The Challenges of Regional Collaboration in a Globalized World”
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“The rise of the networking region: The challenges of regional collaboration in a globalized world” The rise of the networking region: The challenges of regional collaboration in a globalized world Harald Baldersheim, Are Vegard Haug, and Morten Øgård (eds.) NORDREGIO 2009 Nordic Council of Ministers Research Programme Report 2009:10 ISSN 1403-2511 Nordregio P.O. Box 1658 SE-111 86 Stockholm, Sweden [email protected] www.nordregio.se www.norden.se Nordic co-operation takes place among the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. The Nordic Council is a forum for co-operation between the Nordic parliaments and governments. The Council consists of 87 parliamentarians form the Nordic countries. The Nordic Council takes policy initiatives and monitors Nordic co-operation. Founded in 1952. The Nordic Council of Ministers is a forum of co-operation between the Nordic governments. The Nordic Council of Ministers implements Nordic co-operation. The prime ministers have the overall responsibility. Its activities are co-ordinated by the Nordic ministers for co-operation, the Nordic Committee for co-operation and portfolio ministers. Founded in 1971. Stockholm, Sweden 2009 Contents CHAPTER 1 11 The rise of the networking region: The challenges of regional collaboration in a globalized world 11 Introduction 11 Theoretical foundations 12 Design and data collection 13 Outline of the report 15 Summing up 17 CHAPTER 2 21 ”Regionernas Norden” tio år efteråt. Institutionell utveckling och politisk debatt om den politiska mellannivån i Norden 1996–2009 21 Inledning 21 Den skandinaviska modellen och den finländska modellen förändras 1999–2009 22 Reformförslag och institutionella förändringar under 2000-talet 23 Divergens och konvergens i Norden 26 ”Regionernas Norden” i ljuset av fem dimensioner 29 Slutord: Samma uppgifter – olika mandat: en utmaning för den nordiska regionforskningen 33 CHAPTER 3 37 Knowledge brokerage and institutional retooling. The policy preferences of politicians for regional development in a competitive world 37 The policy preferences of regional and urban politicians: knowledge brokerage and institutional retooling 39 Seven policy types: Support and opposition 42 Conclusions 45 CHAPTER 4 49 Capacity-building in Nordic regions and cities through cross-institutional and cross-border co-operation. Learning ecologies. 49 Why do cities and regions engage in cross-border networks? Points of departure 49 Analytical framework and hypotheses 50 Empirical analysis: Involvement in cross-border networks – towards learning ecologies? 53 Conclusions 59 CHAPTER 5 63 Reforming governance in cities and regions in the Nordic countries: Where are they going? 63 What is “good governance” in regional and urban settings? A longitudinal approach 63 Development strategies: What, how much, where? Results from two surveys 64 Governance strategies – specialised, conflicting or mutually supportive? 68 Does a national context matter? 69 Conclusion 71 CHAPTER 6 75 Competitive advantages through ICT: Transformations of political roles and communication patterns 75 The role of ICTs in the emergence of the Networking Region: An introduction 75 Viewing Nordic e-government initiatives as an information ecosystem 76 To what extent and how do Nordic regional politicians use ICTs? 77 New technology in old political roles: empowered politicians? 78 The relation between ICT-use and wider contact patterns: compensation, reinforcement or transformation? 82 Conclusions 85 CHAPTER 7 91 ‘The new kid on the block’ Faroese foreign affairs – between hierarchy and network 91 Introduction 91 The Faroes and the Danish state 92 Conclusion 105 CHAPTER 8 107 Fylkeskommunalt internasjonalt engasjement: Hvordan ser det faktisk ut? Eksemplene Telemark og Aust- Agder 107 Innledning 107 Hvordan måle internasjonalt engasjement: En bredde og dybdedimensjon 108 De to fylkeskommunenes internasjonale engasjement 109 Aust- Agder i verden: Vennskap og solidaritet 118 Oppsummering og sammenlikning av de to fylkenes internasjonale engasjementet og dets organisering 124 CHAPTER 9 129 Innledning 129 Netværk og internationalt samarbejde 130 Internationalisering i Region Syddanmark 130 Konklusjon 133 CHAPTER 10 135 Kultursatsing som utviklingsstrategi i nordiske regioner - en sammenligning av to prosjekter 135 Innledning 135 Film i Väst 136 Quart Festivalen 137 Teori, metode og design 138 Drivkrefter bak prosessene 141 Film i Väst – Sentrale drivkrefter 141 Authors Preface This report is based on the project titled The Emergence of the Networking Region, financed by a grant from the Nordic Council of Ministers through NORDREGIO, Stockholm. The project covers the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden plus the Faroe Islands. The data include a survey of regional and urban politicians from all regions of the respective countries and also surveys of institutional developments in regions and cites plus a series of case studies. The project is in parts a repeat of one carried out about ten years ago under the title Norden in Europe of the Regions directed by Harald Baldersheim and Krister Ståhlberg. Chapters that are written in a Scandinavian language in this report (2, 8, 9, and 10) will be translated into English and published along with the other chapters in a forthcoming book. Kristiansand, September, 2009 Harald Baldersheim, Are Vegard Haug and Morten Øgård 8 NORDIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME 2005-2008. Report: 10 Preface The research programme, ‘Internationalisation of regional development policies – Needs and demands in the Nordic countries’ was commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers in the spring of 2005. The aim of this programme is to undertake research on key issues, where it has been identified that new knowledge is needed, and where such knowledge could be seen to benefit the development and implementation of regional development policy in the Nordic countries. The basis for the research programme is its Nordic character. Research should lead to new knowledge both for the academic world and for the world of policy and practice. Projects should add ‘Nordic value’, i.e. they should produce knowledge of relevance for several regions and countries across Norden. The research should moreover be comparative and collaborative across at least three Nordic countries or self-governed areas. Three themes of high priority for the research programme have been identified; ‘regional governance’, ‘innovation and regional growth’, and ‘demography and labour migration’. In addition to these priorities two additional crosscutting themes were also defined; ‘the enlargement of the EU and the challenges for Nordic regional development policies’ and the broad topic of ‘the three dimensions of sustainable regional development’; i.e. social, economic and environmental sustainability. The research programme has been launched in two rounds. In the first round during the spring of 2005 it was decided to fund five projects. These were reported during 2007. In the second round during the spring of 2007 it was decided that a further five projects should be funded. These will be reported in 2008 and 2009. All project reports are published in this publication series dedicated to this programme. At the end of the programme, a synthesising report will also be produced where the most important findings are discussed. This report is planned to be published in the winter 2009/2010. Nordregio wishes to thank the Nordic Senior Official Committee for Regional Policy and the Nordic Council of Ministers for providing this unique opportunity to develop new research- based knowledge and for encouraging cooperation and the exchange of ideas between Nordic researchers. Nordregio would furthermore like to thank all of the involved research teams and the programme’s Steering Committee for their continuing contributions to the Nordic discourse on regional development. Ole Damsgaard Margareta Dahlström Director Coordinator of the research programme NORDIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME 2005-2008. Report: 10 9 10 NORDIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME 2005-2008. Report: 10 CHAPTER 1 The rise of the networking region: The challenges of regional collaboration in a globalized world Harald Baldersheim and Morten Øgård Introduction Regions are now moving beyond “the new regionalism” into network regionalism. The new regionalism began emerging in the late 1980s stimulated by the accellerating pace of European integration, the spread of the endogenous paradigm of development and was spearheaded by strong identity regions such as Catalonia, Scotland or Flanders. By the mid-1990s the outlines of a regional movement were evident throughout Europe (Keating & Loughlin 1997). Its characteristic features were decentralisation of responsibility for development policies to regions, regional collaboration across national borders and a search for a formal role for regions in European integration. The term “multi- level governance” was coined to capture the position of regions in the European political architecture (Marks et al. 1994). How these developments took shape in the Nordic countries was analysed in our report on Norden in the Europe of Regions (Baldersheim, Sandberg, Ståhlberg and Øgård 2001). Network regionalism is also developmental and internationalist in its orientation but it is collaborative rather than competitive in its modus operandi and relies to a large extent on network modes of governance for developing and implementing