European Regional Policy and Development by Sánchez-Carreira, María del Carmen; Reis Mourão, Paulo Jorge; Blanco-Varela, Bruno;

Short description:

This book addresses regional development theories and policies, with a special focus on forgotten places, and raises emerging questions about recent theoretical advances, as well as trends and challenges in the field.

Long description:

The shortcomings of traditional regional policies led to a major policy. Thus, regions have become more active in the design and implementation of policies, following a bottom-up approach and involving the participation of the local community in strategic planning, as opposed to the traditional top-down method. This book addresses regional development theories and policies, with a special focus on forgotten places, and raises emerging questions about recent theoretical advances, as well as trends and challenges in the field.

It examines two main and related issues: the crucial role of regional actors for development and the role of Forgotten Spaces. It emphasizes the spatial/territorial approaches from different theoretical perspectives, underlining place-based approaches and compares the experiences of both successful and failed cases, attempting to identify lessons and policy recommendations, as well as adding empirical evidence to this field. The different cases presented, which focus on Forgotten Spaces, allow the reader to assess the role of different actors for regional development as well as some sectoral approaches. While there is a clear focus on European countries with different geographical, institutional and sociocultural characteristics, the book also examines good and bad examples of regional development and policies related to forgotten places from different regions worldwide, including developed and developing countries.

The book benefits from contributions from over 20 authors from different nationalities, and a rich diversity of case studies, approaches and methods of discussion. The authors discuss practical examples and more complex theoretical approaches, involving techniques of spatial analysis, spatial econometrics, social networks, content analysis as well as regional planning techniques. The book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience and will provide academicians, politicians, and policy designers with original and detailed analyses.

Table of Contents:

Introduction. Forgotten Spaces in the European Regional Policy and Development Part I: Regional Development and Policies in Europe: main theoretical advances and last trends and challenges 1. Comparative assessment of rural realities in the European Union: The main drivers of the rural population 2. Agglomeration of knowledge intensive activities and brain drain: global cities and forgotten regions across Europe. A case study with Spanish data Part II: Comparative analysis of regional experiences on forgotten spaces in Europe 3. How to make forgotten spaces visible? Image making as a coping strategy of two European small towns 4. Italian Inner areas' strategic plans: a textual network analysis of the Appennino Emiliano and Madonie case studies 5. Engaging with forgotten places: Applying a multifaceted understanding of place in an analysis of two Danish cases 6. Revitalizing forgotten spaces through local leadership and social entrepreneurial ecosystems: the case of Muszyna Commune 7. The specificity determinants of monetary and fiscal policy in the V4 countries. Comparative economics perspective 8. Public procurement as a transformative innovation policy instrument: urban rehabilitation in Malmö Conclusions. Regional Policies, Development and Forgotten Spaces in Europe