EURODITE WORKSHOP
REGIONAL STUDIES SPECIAL ISSUE
Newcastle 18-19 April 2001
New Knowledge Dynamics, New Regional Policies?
European Policy Trends and Implications
1.
Conceptualising the rise of knowledge-oriented regional policy
2.
RDAs and their policies: A top-down analysis
3.
Economic innovation and public policy: A bottom-up analysis
4.
Conclusion and perspectives
Henrik Halkier, Margareta Dahlström, Laura James,
Jesper Manniche, Lise Smed Olsen & Simone Strambach
halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Conceptualising the rise of
knowledge-oriented
regional policy
Table 2. Key characteristics of regional policy paradigms in Europe c 1970-2010
Dimension
Sub-dimensions
Territorial
governance
Political governance
Variable (centralised)
Variable (becoming more decentralised)
Policy sponsorship
Centralised designation of assisted areas
Multi-level designation of assisted areas,
decentral bottom-up initiatives
General direction
Expansion/duplication of existing
economic activities to boost volume
Modernisation of existing and creation of
new forms of economic activity
Target institutions
Private firms
Private firms and regional system of e.g.
innovation
Target capabilities
Hardware through boosting of physical
investment
Software and orgware improved by
increasing knowledge and relations between
actors
Policy
instruments
Resources
Finance
Information, organisation
Rules
Conditional
Conditional, unconditional
Knowledge
impact
Knowledge types
Synthetic
Analytical, synthetic, symbolic
Knowledge phases
Exloitation
Exploitation, examination, exploration
Strategy
Industrial paradigm
Knowledge-economy paradigm
Elaborated on the basis of COOKE and MORGAN, 1993; HALKIER and DANSON, 1997; AMIN, 1999; LAGENDIJK, 1999;
HASSINK, 2001; RAINES, 2002; BENNEWORTH et al., 2003; HALKIER, 2006; BACHTLER and YUILL, 2007; MOODYSON et
al., 2008; CREVOISIER and JEANNERAT, 2009.
TOP-DOWN SURVEY
RDAs and their policies
•Sponsorship:
•Arm's-length, one sponsor
•Strategies:
•Competitiveness
•Targets:
•Organisations, information +
200
160
120
80
40
halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Competitiveness
•Knowledge impact:
•Techno-managerial, cultural
Equality and
competitiveness
•Instruments:
•Knowledge-intensive
Interregional
equality
0
BOTTOM-UP ANALYSIS
Economic innovation and
public policy
Characteristics of
influential policies
• Multi-level governance
• Knowledge-intensive
• Knowledge-conservative?
• Inward-looking?
halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Relative importance of
policy governance
Regional/
EU Nat
local
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Auto
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Bio
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Food
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ICT
●
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KIBS
New
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media
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Tourism
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All cases
Knowledge dynamics
and provisional
policy challenges
1. Further a wider range of knowledge
– symbolic, demand, social variation, extra-regional
– more knowledge assets available for development
– support knowledge brokerage
2. Further combinatorial knowledge
– new proximities, recombination
– interdisciplinary education/training/capacities
– importance of knowledge management
3. Evidence-based policy-making
– Coordination: levels / policy areas / diverse actors
– inspiration, not copy/paste
– improved policy preparation/evaluation
For link to report, please
email Henrik Halkier at
halkier@ihis.aau.dk