varna and Bourgas. Owing to the specific parameters and functions of the biggest agglomeration in the country – that of the capital city, it has the greatest contribution to the formation of the state polycentric spatial structure in the context of the European conceptions, but according to the scale of the European capital-city regions of growth (MEGA) it is assigned to the lowest category.

Cyberspace vs. real space - webometric analysis of self-governments websites

The purpose of presentation is to answer the question: do cyberspace connections translate into geographical borders? The question is especially important as spatial research rarely attempts to verify empirically the way phenomena function in cyberspace in relation to physical location of the entities connected with them. Presentation concentrates on the local authority websites - the subject of the research was Internet websites of Lower Silesia local government at the county level (LAU1). This study identifies all websites which are hyperlinked with local authorities’ websites operating within the region. Then, these websites were assigned to geographical location of the entity governing the content and the thematic category. The conducted research process allowed to collect data concerning location and thematic category of over 3600 unique URL addresses of websites which were linked to Internet websites of Lower Silesia counties. It was found that local self-government units are also connected with the real scope of their activity via cyberspace. On the whole, it can be said that connections existing in cyberspace largely reflect the actual functional borders. However, the main functional node dominating the cyberspace is the country’s capital. It cannot be said that cyberspace is governed by its own, non-spatial rules. The observed connections confirm that despite potential possibility of connecting with a great number of remote locations, such situation does not take place. All the connections with the locations from outside the ascribed scope of operation of local authorities are mostly the result of real-life relationships, which are naturally limited by the distance. The presented results indicate that analyses of hyperlinks can be useful from the point of view of spatial research.

The vision of Europe and the space of flows (the case of BRIC)

The paper is based on some findings of the EuroBroadMap international project funded by the 7th European Framework Programme and, in particular, on the survey of about 10,000 undergraduate students from 18 countries, including BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The objective was to analyse how their vision of Europe and the World is shaped by the historical, political and economic background, gender, number of languages spoken and personal experience. In general, the survey confirms the hypothesis that a higher spatial mobility and income, the knowledge of foreign languages, as well as a broader personal acquaintance with the outside world contribute to a more positive but at the same time realistic perception of foreign countries, to the shaping of a more complicated feelings of belonging. A highly positive perception of European countries is confirmed by an analysis of the words associated with Europe. The notion of Europe is closely connected with the European Union as a club or prosperous and democratic states, and its currency – euro. These words (European, Union and euro) are by far the dominant associations. The vision of Europe has a very pronounced consumerist, glamour tone. Europe is viewed as an economic entity, a culturally rich and advanced space, a place for leisure and consumption of different goods and services. As compared with other countries, Russian respondents connect more strictly the notions of Europe and of the EU. The author considers the political implications of a too close association of Europe with the EU. An analysis of maps summarizing the boundaries of Europe drawn by students leads to relevant conclusions about the pattern and the dynamics of the world geopolitical vision of citizens. The world vision of students revealed by the survey corresponds well to the geographical pattern of flows connecting BRIC with the outside world.

Warsaw region as a European Metropolitan Region – concepts and potentials

The strive for a competitive position of a location within the global urban settlement system has been subject to both practical, as well as theoretical activities. The question of competiveness is raised at all levels of governance practice. In the face of global competition, the territorial policy of the EU has again set prior focus on strengthening the so called ‘engines of growth’, this time extended by their wider functional surrounding, the areas described as metropolitan regions. The idea of enhancing polycentricity and competitiveness by decentralization and dispersal of metropolitan functions, and the development of non-hierarchical, network relations between cities of various sizes and levels within a wide area around the metropolis has become the leitmotiv of the concept of European Metropolitan Regions introduced at first by the German Ministry for Transportation, Construction and Urban Development as a tool of spatial development policy. The concept has also been scientifically elaborated and confronted with other theoretical approaches concerning relations between the city and its region. While countless scientific discussions address the issue of whether Warsaw needs its region as an essential component to be economically, as well as demographically competitive, the actual relationship between Warsaw and its region, its range, character and development potential remain open questions. In the present paper an attempt is made at showing various concepts related to the potential of the Warsaw region as a European Metropolitan Region. To meet this aim selected empirical evidence is presented as to whether the germ of the phenomenon is in sight, or not.

Hans Kramar, Justin Kadi e ee

Implementing the Concept of Relational Polycentricity: Functional and Institutional Relations of CEE Capital Cities

The concept of polycentric development has played a central role in the discussion of spatial development in Europe over the last 15 years. According to most definitions given in European planning concepts (ESDP) or scientific studies (ESPON 1.1.1) polycentricity includes both morphological and relational aspects of spatial structures and can also be applied on different spatial levels. Based on a short overview on these different approaches this paper concentrates on the relational aspect of polycentricity on the macro-level trying to suggest applicable indicators for measuring and analysing the functional and institutional relations between different cities. For that purpose different data sources will be exploited (GaWC research network, Migration data, CORDIS database) in order to assess existing ties and actual flows between 7 capital city regions in Central Eastern Europe (Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Budapest and Ljubljana). These indicators, which are supposed to describe a highly relevant part of these cities’ territorial capital, will be analysed with regard to the following questions: • Which pairs of cities have significantly strong relations? • Do distances and historic ties play an important role for the intensity of relations? • How strong are the relations between these 7 cities in comparison to “external” relations with other capital cities? • Are the relations equal or are there any hierarchies or dominances? • Did the relations change over time? The results of the empirical analysis will be discussed with regard to their relevance for future planning strategies of city regions in CEE.

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Post-war Italy in the policy framework of European integration process

Introduction . Italy in the context of global European integration process is supposed to occupy very important position mostly because of Italy's qualification as a founding member of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The process is considered to have enhanced the rate of country’s credibility and significance of Italian economics, politics and culture on the global ranking (International Journal 2000: 1). Augmenting the interest of international society, post-war Italy gained more and more critical assessment of Western economic policy by revealing its own vision of global powers’ balance to 1980s. Since the early 1980s, all major parties have become proponents of the European integration process in spite of its relatively cumbersome regulatory framework. The debate about whether the EU is characterized by intergovernmentalism or supranationalism is urgent by nowadays (Peo Hansen 2007: 2). Meanwhile, Hooghe and Marks brought into focus the relevance of European identity in the process of integration and the necessity to go beyond the key features of economic and organizational preoccupation that have highlighted in a great extent the above mentioned intergovernmental–supranational debate (L. Hooghe and G. Marks 2008: 3). Statement of Purpose . The objective of this paper is to fill a gap in the present days’ actual information, to be marketable for Italian economy and realizable in “EU-Italy relationships” governmental practice, about globalization of cultures and integration of EU-states. Relevance of the study . Nowadays, it is necessary to increase negotiating efficacy between EU-member states and at the same time promoting Italian national interests in EU decision-making procedures. Problem . The task of this paper is to implement a comprehensive analysis of the institutional, organizational and legislative cutting-edge instruments of social policy adjusting the Italy-EU integration process relationships throughout a history (in retrospective, present and perspective). Relevant evidence and arguments in favour of the political strategy verification in economics are treated in our opinion to become main elements in shaping EU policy. Economic policy decision-making process is an essential part of the global European integration process where the influence of decisions made up at the European level on member states continues to grow according to augmentation of entire system relations between EU-states in the constantly emerging economic model of Europe [A. Foschini 2003-2004: 4]. Hypothesis . Our hypothesis states: post-war Italy has been maintaining a huge possibility for the integrative social evolvement, including its economic advance aspect, and it needs a precondition for the economic policy development in the overall framework of European Union. Results . Dynamics of creative informational our days’ life requires a synergetic concept application and gaining an optimal rate of return from the initial technological input and creative human mind investments for the value added goods (products, services and works) production, in economy, to advance well-balanced European integration framework. Thus, inter alia, we agree with Philip Daniels that ‘the process of European integration has provided an important economic and political context for the development of post-war Italy” [Philip Daniels 1998: 5]. Appendix

Bibliography 1. The international context and development of European integration. International Journal of Public Administration. Volume 23, Issue 2 & 3, 2000, Pages 183 – 204 2. Peo Hansen. European Integration, European Identity and the Colonial Connection. Linkoping University, Sweden. European Journal of International Relations, June 1, 2007, pp. 239 - 262 3. L. Hooghe and G. Marks. ‘A Post functionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus’, British Journal of Political Science, 39 (2008): 1–23. 4. Foschini, A. Regions in the context of European integration: does the European integration process facilitate the decentralization of tourism competencies. Book chapter; Conference paper “European integration in the era of the European Union's enlargement and the development of tourism”. Attard, Malta, 22-23 May 2003-2004, pp. 109-113. ISBN 92-844-0658-7 5. Philip Daniels. Italy in European Union. Economic and Political Weekly 1998. August 29, 1998. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4407131

Academic interests Finally, I would like to reveal my own position in relation to the context reckoned and positive biased viewpoint to Italian civilization boost in the undertaking of this exploration, both fundamental and applied. For several years my working interests and study researches performed has been strongly related to the roman countries’ economic and cultural activities development relevant to the half-year University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain) instruction course and work and intensive scientific researches carried out in two Russian universities, i.e. Udmurt State University (Laboratory for Economics Education Development), Izhevsk, Russian Federation; Almetyevsk State Institute of Municipal Service (R&D Department), Almetyevsk, Russian Federation.

Regional strategic programme as a tool for developing regional competitiveness – a case study from Northern Finland

National and regional economic systems have globalised and become increasingly information intensive and competition oriented during this century. These changes have challenged and reshaped the context of regional development and planning. Regions have had to adapt to the new circumstances on different levels and pay more attention to their own competitiveness in order to survive in regional competition (Pike et al. 2006). The Lisbon Strategy (2000) of the EU aimed to make the Union "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" by 2010: this effort has not been successful (Kitson et al. 2004; Tausch 2010). The subsequent strategy, Europe 2020, aims at "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth" with greater coordination of national and European policy. One of the basic cohesion problems behind these strategies is that many European regions lack the potential to participate in the global competition, which has raised questions about unequal social and territorial development and increasing regional welfare differences (Gardiner et al. 2004; Pike et al. 2006). Many actors of regional development have directed criticism towards the over-generalized contents of the regional programmes, whilst others assert that the very role of the programme is to open up a general frame for development discussions (Sotarauta & Lakso 2001). In this presentation we analyse the role of a Regional Strategic Programme (RSP) in developing regional competitiveness. Our case area is the Oulu Region in Northern Finland and our study material consists of the 2007−2010 RSP and interviews and questioning of experts. Both the contents and formulation of the programme are evaluated in the context of the following questions: (1) How is regional competitiveness defined in the RSP? (2) Does the RSP recognise focal development needs of the region in the context of regional competitiveness? (3) How visible are the internal regional differences among sub-regions included in the RSP, with relation to the development of regional competitiveness?

References: Europe 2020. http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm Gardiner, B., R. Martin & P. Tyler (2004). Competitiveness, productivity and economic growth across the European regions. Regional Studies, Vol. 38.9, 1045–1067. Kitson, M., Martin, R. & P. Tyler (2004). Regional competitiveness: An elusive yet key concept? Regional Studies Vol. 38.9, 991–999. Lisbon Strategy (2000). Lisbon European Council, 23-24 March, 2000, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/00100-r1.en0.htm Pike, A., Rodríguez-Pose, A. & J. Tomaney (2006). Local and regional development. 310 p. Routledge, Oxon. Sotarauta, M. & T. Lakso (2001). Strateginen suunnittelu Kainuun kehittämistoiminnas- sa. In Sotarauta, M. & N. Mustikkamäki (eds.). Alueiden kilpailukyvyn kahdeksan elementtiä. Acta 137, 21–44. Suomen kuntaliitto. Tausch, A. (2010). Titanic 2010?: The European Union and Its Failed Lisbon Strategy. European Political, Economic and Security Issues Series, Nova Science Publishers. Hauppauge, New York.

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Regional Development Possibilities focusing on Environmental Issues along the Serbian - Hungarian Cross-border region.

Nowadays the Serbian-Hungarian cross-border region can be described with complex and serious settlement-environmental problems. On the one hand we have witnessed the homogenisation and degradation of rural landscapes, and on the other hand the traditional built-environment has lost its fascination, because of the low level of infrastructure and the bad competitive power. The negative processes accelerated in the last decade and it caused many settlement-environmental conflicts. This is one of the main reasons why the local society suffer from multiple disadvantageous and the region indicates the symptoms of the inner-peripheries.

Table 1. The complex settlement-environmental problems of Serbian-Hungarian cross- border region Natural-environmental problems • growing extremity of the climate, uneven precipitation supply • the groundwater is deep under the surface • degradation of soils • homogenisation of landscapes • unregulated architecture not merging into the landscape and wasteful environmental use • ecological degradation Socio-environmental problems • negative symptoms of the rural society – deprivation, unemployment, ageing, out-migration, social exclusion • cumulative social stress – poverty, criminality, “segregation” • a significant decrease in the dominancy of agriculture, the uncertainty of agricultural production • the “collapse” of the relationship between towns and villages, conflicts of urban and rural lifestyle • slow infrastructural development • the lagging behind and powerlessness of the environmental management and planning – the missing plans of territorial development Source: the researches of the Great Plain Research Institute (GPRI) of Centre for Regional Studies (CRS) of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)

After all we think that this cross-border region will have a better future in the 21 st century. Under the aegis of IPA INNOAXIS Project (called: “The borderline as an axis of innovation”, www.innoaxis.hu) we carried out a spatial research in this region (covers three districts of Serbia and 8 microregions of Hungary) . The aim of the project was to discover the development potentials of the cross-border region of Serbia and Hungary. In this research we try to formulate sustainable development-alternatives for the region from the aspects of settlement-environment. The future of the cross-border region is determined by the successful preservation of the landscape’s values and the environmental-conscious development of the settlements (in accordance with the landscape’s maintenance ability).

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Lower Morava river basin – a sustainable development program for cross border region

In 2010 was elaborated Development Program of the Czech – Slovak border area. To provide a more detailed solution was then chosen Lower Morava river basin – area, where Morava river forms a national border and on the north it continue with the part of White Carpathian Mountains. The nature and potential of this territory is an ideal example of a region, where ecosystem services can largely stay an important factor of regional development. The axis of the area is created by the part of the river Morava, which is, due to preservation of wetland habitat, appears as an important element of environmental stability in an otherwise predominantly economically intensively land used area. In the Czech and Slovak legislation is enshrined defining creation of the territorial system of environmental stability as a tool for active nature conservation. It is an interconnected set of natural and partly modified ecosystems, that maintain the natural balance and natural gene pool of the landscape. We differ local, regional and supra-regional systems of ecological stability, which is made up of circuit elements – biocentres and line elements – biocorridors. In elaborated area is just the Morava river supra-regional biocorridor, which leads into biocentre Soutok (Confluence of rivers Morava and Dyje), which is largest and best preserved swamp forest in Czech republic and is part of the Czech – Slovak – Austrian Ramsar site. Landscape diversity of the area is evidenced by the fact, that there is the last larger forest and grassland on semi desert sandy biotope and unique herbal communities of so called orchid meadows of the White Carpathians. The high attractiveness of the area lies also in its history, when on both banks of Morava river is located an important archaeological site of early medieval centre of the Grest Moravian Empire. The area belongs also to the most fertile parts of Czech republic with production especially of grapes, peaches and apricots. Development project of the region with a significant proportion of ecosystem service addresses: - The development of tourism especially agro – tourism, sightseeing tourism and recreational boating use. - Sustainable development of settlements regarding to the ecological values of the area. - Streamlining state and interstate transport relations because through the territory passes an international transport corridor. - Increasing the presentation of cultural values of the region, in particular Czech and Slovak history. - Enhancing the environmental function of valuable components of the landscape and aesthetic shaping of traditional shaping character. The project is elaborated by Institute for spatial development in Brno and AŽ project in Bratislava. Partial project results will b presented and discussed with local mayors and other relevant regional actors. Based on their comments, the project will then be modified and completed by December 2011 and will become the important basis for most of regional development documents.

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Producing Peripheries- from spaces to processes

Classifications which divide places and regions into urban and rural are suspected to be inadequate with the background of a seemingly more and more diverse spatial structure. In late-modern societies when the meaning of agricultural activities for the reproduction of the society is constantly diminishing it seems that such a dichotomy no longer represents neither the economic nor a kind of cultural reality of society. From a fundamental point of view on classifications one may doubt if any type of regionalization which conceptualizes space to clearly defined entities (compartments, geo-chores) is satisfying, except, one might object, for “regions” as a type of political actors. In fact, regions can be considered the most important actors in EU’s cohesion policy, who receive huge transfers in order to reduce and finally overcome structural inequalities and disparities. On the background of the long lasting persistence of structural disparities in the European regions the paper suggests that regional sciences and geography should not only look at the improvement of regional classifications – as none of them is suitable to explain why disparities occur and why they vanish so rarely – but should also focus on the question of how societies produce disparities and especially under which interests they produce peripheries – and that those sciences themselves are important “producers”. Its theoretical background is based on a step into geography’s disciplinary history to characterize regionalisations as outcome of a certain paradigm in regional sciences on the one hand and on the other hand on post-colonial theory to get hold of the societal process of steady production of centre-periphery-relations.

Towards a new paradigm of Local Economic Development: new challenges, new practices

The study deals with the rules, the actors and the tools of local economic development in Hungary, and pays specific attention to the new challenges and the development process of Hungarian LED practice. In our interpretation, local economic development means conscious intervention into the local economy. In the course of that process actors may use internal and external resources, too. The initiators of intervention may be external actors (e.g. government, European Union, foreign investment), but the key element of the process is the involvement of local actors who are the initiators of LED activities, acceptors, supporters, or manipulators of external development conception. We use the term “local economic development” in a wider sense, so that intervention into the local economy includes infrastructure development, development of public utilities, human resource development, business development, creation of internal economies, and community development, too. The purpose of this article is to present a brief review of the role of some actors (e.g. central government, county governments, RDA-s, regional development councils, universities), but first of all the role of municipal governments in economic development in Hungary. The study highlights the problems of financing and planning local economic development and deals with networking practices of local actors as well. The article collects the LED tools and strategies of local governments. The main question is how the Hungarian local actors can react to the new challenges revived by the development process of European Union’s regional and cohesion policies.

Environmental problems of Western Balkan, focusing on cross-border risks

State of the environment in the Western Balkan Region is determined by the stage of development, economic structure, burdens of war destruction, stage in approaching and joining the EU and the limits of support. EU member state Slovenia has much less problems than soon-to-join Croatia and Macedonia or other states waiting for preliminary negotiations about joining the Union. Traffic, industrial emissions and the communal waste burdening are key issues among environmental damages in the region. These environmental burden and problems (mining activities, polluted river waters) has very dangerous transboundary impact of environmental pollution in the Region. Bilateral intergovernmental cooperation in the field of environmental policy has not been fully exploited in the West Balkan region. Cross border and international environmental cooperation and its support have been created to manage water and environmental problems related to divided waters, border rivers and lakes. There is similar cooperation in the coordinated management of cross border protected areas (national parks). The new form of cooperation in the field of environmental protection is the EU IPA sponsored support to protect environment, landscape and biodiversity in cross- border regions. This program enhances and implements local environmental cooperation between areas on both sides of the border with the joint efforts of state and independent organizations, local governments, and environmental institutions.

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Promoting transnational clusters to boost competitiveness and foreign direct investments

The current economic literature, and especially the EU studies , already sees regions as multi-faceted economic, social, cultural and environmental systems, shaping up in their turn organic ensembles of subsystems with multiple inner and outer connections. The emergent economies are another case study in such a respect. Foreign direct investments (FDI) here come up as a significant indicator (seen on both micro- and macro-economic dimensions) for what competitiveness of new activities is. The EU again deals with emergent economies when considering the Central and Eastern European New Member States. Actually, this is Romania to talk about within this whole picture: the EU, foreign direct investments (FDI) and regionalism, for which clusters become the appropriate shaping. That is because Romania did reveal a positive trend for FDI since the early 2000s, and for economic growth accordingly, but with large discrepancies among its counties and regions . Thus, legitimate questions rise here: What made some regions and counties more attractive for the foreign companies than the others? Which policies should be employed – and by whom – in order to rise the FDI inflows towards the less attractive regions and counties? Is the region and/or county (or what else, instead?) an appropriate spatial unit for assessing competitiveness, given data on its social and physical infrastructure, labour skills, public institutions and so on? Are these data the correct and appropriate determinants for competitiveness within or outside the regional context? There might be agreed that this approach is supposed to be large enough and not an easy task, be it for the Romanian case or otherwise. However, the target of our approach limits to identifying and aggregating properly the determinants of competitiveness at a regional scale ; afterwards, the cluster approach might be employed for answering the last questions.

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Dilemmas on Managing Functional Regions from the Aspects of Decentralization Processes in CEE Countries

During 19 May 2011 meeting held in Gödöll ő, Ministers responsible for territorial development supported the new Territorial Agenda until 2020 (TA2020), which was developed by the Hungarian Presidency. The revised TA supports for the wide-ranging application of the “place-based” development approach, which proposes geographically tailored interventions in functional territorial units. Since the ambition of the Polish Presidency is to prepare a background report concerning a transmission of the new Agenda into the principles of Cohesion Policy it is very urgent to rethink the possible territorial effects of tracking this new paradigm in practice. Ideally the “place- based” approach contributes to territorial cohesion by adaptation to the local conditions and by integration the economic, social and environmental dimensions of cross-sector policies. In practice this idea could fail - even in the case of framing the best-suited new regulations and institutions on EU level - because the national level governance systems are key factors which contribute to effectiveness of EU cohesion policy. The aim of the presentation is to highlight dilemmas concerning the management structures for EU cohesion policy based on interventions in different functional territorial units in the case of CEE countries. The meaning of “functional region” is not specified in the text of the TA2020 (macro-regions, cross-border regions, urban regions, etc.). Functional regions can have many different forms and their demarcation depends largely on the theme addressed. Their only common feature is that they are in principal not determined by administrative boundaries. It seems to be a generally accepted assumption that the place-based approach – since entails a permanent and cooperative process involving the various actors and stakeholders of territorial development at political, administrative and technical levels - can help in the implementation of the subsidiary principle and multi-level governance. On the other hand multi-level governance formats are definitely needed to manage functional regions with success. Since it requires a fundamental change of administrative culture, CEE countries’ are not necessarily prepared for multi-level and geographically flexible territorial governance. The experiences in the last two programming periods have shown a moderate emergence of subsidiary and partnership principle on national level. It is partly due to the expectations of the EU Commission but mainly to the administrative culture of these countries. In my presentation first I describe the controversial processes of building national management structures for implementing EU cohesion policy in CEE countries, based on a research carried out in 2010. I focus on the Hungarian case where the results clearly show that extended national competencies of the 2007-2013 programming period issued in an obvious recentralization process. Later I analyse the possible effects of the place-based approach on national management structures of the EU cohesion policy and on national administrative systems. According to my presumption the challenges for managing territorial units which don’t fit to administrative borders (neither administrative, nor statistical regions) could confirm recentralization processes.

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Making things happen. How spatial planning tools can make a difference in the implementation of local transformations

Whereas spatial planning traditions that characterize European countries varies significantly, mostly due to historical and cultural reasons, they generally convene in treating local implementation in terms of the conformance of spatial development projects to plans usually pivoted on more or less rigid land use zoning and building parameters. This is mainly imputable to the overall pressing needs that Europe has been facing throughout the 20 th century, from post-war reconstruction to exponentially increasing urbanisation, all this supporting the consolidation of a planning model inspired to welfare state paternalism where the State, seen as the keeper of collective interest, was expected to ‘conform’ projects of property development to its own strategy. However, since at least forty years this confirmative model started to show its limits, with the increasing decision-making difficulties in growing societal complexity and the explosion of globalisation having generated an exponential number of challenges related to the effective implementation of local transformations. Due to this reason, innovative approaches to spatial planning started to emerge in different domestic contexts, mostly focussing on the introduction of specific tools aiming at facilitating the implementation of local transformations in a context characterised by the growing plurality of actors and interests. Within this context, while the European Union has been promoting the progressive consolidation of shared territorial governance principles through the progressive promotion of spatial policy programmes (i.e. performance, integration of the interventions, public-private partnership etc.), the tools emerging in the different countries had to be specifically tailored to the respective contextual conditions and spatial planning cultures. The present contribution aims to shed some light on the abovementioned discussion and, more in details, to elaborate on the characteristics, the context- specificity and the potential transferability of the solutions put in place to face the implementation challenges that characterise spatial planning models pivoted on traditional land use regulation. It does so by analysing specific approaches and tools introduced in three different domestic contexts in order to facilitate the realization of local transformations. In presenting the characteristics of Zone d'aménagement concerté (France), Programmazione negoziata (Italy) and Decyzja o warunkach zabudowy (Poland), the paper refers back and forward to the complexities and peculiarities of the domestic development and planning contexts. In so doing, it aims at appraising the possibility of benefiting from good/best practices developed in different contexts, as well as at highlighting problems and limits related to their transferability.

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The structuring of national economic space of Ukraine as a basis for the improvement of its territorial and administrative arrangements

One of the preconditions of the Ukrainian strategy of European integration is to bring country territorial and administrative division to the European Union requirements for its improvement. This policy is of long continuance and aimed primarily at strengthening the Ukrainian economic structuring, allocating the integrated spatial units as integrated economic areas and future territorial and administrative entities of European Union corresponding NATS-1. Such areas should exist and develop in accordance with interregional and international division of labour and cooperation. The selection of integrated economic areas may be conducted by transforming the existing structural organization of the national economy, the structuring of national economic space, the definition of spatial differentiation and the concentration of social processes. The spatial economic zoning may be considered as the concentration of historical, economic, political and social processes in a specific cultural environment, which units segregate as part of the spatial structure of society. The integrated economic areas are notable for the space discreteness, particular structure (polycentric or monocentric), the logic development and functioning. The space and time characteristics of integrated economic areas are defined by the concentration of social and economic ''masses'' (units) as the elements of social reproduction. The presence of "growing point", "networks" as centres of accelerated spatial development (activity centres) are determined by the concentration of material, service, financial resources. For the most part the formation of integrated economic areas is related to the metropolises. Such areas are the source of new ideas, technology and innovations, the producers, engines, stimulants of economic growth within the national economy. The integrated economic regions are based on the theory of gravity, the centripetal and centrifugal forces. The centripetal force creates the concentration of business entities and their respective areas of influence, and the centrifugal force determines their place in the national and world economy. The status of the integrated spatial economic areas has not been determined in the Ukrainian legislation, but their formation may help to adapt the Ukrainian territorial and administrative division to the European Union requirements. Such entities will enhance the competitiveness of the national economy through the more efficient use of the competitive advantages of the economic spaces, the optimizing of their internal and external relationships, entering new international markets.

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Competitiveness of borderlands on the Polish-German example

The borderlands are areas where competitiveness is shaped in a very particular way. On the one hand, they are often preferable areas which are less socio-economically developed. At the same time, the development of integration processes facilitates the establishing and realization of transborder cooperation. This is accompanied by increasing competitive pressure from the neighbouring regions across the borders. This concerns mostly the shaping of competitiveness of territorial units. The Polish-German borderland is the example of a region characterised by the greatest discrepancies in the level of socio-economic development in the European Union and for this reason it was chosen for analysis. The purpose of this paper was to analyse spatial diversities in the level of competitiveness of territorial units at the local level of the Polish-German borderland. On this basis the position of the borderland in the socio-economic structure of both countries was determined and the level of competitiveness of the regions on both sides of the border was compared. The analysis was dynamic in character and covered the years 2003 and 2009. In the light of the conducted research it was concluded that spatial preferability was analogous to economic preferability when analysing the relationship between the German part of the borderland and the rest of the country. On the Polish side of the borderland such coincidence did not occur. A more advanced development level on the German side, although considerably higher, does not constitute „a civilization gap”. In some respects Polish regions had a better competitive position than the German ones. The study revealed similarities in the main factors shaping competitiveness on both sides of the border. However, the significance of these factors was different.

Evaluating potential-based accessibility of spatial units. From closed to open model

This paper presents preliminary results of the new project concerning accessibility issues carried out at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The aim of the project is to develop an “open" tool (computer application) and then put it to work on road potential accessibility of gminas (LAU 2 statistical regions). The first version of application, working on NUTS 4 level units, along with the methodology and results of multimodal potential accessibility model have been demonstrated at Warsaw Forum in 2009 and published in Europa XXI, vol. 21. What started as shrink-wrapped solution (analysis and accompanying computer program) for particular problem, soon become unsatisfactory. We have realized the need for flexibility in fine-tuning and experimenting with different variants of the model. Also, the ability to work on many different, and possibly huge, network data sets appeared necessary. The decision was then made to develop an open tool, dedicated solely to modelling and working in tandem with GIS software responsible for network data management. There is a lot of flexibility in the ways data may be loaded into the model. The other kind of openness we sought after and achieved is the ability to steer every aspect of the model with ease and precision. For this purpose, all essential computations are brought out from the dark and exposed to end-user as changeable formulas . Working with the model resembles now writing spreadsheet formulas, based on database columns and rich set of functions derived from SQL ( Structured Query Language ). The end user can now specify three most important steps of accessibility coefficient computation: 1) velocity formula for any road segment, 2) mass formula for transportation nodes, and 3) “time-to-generalized cost” formula which, in our case, yields distance-decay function. Equipped with the new tool (code-named Open Graph Accessibility Model), we set out loading much more dense road network including not only national and voivodeship roads like in the previous version but also poviat and gminas roads so that all the administrative centers of gminas are connected by the road network. The new spatial resolution – gminas and group of gminas (LAU-2), instead of poviats and group of poviats (NUTS 4), gave us the necessary resolution to track accessibility changes not only from the perspective of the whole country, but also from the perspective of particular voivodeship. This feature of the model, called “regional masking” allows for selective exclusion of all external network connections and then measuring region’s internal potential accessibility, as if no outside world existed. The results are available then for internal regional, internal national or even European (from ESPON projects) potential accessibility. One can check what are the effects of particular investments on accessibility in the various spatial scales, because the region concept in OGAM is user- defined. The next development of the open model is the ability to include spatial unit’s selfpotential so that internal accessibility of particular gmina is included in accessibility coefficient. For this, an extra table with internal travel times (through radius calculation) has been prepared and loaded.

The last major development of the new model - user-defined distance decay functions, opens the possibility to work with different travel purposes: shopping, commuting, long distance travelling for tourist and business purposes and last but not least heavy load transport. Summing up, the application gives enormous evaluation opportunities and, as we hope, will replace our previous closed model, which has been so far one of most frequently used evaluation tools by the Ministry of Regional Development of Poland in particular when applying to the long-term development and transport strategies both at the regional and national level.

Knowledge as Production Factor in the Vehicle Industry

Knowledge and new ideas has always affected economic and social development during the history of mankind. According to Mokyr „technological progress has been one of the most potent forces in history in that it has provided society with what economists call a „free lunch”, that is an increase in output that is not commensurate with the increase in effort and cost necessary to bring it about” (Mokyr 1990, 3.p.). However, there are essential differences between the role and importance knowledge is playing in the various economic sectors and production systems changing from time to time. My paper and presentation investigates how knowledge, its diverse forms (e.g. technology, skilled workforce, tacit knowledge, culture, etc.) and institutions has influenced the location choices and successful operation of companies, and thereby, the competitiveness of cities and regions they are embedded in. I am going to emphasize the specific contexts and characteristics knowledge shows in the vehicle (automotive) industry, first of all in the regions of East and Central Europe.

Table 1: Role of knowledge in the vehicle industry regarded the various production systems

Toyota Production Fordist mass Small-scale industry System production (Lean production) • Small-scale manu– • Assembly conveyer • Groups of skilled facturing, indivi– – large series, lower workers dual cars, low tale production costs • Automatic • Skilled workforce: • Unskilled, low equipment – • Components’ wage workers flexible planning, manufac– (immigrants) – programming turing – indepen– simplified • Smaller series, dent entrepreneurs operations more flexible and • General purpose • Importance of low cost production equipments technical • Involvement of • Auto manufacturer development interested “coordinator” is not • Component • Networks of dominant suppliers inside of assemblers and • Limited possibi– the factory doors suppliers (TIER 1, lities of technical 2, 3 level) development • Fast diffusion of (shortage of innovations resources)

Source: own construction according to Havas 2009.

Functional regions in Serbia and priority of eco-services

The new idea of functional regions has been interpreted in alignment with functional urban areas in the Serbian planning discourse and practice. The new Spatial Plan of Serbia introduced the idea in compliance with the Law on Regional Development and statistical nomenclature of regions NUTS2 and districts NUTS3 in Serbia. The functional region is understood and presented as a network of municipalities organized flexibly around some important project(s) with a proper (sub) regional institution in charge of spurring and realizing the same. The problem is with networking municipalities i.e. understanding the role and meaning of it for their joint interest, with some political reasons and lack of awareness as the main reasons for that. On the other hand the list of strategic priorities has been prepared for all functional regions. The list contains projects for economic, social and ecological development. Eco-services are among the high priority issues but asking for intensive horizontal coordination and networking of several municipalities. Regional landfills, waste water purification, protected nature (high mountains) use, small rivers cleaning, are among such projects with some hot spots eliminating as paramount ones. Activating all stakeholders in the implementation phase is permanent duty of planners and administration, with possible economic measures to be pursued by the state. Eco- services are under intensive surveillance of the state administration in the phase of adapting its legislative to EU membership. Vertical coordination with regions and the state is therefore a must for municipalities in this phase of development of Serbia. The illustrations will be presented for better understanding the initial position of functional regions in Serbia and position of eco-services in the future of encompassed municipalities.

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From town to town: interurban commuting flows in Slovakia

Discrepancy between place of residence and place of work is symptomatic for spatial organization of society. Distribution of jobs does not correspond with distribution of population and high concentration of jobs in cities and towns is accompanied by intensive labour commuting from their hinterlands. Main source of labour forces for firms located in towns is rural area. Labour mobility of urban population is not only a case of accessibility of undifferentiated jobs together with neighbouring effect (reduction of time and transport costs as a attribute of economic behaviour of commuter). Behaviour of urban inhabitants depends also on comparison of various quantitative and qualitative characteristics of local (urban) labour markets with emphasize on their demand-supply balance from the adequate job point of view, and possibilities of e.g. total income and/or professional career. Therefore, the interurban commuting represents a very special case of spatial choice behaviour of (young, well educated?) population. The aim of the study is to reveal, map, analyse, and explain the existence and character of interurban commuting flows in Slovakia. Original statistical data concerning commuting obtained from Census carried out in Slovakia in 2001 has been used in this study. The research tries to find answers to following questions: 1. What are commuting flows among Slovak towns? What is the role of distance and size of interconnected (by labour mobility) towns? How could we characterize Slovak towns according to the interurban commuting balance? 2. What are the economic branches (with specific nature of work, requirements for labour qualification reflecting also in differentiated level of wages) that attract urban commuters? 3. Are there identifiable differences between the male and female urban commuters?

Current Challenges to EU’s Cohesion: Economic, Political, Cultural

EU’s cohesion policy in particular and the idea of European integration in general are currently facing some challenges of ability and willingness, both determined by economic, political and cultural factors. Some factors, however, continue to hold EU countries together. The economic crisis of 2008-10 and its aftermaths further reduced ability and readiness of net contributors to the EU budget to finance EU cohesion policy, even more because these countries have to “save” indebted eurozone periphery. The economic crisis and problems of the euro further weakened ability and willingness of some countries, like Poland, to join euro, thus strengthening the internal division of the EU. Growing unemployment and sense of insecurity in richer EU member states and the increased immigration to these countries from poorer new member states have produced negative attitudes towards immigrants and “Eastern Europe” in general. The absence of a clear-cut “enemy of Europe” and the variety of external political challenges differently interpreted by governments and societies of individual states hinder developing of a common external policy and sense of internal solidarity. Europe is becoming playground for world powers: USA, Russia and China. Different responses to external challenges, e.g. increased migration from Northern Africa, put at risk some European achievements like the Schengen treaty. The “Eastern enlargement” together with economic problems revealed weakness of the sense of European identity, and especially unwillingness of Western societies to accept “Eastern Europeans” as Europeans. Even within the “old” Europe the divide between “hard working” North and “leisure” South is becoming more evident. In such circumstances the ability and willingness to continue generous cohesion policy is declining. However, deep changes in the European cohesion or disintegration of the EU are unlikely as European leaders fear of taking dramatic decisions given economic interdependence of EU countries.

Expansion of Kyoto city’s traditional crafts sector into overseas markets

This study explains the current traditional crafts production in Kyoto city, and reveals the challenges faced by Japanese firms in initiating activities in overseas markets. There are many diverse traditional industries in Kyoto city, Japan, such as the Kyo-Yuzen and Nishijin weaving. However, since the late 1970s, due to the increase of cheap imports from developing countries, the production volume by Japanese firms has decreased sharply. Furthermore, the skills and experiences of craftsmen are diminishing gradually because of aging. Therefore, most municipalities have conducted revitalization projects, such as marketing promotion and higher education for young workers; however, the demand for these products has declined steadily. On the basis of their past policy, the Kyoto Premium program has been initiated mainly by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2005. The purpose of this program is marketing promotion that targets higher income groups in Western Europe. This program aims at expansion into overseas markets and the promotion of brand values in the traditional crafts market. The applicants of the program participate in the designer’s exhibition held at Mitsukoshi Etoile, Paris. To validate the effects of this program, this study investigates the case of K Company. K Company develops universal designs and new products using tie-dyeing techniques and materials. It works on grasping consumer trends and establishing its original brand value through cross-industrial association between different industries such as design, textiles, beading, and Japanese-made paper. This organizational structure is greatly different from the traditional structure of manufacturing within the industry. The traditional structure was formed by a conventional system centered on wholesale manufacturing. The above-mentioned dynamics are developed by the new inter-firm network along with a unique planning and design technology. It is important that crafts manufacturers are aware of their consumers directly. Moreover, their manufacturers do not have to produce goods implementing the mass production system, but have to possess skills and techniques of an artist. I believe that the Kyoto Premium program fosters the corporate brand and accelerates changes in the industrial structure.

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Ecosystem Services and Landscape Governance – Empirical Results on how to Integrate Social Factors into Ecological Planning

The municipal landscape plan as addressed in the European Landscape Convention is one of the main comprehensive ecological planning instruments and local landscape policy tools in Germany. It is an important tool to integrate the ecosystem services approach and might be an instrument to combine ecological baseline information with landscape governance and social factors. Since its implementation in the German Federal Nature Conservation Law of 1976, some 60 % of all the municipalities have set up such a landscape plan. The following paper provides empirical evidence on the actual practical implementation of landscape strategies and the application of measure for the protection of ecosystem services stemming from these landscape plans at the local level. The findings show the importance of social-ecological factors, influencing the implementation of landscape strategies in practice. The presence and cooperation of committed key actors is of special significance in this process. Evidently, the significance of the inclusion and participation of landowners in the development of a measure to protect ecosystem services is such that it can increase the implementation success of landscape plans (see Luz 2000). This again focuses attention towards the significance of cooperative planning processes oriented towards the inclusion of stakeholders, and considering social-ecological factors. The hypothesis of this presentation is, thus, ecosystem services approaches have to incorporate social- ecological factors, more than this hitherto has been the case. Maybe landscape governance, including social and policy oriented factors, can play an important role as a bridge between ecology and sustainable development (see Görg 2007 and Termorshuizen and Opdam 2009).

Toward a competitive and attractive post-industrial cities of Central Europe, in the light of the ReNewTown research project

The question posed at the beginning of socio-political transformation in the last decade of the 20 th century “What to do with the socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe?” to the high extend has been solved in practice. The last twenty years of political, social and economic development, has brought in general substantial modernization and improvements of the living condition in urban areas. Some cities however, particularly the industrial ones remains in the stagnant or crisis situation, with the very limited assets for improvements. The aim of the paper is to highlights, by the analysis of the different paths of post socialist transformation, the sets of current challenges facing post-socialist cities. Attention will be devoted to the former socialist industrial cities with the search for answer “how to improve the living condition of its inhabitants. Which in turn will contribute to the increase of the competitiveness and attractiveness of those cities. The review of different concepts, adopted strategies and urban policies instruments implemented in last two decades on different (local regional, state or EU levels) and good practice examples will be the starting point for the assessment of investment policy of the urban authorities. The research will be partly based on the case studies of Krakow (Nowa Huta distict) in Poland, Prague (Jizni Mesto distict) and Ústí nad Labem in Czech Republic, Velenje in Slovenia and Hnusta in Slovak Republic, undertaken in the frame of the ReNewTown project which focuses on reducing the disparities in the quality of urban environment (defined as public spaces between blocks of flats and public buildings in industrial districts) of the post socialist cities. The proposed investments in particular cities, and its assessment, will contribute to the partial solution of local problem. In case of Nowa Huta in Krakow is the shortage of space for and lack of local cultural and social events, in Valenje it is the poor conditions and quality of buildings and public spaces between blocks of flats; in Jizni Mesto in Prague it is unemployment and low number of enterprises in the districts; in Usti nad Labem it is depressing appearance of socialist architecture - mainly grey and reckless buildings, and in Hnusta it is lack of ideas for new/modern functions for public buildings created in socialist era.

ee e Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization Globalization increasingly frames the context for social and economic development in the rural regions of Europe, presenting both challenges and opportunities. This paper draws on evidence from a major EU-funded project on ‘Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization’ (DERREG) to examine the factors informing the differential engagement of rural regions with globalization processes. The paper considers how and why different rural regions have different experiences of globalization – some more positive than others – and in particular focuses on the potential for local agency to help shape outcomes. In identifying key factors for successful rural development in the era of globalization, the paper will highlight examples of good practice from the 10 DERREG case study regions, and propose policy recommendations for Poland’s EU presidency.