Socio-spatial polarisation and policy response: Perspectives for regional development in the Baltic States (original) (raw)

Understanding and Going Beyond the Regional Policy Paradox: Conceptual Contributions to Studying Socio-Spatial Polarisation in Europe

Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation, 2019

The goal of this concluding chapter is to shed light on the conceptual value of the book. We discuss the chapters within the framework of the overall conceptual approach linking territorial cohesion and socio-spatial polarisation with the notion of spatial justice and also connect analytical findings with essential policy recommendations, both of which complement each other. Growing social polarisation and economic inequalities unfolding in new forms across various places brought about academic and policy debates on the meanings of 'development', the ways its dimensions (economic, social, cultural, political) are interrelated , and, moreover, on how macro-structural changes are entangled

BOOK REVIEW Thilo Lang and Franziska Görmar (eds.), Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarization. Re-thinking Spatial Policies in Europe

Eastern Journal of European Studies, 2019

Debates around how to deal with increasing inequalities gained significant importance following the 2007 global financial crisis. This is the case not only for personal inequalities, but also for regional inequalities. Indeed, recent electoral outcomes, such as Brexit referendum and the emergence of right-wing nationalism throughout Europe, have shown that regional inequalities might be more important than scholars and policy-makers thought (Rodriguez-Pose, 2018). As such, there should be no surprise that the issues of lagging regions and how to deal with them have risen to prominence in regional studies. Lagging regions are sometimes labelled "places that do not matter" and their electoral behaviour in favour of populists is interpreted as a sort of revenge for being left behind over long periods of time (Rodriguez-Pose, 2018), or as a "rebellion of the globalisation's losers" (Davoudi, 2019). Moreover, Davoudi (2019) argues that we are not only dealing with places "left behind", but also "kept behind", by "neglect, lack of investment and misguided policies stemming from the long-term neo-liberal obsession with aggregate growth, big city boosterism and trickle down effects". The author, therefore, calls for re-imagining European cohesion policy, and she is not the only scholar stating this. Iammarino et al. (2017) also call for re-imagining cohesion policies, arguing for a place-sensitive approach, a new concept that asks for policies that take into consideration the context, and not only the local one, but also the context exterior to local conditions. In both cases, as in many others, one can notice a shift from place-neutral or even-place-based approaches to place-sensitive and more systemic approaches to dealing with lagging regions. Against this background, the edited volume of Lang and Görmar argues that one should regard regional inequalities in a broader perspective, taking into consideration not only differences between central and peripheral places, the performance of lagging regions per se, or the "catch-up" perspective, but to look instead at the core-periphery relations and its subsequent processes: polarisation, centralisation and peripheralisation. The book starts with the assumption that polarisation is an ongoing process that is happening in a threefold manner within the EU: demographically, economically, and even electoral. The authors are searching * Mihail EVA is assistant lecturer at the "Alexandru

Peripheral regions in Lithuania: the results of uneven development

Regional Studies, Regional Science, 2019

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lithuania has been struggling with rapidly increasing centre–periphery polarization. There has been a growth in major cities and a significant decline in peripheral rural territories. The ongoing peripheralization is deepening the gap between centre and periphery. This paper introduces a peripheral region determination model, whilst highlighting that this complex geographical issue combines location, demographic, social, economic, cultural, political and natural factors. By analyzing the case of Lithuania using 1992–2012 data at the LAU-1 region level, the study reveals a polarized picture of the country and highlights the factors influencing peripherality in different regions.

From Central Control to Local Initiative: Regional Development in Latvia and Norway

This article discusses the development of regional policies in two countries, Latvia and Norway. The aim is to present how these policies have evolved and can be understood with the application of complexity theory as a common theoretical framework for analysis. Even though Latvia and Norway have quite different experiences in regional development policy, both have tried to react to modern challenges of globalization and demographic changes by using general theories and concepts of economic and social development. Differences and similarities between the two countries are highlighted by a review of studies from Latvia and Norway that describes the variety of policies that can be applied for regional development. Regional policy in both countries has coalesced around support for local initiative and entrepreneurship.

Regional and local development in times of polarisation: re-thinking spatial policies in Europe

Eurasian Geography and Economics

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The politics of depoliticization and the constitution of city-regionalism as a dominant spatial-political imaginary in Finland

Political Geography, 2019

In this article we examine city-regionalism as a powerful spatial-political imaginary through which state territorial strategies and the associated policies are increasingly evaluated, drafted and put into practice around the western world. By analyzing the material and discursive constitution of city-regionalism in Finland, the article illustrates that city-regionalism has provided a framework for highlighting the nationally-important economic role of the main metropolitan area, and for questioning the legitimacy of the "State" as a territorial entity and as a political actor. The article also brings to the fore that the city-regionalist imaginary relies heavily on a particular kind of economic geographical reasoning as well as on the politics of depoliticization. The article also demonstrates that city-regionalism is an internally heterogeneous imaginary which provides frames for a range of differentially scaled, policy debates and discourses. Consequently, more nuanced and comparative studies on the context-specific national and regional adaptations of city-regionalism are needed along with the current academic research which has paid considerable attention in to studying how the city-regional scale is politically orchestrated by states in order to bolster international economic competitiveness.