From deprived to thriving communities? a strategic and place-sensitive approach to the socio-economic transformation of lagging regions in Europe

Lecture 1 - Introduction: economic geography and its recent paradigms
Norddeutsches Doktorandenkolloquium Wirtschaftsgeographie
25. bis 26. Februar 2
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From deprived to thriving communities?
A strategic and place-sensitive approach to the socio-
economic transformation of lagging regions in Europe
Eduardo Oliveira
Working Group Economic Geography
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

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Strategic spatial planning
Economic geography Territorial Governance
Place branding
Structural change
Socio-economic
transformation
Sustainable
spatial development
Urban regional level
Constructing regional
advantage
Regional attractiveness
Place-based
approach
Plan-making
Plan-implementation
Power relations
Drivers of socio-
economic
transformation
Evolutionary
Know more

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Designing strategic oriented and place-sensitive
policies [policy recommendations] supporting
the socio-economic transformation of Small and
Medium-Sized Towns (SMSTs) in lagging regions*
(Balland & Boschma, 2021; Storper, 2018; Servillo et al., 2014)
*regions in decline; deprived regions; old industrial areas; less favoured; catching up
(Harrison et al. 2021; Bürcher & Mayer, 2017; Hassink, 2010; Morgan et al, 2003)

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Selected
Small and Medium-Sized Towns
(Servillo et al, 2017; Dijkstra, Garcilazo &
McCann, 2013; ESPON, 2013)
Prosperous or advanced
urban-regions
in Europe
(effective SSP processes)
(Kemeny & Storper, 2020; Hersperger et al. 2019 ; Fratesi & Wishlade, 2017)
Low-growth and
low-income regions as in
‘The lagging regions report’
(EU Commission, 2017)

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What are the drivers hampering or advancing the socio-
spatial and spatial-economic conditions of lagging regions?
How these compare to prosperous urban regions?
To what extent can we use the concepts of regional
determinism – embeddedness in a regional, national and
global structure (Phelps & Ozawa 2003) and territorial
autonomy – independent capacity of regions to develop
their own socio-spatial paths (Servillo et al 2017) to explain
trajectories of socio-economic transformation?
How strategic spatial planning processes – identification
of a coherent long-term vision or a spatial development
strategy (+15 years) (Albrechts et al 2017) can play a role in
defining thriving trajectories of socio-economic
transformation in lagging regions?

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Low-growth regions
Experienced a persistent lack
of growth. They are less-
developed or transition regions
(regions with a GDP per head up
to 90% of the EU average) that
did not converge to the EU
average between 2000 - 2013.
Source; EU Commission, 2017
≈ 83 million inhabitants
Low-income regions
Remain far below the EU
average GDP per capita. They
cover all regions with a GDP per
head below 50% of the EU
average in 2013.

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NUTS3 Typology
based on
prevalence of
type of
settlements (2013)
Spatial focus:
Select. SMSTs
Loris Servillo, Rob
Atkinson, Ian
Smith et al 2013
5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants

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Comparative study: Prosperous urban regions based on SSP
performance (Hersperger et al. 2019)
Embedded in
different
planning systems
(EC, 1997;
ESPON, 2007)

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(Source) (Source)
Source
(Source)
(Source)
Source
Dublin
Lyon
Helsinki
Stuttgart
Stockholm
Vienna

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Lagging regions, SMSTs and local communities
within > still matter to secure cohesive regional
development patterns (McCann & Ortega-Argilés, 2019).
*A number of non anglophone sources concur with this argument
Source of economic and social dynamism
for many prosperous urban regions
(Kemeny and Storper, 2020; Rodríguez-Pose, 2018)*
(Torres de Araujo 2020 Rodrigues Carvalho 2018 Pinilla & Sáez 2017)

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Persistent poverty, economic decay and lack of
opportunities, are the corner stone of
dissatisfaction in declining and lagging regions.
(Rodríguez-Pose, 2018)
Rising of populism and
political radicalization
Growing sense of
regional inequalities
(Lee et al, 2018; Broz et al. 2019)
(Bole et al. 2020; Servillo et al. 2017)
Additional research on how
transformation processes play out
in the organization of the economic
landscape of SMSTs is needed

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Rodríguez-Pose & Ketterer, 2020 call for development
strategies and territorial policies capable of successfully
addressing short-term problems as well as of putting
lagging regions on a sustainable development track in
the medium to long term;
Bevilacqua et al. 2020 call for flexible approach in
allocating investment > a more strategic, tailored, place-
sensitive approach to regional development policies.
aimed at improving infrastructure, research & development
and innovation with a greater focus on governance and
institutions.

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Balland, Rigby & Boschma, 2015 underline that multilevel
governance approach – that includes a significant
‘bottom-up’ element supported by multi-sectoral territorial
partnerships – to the analysis of territorial contexts
allows sustaining regional economic agents to adapt
and reconfigure their productive sectors (industrial,
technical, service oriented).
Iammarino et al. 2017 reinforce that comprehensive and
well-crafted, place-sensitive policies are needed not
only to address some of the basic problems of lagging
regions in Europe but also to set the bases for a more
sustainable growth and response to shocks.

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If we understand better the different socio-economic
development paths/trajectories within local
communities and how they value their distinctive
tangible and intangible amenities, then we will be
better prepared to tailored-to-the-context policies.
(Van Assche et al. 2020; Oliveira, 2016)
If we understand better how local communities in
prosperous regions respond to global forces, we can
craft evidence-based policies supporting socio-
economic transformation of lagging regions.
(Servillo, Atkinson & Russo, 2011)

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Territorial autonomy
(endogenous development dynamics)
Regional determinism
(exogenous development dynamics)

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Evolutionary approach in which knowledge and
innovation dynamics are fit to break path dependency
and leverage place-specific qualities to
strategically overcome current economic, social and
political constraints of lagging regions.
Evolutionary
economic geography
Strategic
spatial planning
(Bevilacqua et al. 2020)
Regional
resilience
Evolutionary
governance theory
Hassink & Klaerding, 2009
Boschma and Frenken, 2018
Albrechts et al. 2020 Van Assche et al. 2014
Hassink, 2010
Boschma, 2015

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Transformation
In-depth case study + participatory research in 21 European urban regions
Strategic spatial
plan-making phase
Strategic spatial
plan-implementation phase
(Hersperger et al. 2018; Oliveira and Hersperger, 2018; Hersperger et al., 2019).
Economic activities
Attractiveness
Social issues
Green infrastructures
Employment land
(,,,)

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Evolutionary Governance Paths: actors, institutions
and expertise co-evolve in a governance context – they
form each other and are formed in and by processes. These
paths can run parallel, they can entangle, and they can
block each other. (Beunen et al. 2015; Van Assche et al. 2014)
Path Dependencies
(Role of stakeholders?)
Path Creation
(Role of place-based narratives?)

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Narratives are stories about the past that influence the
present; stories about politics affect the image of how
issues have been handled in a specific governance.
(Beunen et al. 2015; Van Assche et al. 2014)
(Mayer & Bole, 2020; Wiles, Rosenberg, & Kearns, 2005).
Interpret and attach meaning
to local experiences of
socio-economic
transformation in
time of shocks
Re-construct memories of how
governance players along paths –
respond and adapt to
different shocks, either
positively or negatively.

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In the evolutionary economic geography literature, Pike,
Dawley, & Tomaney (2010), for example, argue that
community responses are focused on economic agents,
mechanisms and it utilizes concepts such as related,
unrelated variety, diversified specialization etc. >
criticized by MacKinnon and Derrickson (2013) others

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Krzysztofik et al. (2016) have shown that the evolution from
industry to services might be over-simplistic. They acknowledge
that although sometimes there is a clear general shift to services,
but certain regions have different transformation trajectories.
Industrialization neo- / post-industrial Failed tertiarization
Plöger & Kohlhaas-Weber
(2014) have shown that
older industrial regions
were also more resilient to
the recent economic crisis
(endogenous forces).
Mayer & Bole, (2020) argue that old
industrial towns hold certain
socioeconomic capacities rendering
them more resilient to economic and
associated social shocks.
Place-specific understanding of resilience

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Path dependence
(road maps)
Socio-cultural
embeddedness
(spirit; roots; belonging)
Industrial culture
(tangible/intangible)
van Dyck & Van den Broeck (2013) claim that to understand challenges
and frictions at the community level within lagging regions, we would
need to study industrial towns and their transformations in a place-
sensitive context, taking into account spatial and historical trajectories.
Martin & Sunley
(2006)
Bathelt & Gluckler
(2011)
Harfst, Wust & Nadler
(2018)
Lazzeroni (2019) argues that the development of new visions is important,
but that often emotional aspects, the fragility of the places, but also the
struggles of the actors (population, workers, firms, etc.) often depend on
multi-scalar processes;

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I am expecting to challenge regional studies focused on
role of EU Cohesion Policy (Medeiros & Rauhut, 2020)
and Smart Specialisation (Barzotto, 2019) as catalysts of
development at the disposal of lagging regions.
I intend to complement Rodríguez-Pose and Ketterer
(2019), Trippl et al (2019) and Morgan (2019) who argue
that lagging regions in the EU need to find alternatives
to the dominant economic theories and classic
economic growth models.

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I am expecting to advance Hassink & Gong’s (2017)
manifesto for an integrative paradigm of economic
geography in the sense that debates EG concepts (path
dependence) aligned with theories of spatial organization
(SSP) and institutional arrangements (evolutionary
governance) are useful to advance an understanding of
the organization of the economic landscape of lagging
regions and their drivers (endogenous vs exogenous).

Questions & comments
Eduardo Oliveira
oliveira@geographie.uni-kiel.de

From deprived to thriving communities? a strategic and place-sensitive approach to the socio-economic transformation of lagging regions in Europe

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From deprived to thriving communities? a strategic and place-sensitive approach to the socio-economic transformation of lagging regions in Europe