From thick to thin regional identities?

Regions and regional identity have become more important over the last decades. At the same time regions have become less discernable as distinct historically rooted spatial entities. Globalisation and the decline of collective identities through individualisation transform both this regional reality and how regions are conceptualised. This article analyses the shifts in types of regional identities used by regional administrations in an increasingly competitive environment. It uses the contrast between ‘thick’ traditional and historical rooted well-established regional identities, and ‘thin’ regional identities which are more transitory and focus more on economic competitiveness. These concepts are used to analyse the regional identity of regional administrations in Northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Hybrid regional identities combining a locally specific mix of thick and thin elements of regional identity, and which link up with regional identities at other relevant scales, appear to be the most effective regional identities for regional administrations facing the challenges of both globalisation and the decline in collective identities.     

Geographies of crisis in Greece: A social well-being approach

The most prominent ‘victim’ of the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has been Greece, which is, even now, in the middle of an economic and social storm that is threatening its economic and social cohesion and its membership of the Eurozone. Using the social well-being conceptual framework as a benchmark and exploiting the literature of composite indicators, the paper aims to assess and measure the regional impact of the crisis in a systematic and comprehensive way. Differing from most of previous studies, both at national and international levels, this study is based on the assumption that the effects of the crisis go far beyond economics and create a social crisis strongly associated with significant human and social costs that might transform Greece’s regional status and threaten its regional well-being, probably in a very unequal way. The main finding of the analysis is that although all regions were severely affected by the dynamics and intensity of the crisis, some regions were more affected than others, leading to ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. From a policy point of view, the results of this study have serious implications for crisis management, recovery policy actions and a country’s social cohesion, especially in Greece where austerity policy measures not only imposed considerable cutbacks in regional development policies but also ignored the spatial dimension of the crisis.     

Regional policy in Cameroon: The case of planning without facts

Cameroon's economic development is without doubt a story of success. Since independence, the country has been favoured by internal and external advantages but, as in most African countries south of the Sahara, the results of regional development policies — in spite of an existing and sound planning structure — are disappointing. Cameroon was always well-provided with the now fashionable ‘integrated’, ‘basic need-oriented’, ‘bottom-up’ and ‘development-from-within’ regional policy programmes. In discussing such a programme and proposing elements of a modified development strategy, it can, however, be argued that even the first step of creating a basic regional development project has been far from satisfactory. Further, in spite of government rhetoric, no regional development policy as normally defined exists. What does exist are regional effects of development projects. This prompts the question of whether it may be preferable to replace the term ‘regional development policy’, and to return to a ‘regionally based, comprehensively planned, project policy’, based on facts which first have to be collected and analysed.     

The evolution of the electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia): Strategic coupling,adaptiveness, adaptation,and the role of agency

Bringing together concepts from the global production networks and evolutionary economic geography literature, this article empirically examines the trajectory of the electrical and electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia). Based on trends in firm entries and exit as well as interviews with companies, we find limited robustness in the industry’s trajectory. While there is evidence of the role of ‘structure’ in this outcome, we argue that human agency – particularly the actions of subnational policy-makers – is key. This is manifest in a preference for fostering regional ‘adaptiveness’ through the often uncritical promotion of a diversity of economic sectors. This compromises the meaningful pursuit of regional ‘adaptation’ in the form of new and more complex branches emerging from existing industries. This arrested development, in turn, hinders an effective strategic coupling between the regional economy and multinational corporations, thus undermining regional resilience.     

‘Competing Regionalisation’ Through Territory and Cluster Networks: Experiences from Post-Socialist Eastern Germany

‘New regionalism’ has become a buzzword in current debates on regions and regional governance. Much of this discussion revolves around the ‘right’ scale and structure of regional governance, implying changes to the ways in which the conventional main variables institutions, hierarchy and territoriality interact to circumscribe ‘regions’. The main difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ regionalism is the degree of variability and responsiveness to locational strategies by businesses, i.e. essentially relative regional competitiveness, and thus by implication the question of territoriality and boundedness. Evidence ‘on the ground’ among policy makers, however, suggests that the changes may go further than theoretical arguments with their emphasis on territory and scale (Brenner, 2000, 2003) are suggesting. Much of the difference revolves around the distinction between technocratic, planning focused and firmly institutionalised understandings of territorially fixed regions within a government structure on the one hand, and more purpose driven, flexible, and inherently temporary and variable arrangements outside fixed government structures, whose territoriality is composed of the varying spatial background of the participating actors. Here, regional territoriality is an incidental rather than determining factor.The cleavage between ‘old’ and ‘new’ regionalism has become particularly obvious in post-socialist eastern Germany, where staid forms of traditional institutionalism and territorial governance had been transferred from ‘west’ to ‘east’. Increasingly, these arrangements appeared inadequate to respond to the vast and spatially widely varying challenges of post-socialist restructuring. The result has been a tentative emergence of new forms of regionalisation in between, and in addition to, the established ‘old regionalist’ approaches. Evidence from eastern Germany suggests that ‘new’ is not necessarily replacing ‘old’ regionalism’ in the wake of a shift in paradigm, but rather that the two coexist, with new forms of regionalisation sitting within established conventional territorial-administrative arrangements. This points to the emergence of a dual track approach to regionalisation, sometimes covering the same territory, more often relating to variably sized areas that overlap. Both forms of regionalisation aim at an internal and external audience, using varying images and employing different sets of actors when dealing with the two main sources/directions of consumption: internal (local) and external (corporate, competitive). By their very nature, however, these processes are varied and differ between places, rooted in particular local-regional constellations of policy-making pressures, actor personalities and established ways of doing things. This paper examines such processes for two regions in eastern Germany, both with distinctly different economic traditions and geographical contexts, aiming to illustrate the multi-layered process of regionalisation and region making. Inevitably, within the scope of this paper, the study cannot cover all possible models and regionalisation approaches across eastern Germany, because they not only differ between places, but also over time.     

Regional policy in the Federal Republic of Germany

Since the 1950s, regional policy in the Federal Republic of Germany has switched emphasis from assistance to specific locations with development problems to a systematic programme of development aid. Within the Common Task ‘Improvement of Regional Economic Structure’, which is undertaken jointly by the Federal and Laender governments, areas embracing 62% of the Federal Republic's total area have received aid for establishing new industries, expansion of existing manufacturing industry and rationalisation, and for developing tourism. Overall economic deterioration since the mid-'70s has been accompanied by increasing criticism of the inefficiency of this kind of regional policy directed towards the mobilisation of capital. More recent appraisals of methods improving development aid are aimed at achieving spatial concentration of the development areas, more selective aid for new establishments or expansion schemes which have sound future prospects, and increased encouragement to existing firms to innovate.     

Planning and the rural regions of Nigeria

Conclusion Urban and rural development arek inextricably related, that regional planning can play important roles as catalyst for agriculture and rural development; and that a system of growth centres and/or agropolitan policy which can be important in achieving economic growth with social equity, will be far more influential. Again if the National Planning Authority, Regional Planning Agency and the policy of growth centre in the rural areas of the recommended regions is pursued, it will not only increase agricultural productivity or a path to agricultural transformation for deleterious effects of migration to corporate farming but also could, over time help to reduce the pressure on the urban areas by providing counter-magnets to migration and we envisage, will bring about a national regional planning budget which should be operated on yearly basis.     

Collaborative governance and territorial rescaling in the UK: a comparative study of two EU Structural Funds programmes

Contemporary capitalist development facilitates the large-scale geographical reorganization of economic activity, involving both spatial clustering and decentralization. In the European Union the resulting regional disparities have provoked concerns about growing inequality on the one hand and poor competitiveness on the other. The concept of ‘territorial cohesion’ has been adopted to address such issues, with the need for co-operation across local, regional and national boundaries encouraged as a means of constructing more effective economic zones. This then raises the question whether the European Union’s own Structural Funds programme has been able to contribute to such collaborative working. Evidence from South Yorkshire/Sheffield in England and the Central Valleys/Cardiff in Wales suggests that any contribution is likely to be modest. Both areas were covered by Objective 1 programmes between 2000 and 2006, but differed markedly in the extent to which collaborative governance structures and processes developed. Key factors were the extent to which moves in this direction were already under way, and the extent to which management and decision-making were devolved from the centre to local and sub-regional actors.     

Taiwan: Some spatial implications rapid economic growth

Enthusiasm for economic development in newly-industrializing countries is tempered by the thought of enhanced regional disparities which seem to inevitably accompany such processes. A breakthrough from being consigned such an outcome is possible if the country can successfully switch from import-substitution industrialization to that centered on export promotion. Conceptually, such an amended course would allow for the diversification of regional economies and the development of regional cities associated with the export trade. Under this scenario, the necessity to bolster a core industrial region — almost always focused on the capital city — is made redundant and national strategies can officially espouse regional development targets with some chance of success. Taiwan is both a stellar performer among the newly-industrializing countries and a subscriber to the export-promotion school. It affords, then, an obvious case study for assessing the degree of core-periphery disparity in economic activities. Additionally, its government is much given to declaring the benefits of industrialization for the populace, and has gone a considerable way to provide manufacturing decentralization by means of a string of development districts peppering the island and a number of ‘mega-proj ects’ of the industrial complex kind. An analysis of the distribution of employment engendered between 1975 and 1985 is forthcoming with both optimistic and cautionary results. In the first case, the degree of spatial concentration in growth activities — and especially manufacturing — has ameliorated but, secondly, the proviso remains that the momentum of growth enjoyed by the core is sufficient to guarantee that favored region a disproportionate share of the job prospects thrown up by the ‘economic miracle’.     

Natural resources as national fantasies

The development of agriculture is recognised to be an essential preliminary and on-going element in the economic development strategies of most developing countries. The contribution of agricultural production to gross domestic product, food self-sufficiency and export income are amongst the major development goals exercising the governments of such countries. In addition, in many countries the agricultural sector is regarded as one with a potential for generating a surplus to sustain other economic activities and to have an important stabilising role in reducing the movement of population from rural areas. This article discusses renewable natural resources, soil and water, as the basis for agricultural development and especially of irrigated farming. A number of case studies will be referred to which illustrate the idea that many national governments attribute quite unreal qualities to soil and water resources. Once development schemes were launched appropriate rhetoric was mobilised to invest the reclamation of ‘virgin lands’ and ‘new lands’, with the character of ‘green revolutions’. These ventures have been sustained not because of their success but because the ‘fantasies’ have been circulated amongst ill-formed urban populations, remote from the arduous realities of land reclamation. Case studies in the Soviet Union and the Middle East are discussed.     

The decentralization of manufacturing industry: Recent American experience in perspective

Studies of economic development in the USA in the 1970s emphasized the strong growth of manufacturing in non-metropolitan areas and stressed the break implied with historical patterns of spatial concentration. Much of this growth took place, however, either in counties adjacent to existing metropolitan areas or in counties where existing urban centres were, as a consequence, raised to metropolitan size. Thus when new job growth is assessed on the basis of current definitions of SMSAs, the share of national manufacturing employment contained in metropolitan centres has increased. There has been no marked break with the historical pattern which has chiefly been one of growth of manufacturing employment at the metropolitan periphery. Important variations of experience occur, however, at the regional level and also according to the size of metropolitan areas. A study of the kinds of industry concerned in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan growth and in differential regional growth helps to explain the processes involved. The increasing role of ‘non-production’ workers in manufacturing also becomes a key feature here.     

喀斯特生态环境风险评价——以贵州省为例

区域生态环境风险评价具有尺度大、风险源与风险受体多、空间异质性强等特点,开展区域生态环境风险研究是识别生态环境风险水平、制定防范应对策略的重要理论支撑。文章以贵州省为例,参考相对风险模型为风险评价原则,基于自然灾害成因,综合考虑区域自然及经济状况,建立贵州省喀斯特生态环境风险评价框架与指标体系,运用层次分析法及系统聚类分析法,对各评价单元的危险性、暴露性、脆弱性、防灾减灾能力进行分析,并划分了区域风险程度等级。结果表明:贵州省喀斯特生态环境风险分布与生态环境本底和社会经济发展水平相关性明显,高风险区主要分布在生态环境脆弱的高原山地、高原峡谷地区以及综合发展水平较高的贵阳中心城区,低风险区主要分布在喀斯特分布面积少、生态本底好、自然灾害较少的黔东南及黔西北地区。      

Eco-service value evaluation based on eco-economic functional regionalization in a typical basin of northwest arid area,China

Ecosystem services are the basis of human living and development. Land use has significant effects on the ecosystem structure and functions, even its services. Using the remote sensing (RS), geographical information system and ecological economy theory, this paper analyzed land use changes of different eco-economic functional areas in Manas River Basin during the period 1958–2006 using different stage RS images. This paper selects the evaluation method obtained by Costanza et al. and Xie Gaodi, and the ecological sensitivity coefficient analysis, which analyzed the variation characteristics of eco-service values of different eco-economic functional areas. The results showed that the land use pattern has changed greatly from 1958 to 2006. The area of farmland and industrial area increased rapidly, while the forest area, grassland, water area and unutilized area decreased greatly. The total eco-service value of the river basin decreased from 3,529.64 US$ × 10⁶ in 1958 to 2,559.88 US$ × 10⁶ in 2006. There was 27.47 % net loss of 969.76 US$ × 10⁶. The eco-service values of various land use types in the study area were close to the regional real values and the results were credible. There existed apparent temporal and spatial changes in the eco-service values of different eco-economic functional areas, and this significant change in the eco-service values was driven by economic development. Consequently, in view of eco-economic characteristics and ecological issues of various eco-economic functional areas, relevant strategies of ecological conservation were proposed for enhancing the general eco-service value of the river basin and realizing the regional sustainable development. The ‘‘yuan’’ is Chinese money unit (¥), US$1 = ¥6.27 (yuan).     

Power and influence tactics in the promotion of regional development: An empirical analysis of the work of Finnish regional development officers

Increased complexity and rapid pace of change demand more from people responsible for regional development at various levels of activity. This paper has its roots in a belief that the more complex situations are, the more regional development is dependent on the leadership and network management capacity of key individuals. Studying more deeply the roles that various individuals, and the coalitions formed by them, have in institutionalisation, deinstitutionalisation and reinstitutionalisation processes might provide us with additional analytical leverage in regional development studies. This paper focuses on diffuse networks of dispersed powers from a Finnish regional development officer’s point of view. Regional development officers are those people whose job it is to boost the economic development of their respective regions in Finland.The research questions discussed here are: (a) What kind of power is exercised by Finnish regional development officers; and (b) how do regional development officers aim to gain influence for their efforts to promote regional development? The empirical research is based on data gathered (a) through 41 interviews with Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of economic development in city governments, technology centres, regional development agencies, and ministries and other national bodies, and (b) through internet survey of development officers at local, regional and national levels (531 respondents, response rate 51.8%). The survey was designed to solicit information about power and influence tactics in the context of regional development. The empirical analysis shows, for example, how interpretive power and network power are more important for regional development officers than institutional and resource power, and how indirect influence tactics surpass direct tactics.     

Telecommunications and the development of Europe's less-favoured regions

The regional dimension to the problems and potentialities posed by the introduction of new technologies is increasingly an issue which is being addressed within the EECs regional policy. This paper is concerned with one such new technology, advanced telecommunications, which is seen as playing a key role within emerging ‘information economies’. However, the evidence reviewed suggests that peripheral or otherwise less favoured regions may be relatively disadvantaged both by the geographically differentiated supply of new and advanced services and, most significantly, by the relatively low propensity of such regions to use and apply these services within economic enterprises. Some reasons for these patterns of adoption are considered, and the policy implications discussed within the context of the EEC's emerging policy response.     

The effect of heterogeneous stress and strain on metamorphic fluid flow,Mary Kathleen,Australia, and a model for large-scale fluid circulation *

In the Proterozoic Mary Kathleen Fold Belt, northern Australia, infiltration of large volumes of externally derived fluid occurred synchronously with regional amphibolite-facies metamorphism and deformation. This paper develops a model of structurally controlled fluid migration by comparing the distribution of fossil fluid pathways with the inferred stress and strain patterns during the deformation. Intense fluid flow was localized within strong, relatively brittle meta-intrusive bodies, and in discrete, veined, brecciated and altered zones around their margins. In metasediments folded in a ductile manner outside these areas, fluid infiltration was negligible. The direct correlation between structural styles and the magnitude of veining and metasomatism suggests control of permeability enhancement, and hence fluid flow, by deformation. Finite difference modelling of a strong body in a weaker matrix has been used to evaluate the variation of stresses during the deformation, from which it is clear that stress and strain heterogeneities have systematically influenced the development and maintenance of metamorphic fluid pathways. Particular regions in which mean stress may be significantly lower than the average lithostatic pressures include the ‘strain shadow’zones adjacent to the strong bodies, other dilatant zones around the bodies, and the bodies themselves. This geometry is favourable not only for localized brittle deformation under amphilobite facies conditions, but also for focused fluid flow in the low mean stress regions, as evidenced by the abundance of veins. Fluid access through these metamorphic aquifers occurred during tensile failure episodes, with particularly large dilations and decimetre-scale veining in areas of strain incompatibility. It appears likely that fluid circulated many times through the Fold Belt, with flow concentrated in the metamorphic aquifers. A model is developed that explains both the structurally focused fluid flow and the postulated multi-pass recirculation by dilatancy pumping, the ‘pump engines’comprising the low mean stress zones.     

Regional geography considered from the systems' approach

The main critiques of the term ‘region’ were directed in the 1950s against the ‘uniqueness’ of the region: being not repetitive, it was considered not to be of general value. In the author's opinion the term ‘uniqueness’ was misinterpreted: a region is made unique by the unique relationship between natural, cultural, economic, political and social elements existing in it. However, as these relationships are repetitive, or some at least can be repeated, regional geography is of general value. If the geographical study of a region invests its efforts and interests in functions, processes and relationships between the elements existing in a region, the concept of a region becomes, in fact, a concept of a system, with epistemological and methodolgical consequences. A model of ‘region as a system’ is the approach taken in this paper. Such an approach can resolve some basic problems of geography: the dichotomy between natural and anthropic elements of the region, which cannot be treated except by a systems approach; the tension existing between ‘space’ and ‘place’, which is perpetuated by the dichotomy between regional and systematic geography. Through a systems approach, the choice of a scale appropriate to a particular study can be directed by a distinction between system and subsystem; inclusion or exclusion of an element in the study of a region is not an arbitrary one, but depends on its relevance to the processes within the region. Perhaps the ‘personality of the region’, so often misinterpreted by scorners of regional geography, can be accepted as a legitimate part of the regional output.     

Going green or going away: Environmental regulation,economic geography and firms’ strategies in China’s pollution-intensive industries

The high-growth, resource- and pollution-intensive industrialization model that China has pursued has caused severe environmental pollution and deterioration, particularly in a number of clusters in the coastal regions of East and Southeast China, where the Reform and Opening-up policies first started. The lack of uptake of environmental norms/values, deficit of regulatory enforcement of environmental policies, and insufficient institutional capacity have been compounding factors. As environmental standards were raised by China’s central government, the enforcement of environmental regulation has been compromised more in inland China than in coastal regions, due to China’s “decentralized governance structure” and regional disparity in terms of both economic development and environmental pollution. This paper therefore argues that rising environmental regulations, as well as firm characteristics, regional hub effect and political environment, have all been particularly important in forcing China’s pollution-intensive enterprises to restructure their production, through innovation, upgrading, geographical relocation, outsourcing and plant closure, especially in China’s coastal regions. It contributes to recent studies by developing a heuristic analytical framework that aims to be sensitive to the impacts of environmental regulation, political environment and regional hub effect over firm restructuring, but which does so by stressing these impacts are simultaneously inflected by the nature and attributes of firms. The empirical analysis suggests a roughly inverted “U”-shaped relationship between firm relocation tendency and firm size (or firm capability), resulting from complex interactions between political environment, regional hub effect and environmental regulation.     

Marginal land and the global land rush: A spatial exploration of contested lands and state-directed development in contemporary Ethiopia

The ‘global land rush’ or ‘global land grabbing’ phenomena has prompted concerns over the potential of large-scale land acquisitions to displace rural populations and impact food security in lesser-developed countries. State actors often assert that lands being leased to investors are ‘marginal’, ‘wasteland’, ‘barren’, or ‘unused’ without explicitly stating the criteria that are used to classify those spaces. Using Ethiopia as a case study, this paper synthesizes semi-structured interviews and geospatial land-use data to unpack the federal government’s notion of ‘marginal land’ to investigate how land qualifies for deposition into a federal land bank set aside for future investment and the agro-ecological characteristics and human-environment interactions endemic to these areas. We find that government officials conceive land bank areas to be generally fertile but currently ‘unused’. In reality, we find land bank areas: (1) are used by pastoralists or rural people practicing land extensive forms of cultivation that are only loosely integrated into the Ethiopian state, (2) overlap with protected areas such as National Parks, and (3) are located in places that have surface water resources the government intends to use for large-scale development such as irrigation or hydropower projects. We argue that the intended land uses of banked lands serve not only to fulfill larger development objectives but also increase state-accessible product produced in these areas strengthening the link between ‘othering’ labels, development, and state-making in the context of the global land rush.     

The choreography of sacrifice: Market environmentalism,biopolitics and environmental damage

Market environmentalism, and, arguably its exemplar carbon forestry, has been engaged within human and economic geography by drawing from the Marxist tradition, and to a lesser extent, utilising post-structuralist lines of enquiry. A direct focus on how practices and transformations related to carbon forestry could be construed as ‘sacrifical’, however, is lacking. This article seeks to remedy this by attending to the biopolitics of climate security discourse and interventions as they localise in an ‘assemblage of market environmentalism’ in Uganda. It charts a choreography of sacrifice that emerges under a neoliberal environmentality within this entity, namely, where the activities and ‘moves’ of both state and non-state actors constitute the grounds for forms of both direct and circuitous bio-cultural sacrifice. Here both surplus populations of people, the non-commercial component of Ugandan forestry, and those forest areas which are not amenable to having ‘nature pay for itself’ through carbon sequestration, are written off through direct violence and degradation, on the one hand, and through the naturalisation of broader processes of deforestation, on the other.