NORDIC WORKING PAPERS Opportunities and challenges for future regional development - notes from an open seminar, September 12, 2019 Kjell Nilsson et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.6027/NA2019-910 NA2019:902 ISSN 2311-0562 This working paper has been published with financial support from the Nordic Council of Ministers. However, the contents of this working paper do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or recommendations of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordisk Council of Ministers – Ved Stranden 18 – 1061 Copenhagen K – www.norden.org Opportunities and challenges for future regional development Open seminar with EK-R (Nordic Committee of Senior Officials for Regional Policy) and Nordregio’s Board of Directors on 12 September, 2019, at University of Akureyri, Iceland Organised by the Icelandic Ministry of Transport and Local Government, Byggdastofnun and Nordregio Edited by Kjell Nilsson Photo from Akureyri 1 Contents Regional development in the Nordic Region Kjell Nilsson, Anna Karlsdottir and Karen Refsgaard The Nordic Welfare State at the crossroads Joakim Palme Comments by Katarina Fellman Comments by Gerd Slinning The Sustainable Nordic City of tomorrow Is the city we already have Ellen Braae and Henriette Steiner Comments by Holger Bisgaard Comments by Kjell Nilsson Rural regions at a crossroads: Policy challenges for the future Gro Marit Grimsrud Comments by Hanna Maria Urjankangas Comments by Eydun Christiansen Comments by Isabella Palomba Rydén Green Path Development and Change Agency in Nordic Regions Markku Sotarauta, Teis Hansen, Suyash Jolly and Nina Suvinen Comments by Bjørn Barvik Opportunities and Challenges for Nordic Arctic and Subarctic Regions: A Case Study Approach Astrid E. Ogilvie Comments by Thomas Gaarde Madsen Comments by Halla Nolsøe Poulsen Opportunities and challenges for regional development in the North Atlantic Region Snorri Björn Sigurðsson Annex 1: Seminar program 2 Regional development in the Nordic Region By Kjell Nilsson1, Anna Karlsdottir2 and Karen Refsgaard3 1. Introduction What are the challenges and opportunities for future regional development in the Nordic Region? And how can the Nordic Cooperation Programme on Regional Policy be relevant in responding to this question? This was the focus of a seminar held in Akureyri in 2019 where six invited authors as well as discussants selected amongst the members of the Committee of Senior Officials for Regional Policy and Nordregio’s Board of Directors presented their views on these questions. Nordic Cooperation on regional development goes back to the 1960s. Cross-border cooperation started in the North Calotte region as early as the 1960s, while cooperation within the North West Atlantic region is of later date, from the mid-1980s. Another early initiative was the precursor to State of the Nordic Region, the so-called base project, which involved the collection and presentation of socio-economic statistics at regional and municipal level. Nordplan, which mainly devoted itself to courses for practitioners and post-graduate education, was originally established in 1968 as a Swedish government institution but co-funded by Denmark, Finland and Norway. In 1981 it became a Nordic Institute under Nordic Council of Ministers, which since its founding in 1971 has the overall responsibility for Nordic cooperation on regional policy. Nordic cooperation programmes The first Nordic Cooperation Programme on regional development was adopted in 1979. Right from the start, there was a focus on collaboration on both rural and metropolitan issues (Nordiska rådet 1988). Key issues for collaboration on rural issues were ensuring commercial service in sparsely populated areas and initiatives to alleviate the problems of declining mining communities, while urban structural problems and development trends were compared in a so-called metropolitan project. Other big city issues that were early on the agenda were reduced industrial employment, growing housing problems for vulnerable groups and increased segregation between different city districts. The Nordic Cooperation Programme for Regional Policy was revised for the first time in 1986 (Nordiska ministerrådet 1987). Following the extensive survey of the big city issues in the previous program period, they now chose to focus on dissemination in the form of seminars and conferences. Since the problems of sparsely populated areas were seen as being largely linked to access to workplaces and service, they chose to focus on the communications. Another area under strong growth in the 1980s was the spread of information technology and whether this development posed a threat or increased the opportunities for sparsely populated areas. A third focus area was on the development of small-scale technology for better utilization of local resources. Across the specific foci on metropolitan areas and sparsely populated areas, research was conducted at NordREFO (Nordic Institute of Regional Policy Research), which was transformed into an independent institution on 1 January 1980. NordREFO's activities during the 1980s focused mainly on the development of regional planning and regional consequences of technical and economic development. Other topical issues that received attention were the imbalances between different 1 Nordregio. Email: [email protected] 2 Nordregio. Email: [email protected] 3 Nordregio. Email: [email protected] 3 regions, decentralization of decision-taking and the opportunities for society to influence the location of different types of businesses in the future. In the 1990s, two new cooperation programs were adopted (Nordiska ministerrådet 1990, Nordisk Ministerråd 1995). The focus of NordREFO's research was concentrated on three areas: internationalization, decentralization and environmental issues, which were given a significantly greater role in regional policy cooperation during this period. Environmental issues also became increasingly important for the role of big cities in regional development, which otherwise was absorbed by the strong population growth and growth in the service sector. One issue that was discussed was whether the regional imbalance caused by this growth should lead to measures to slow down urban growth or whether expanding cities should be considered as growth engines for development in neighboring regions. During the latter part of the 1990s, the relationship with the EU became increasingly important, especially how this would affect the development of the least populated regions in the Nordic countries. On the research side, the important change occurred that Nordregio was formed through a merger of NordREFO, Nordplan and NOGRAN, which was an institution formed on the basis of the aforementioned basic project. Since 2001, a new Nordic cooperation program for regional policy has been drawn up in principle every four years. The 2000s began with a continued strong focus on the EU and how a Nordic regional policy could find its place in relation to the EU’s, not least in view of the new economic instruments in the form of structural funds and Interreg programs that became available. Furthermore, opportunities were seen for a more integrated regional development policy where economic growth and physical planning were coordinated with environmental goals. In the collaboration program for 2005-2008, two themes were added, which have continued to play a central role in the research carried out in support of Nordic cooperation on regional policy. The first concerns increased knowledge of demographic trends and especially in relation to an aging population, welfare production and the labor market. This was followed up in the cooperation program 2009-2012 with a special Nordic demographic program. The second new area was regional innovation policy and how an active such policy can contribute to increased employment and economic growth. As of 2009, the implementation of the regional cooperation program has been carried out by working groups with representatives from the countries including Åland, Faroe Islands and Greenland. Rural development, sustainable cities and resilient regions have been common themes of working groups throughout the last three cooperation programs. In addition, during the program periods 2009-2012 and 2013-2016, there was a fourth theme on respectively cross-border regional cooperation and sustainable regional development in the Arctic. Within rural development, the first two programs were highly concentrated on demography, while the ongoing third program has a broader view with e.g. attractiveness, youth and tourism as priority topics. Within sustainable cities, the first two programs were devoted primarily to the challenges of large cities and, above all, the capital cities, while the ongoing program focuses on small and medium-sized cities. Social sustainability has consistently held a central position with topics such as integration and housing issues, but in recent times the issue of greener cities has also been prioritized. The development towards more innovative and economically robust regions was initially studied on the basis of regional policy, after which the eyes were focused on bioeconomi, industrial clusters and green transition. Green transition is a central theme also in the current program together with smart specialization and needs and supply of skills. 4 2. The papers in the volume On 12 September 2019 Nordregio in cooperation with the Icelandic Ministry of Transport and Local Governments arranged a seminar