REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Knowledge, Image and Politics
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4.
Introduction: Institutionalist perspectives on the politics of
public policy
Case study: Thatcherism and regional policy in Scotland
Comparative cases: Place branding of provincial cities
Survey: Knowledge and regional policy in European
regions
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
POLITICS OF REGIONAL POLICY
Institutionalist policy analysis
Political
environment
Implementing
organisation
Public actors
Political sponsor
Private actors
Organisation
Discursive terrain
Policy design
Policy target
Firms
Organisations
Public authorities
Citizens
Economic &
socio-cultural
environment
Public actors
Private actors
Cultural patterns
Discursive terrain
PROBLEM
DEFINITION
POLICY
OUTCOME
Source: Inspired by inter alia Ham & Hill, Jenkins, Sabatier, Parsons, Winter – Elaborated on the basis of
Henrik Halkier: Institutions, Discourse and Regional Development, Brussels: PIE Peter Lang, 2006, chapter 3.
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
CASE STUDY: Thatcherism and
Regional Policy in Scotland
Prevailing interpretation
* strategies change after 1979
* from interventionism to liberalism
Research aims
* examine changing SDA strategies
* examine political sponsor strategies
* examine changing policy implementation
Controversial example
* industrial investment
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
CASE STUDY: Thatcherism and
Regional Policy in Scotland
SDA
DTI / English assisted area
Regional
problem
Uncompetitive firms,
unemployment
Unemployment, late 1980s
uncompetitive firms
Operational
strategy
Support more competitive
firms
Support all firms, late 1980s more
competitive firms
Instruments
* increasingly conditional
* finance, organisation,
information
* conditional
* finance much reduced, organisation,
(information)
Modes
* increasingly proactive
* reactive
* predominantly discretionary * automatic, then discretionary
* selectivity increasing
* more selective late 1980s
Implementation Integrated
Fragmented
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
CASE STUDY: Thatcherism and
Regional Policy in Scotland
SDA
SDA investment activ
100 = assisted
pre-Thatcher
DTI Index
/ English
areaaver
350
Regional
problem
Uncompetitive firms,
unemployment
300
Operational
strategy
Support more competitive
firms
150
Support
Unemployment, late 1980s
uncompetitive firms
200
250
all firms, late 1980s more
100
competitive firms
50
Instruments
* increasingly conditional
* finance, organisation,
information
Modes
* increasingly proactive
* reactive
1979: then
last discretionary
resort measure
* predominantly discretionary *automatic,
increased
activity
* selectivity increasing
*more
selective late
1980s
Implementation Integrated
* 0conditional
19761978198019821984198619881990
* finance
much
reduced,
organisation,
New invest
ed firms
(information)
T ot al gross expendit ure
 intensified
Fragmented

appraisal
public-private network
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Henrik Halkier & Anette Therkelsen
Inter-organisational Cooperation
in City Branding
Comparing Aarhus & Aalborg, Denmark
Forthcoming in Andy Pike (ed.): Brands and Branding Geographies, Edward Elgar 2010
Comparative cases:
Place branding of provincial cities
Strategy
 market: selling place vs. building community
 place-making: city of words vs. city of stones
Commitment
 imperative vs. more/less important
 repositioning vs. reinforcement
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Place branding of provincial
cities
Involvement
Commitment
Strategy
involvement -> strong commitment
 commitment -> holistic strategy


place-branding depending on many dimensions of
inter-organisational cooperation
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Survey: Knowledge and regional
policy in European regions
Empirical survey
 most important
organisation at most
important meso-level
 four most prominent
policies
 web-based survey by
Susanne Bendtsen
 181 regions
 snapshot becoming
wider/deeper
3/19
20/21
10/12
12/12
6/6
4/15
4/5
2/10
4/4
7/14
16/16
7/11
6/13 2/8
9/9 5/7
17/17
6/11
6/16
15/15
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
12/20
8/12
Survey: Knowledge and regional
policy in European regions
Relative importance of policy targets
Policy characteristics
 Lisbon-oriented strategies
 Multi-level governance
 Knowledge-intensive
Hardware
Software
Orgware
Auto
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Bio
●●
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Food
●●
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ICT
●●●
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KIBS
●
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New
media
●●●
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Tourism
●●
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All cases
●●
●●
●●
Source: EURODITE WP8 report
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk
Survey: Knowledge and regional
policy in European regions
Policy characteristics
 Lisbon-oriented strategies
 Multi-level governance
 Knowledge-intensive
 Knowledge-conservative?
 Inward-looking?
Relative importance of
knowledge types in knowledge
interactions
Analytical
●
Synthetic
●●
Symbolic
●●
Analytical/synthetic
●
●
Synthetic/symbolic
All three types
Source: EURODITE WP8 report
Henrik Halkier, Aalborg University, halkier@ihis.aau.dk