Regional Identity in Regional Development and Planning1

This paper analyses the regional identity and social capital formation process and components. Regional identity is the special kind of phenomenon, which forms throughout historical and territorial socialization. The great ambition of this paper is to interrelate Anssi Paasi (1986) and other cultural geographers' and sociologists' ideas with recent regional economic development and planning discussion and to enhance regional identity as a planning tool. The theoretical part describes components and the process of regional identity formation. We assume that regional identity correlates with people's volition in achieving common goals, raises their personal activity and influences due to that regional development and planning. The regional identity is crucial in securing public participation in planning. The empirical part of the paper is based on mass survey analysis.     

Empowerment Planning in Regional Development

In the planning literature, there is a tendency to contradict top-down and bottom-up policies, government and governance and instrumental and communicative planning. However, through extensive action research in regional development practice, we have learnt that there is a need for combining them in adequate planning models, and we have found strong arguments in philosophy and theory for this combination when we go to the debate on modernization and the arguments in favour of better balance between communicative and instrumental rationalities. This article is a theoretical discussion of a planning model that we have called empowerment planning. In this discussion, we regard empowerment in regional development as a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes with the variables context, mobilization, organization, implementation and learning. Planning is regarded as a combination of instrumental and communicative rationalities in an institution-building process based on Habermas' will-forming process with different discourses. We present how a planning approach with institutional, strategic, tactical and operative levels of planning can stimulate different development variables, contribute to the institution-building process and strengthen the legitimacy of the planning institution.     

Public Leaders in Regional Economic Development

This paper focuses on the role of public leaders in regional economic development from a community-building point of view. According to the basic hypothesis, the role of leaders rises everywhere during periods of instability, but remains always relevant in economic peripheries. Inspired by the chaos theory, we argue that leaders have decisive roles during unstable periods or chaos in a society when a very small fluctuation may qualitatively change the direction of development. Our second point here is that leaders will always be in key positions on economic peripheries where a general lack of human resources and a thin institutional thickness exist. The theoretical discussion refers to Weber's Schmalenbach's 'emotional community'/'Bund' concepts and Gumilev's theory of ethnogenesis and tries to plant these approaches within the present day framework. The empirical case study describes a perfect leadership and a successful community-building process in Emmaste Community, Estonia.     

Industrialization and Local/Regional Development Revisited

In focusing on regional development and industrialization, this article highlights three main themes: the relevance to developing countries of the new industrial district concept; the apparent continued need to theorize agglomerated industrial growth; and the relevance of agricultural development to local and regional industrial development. It concludes that the new industrial district concept is not relevant to understanding industrialization in the peripheral regions of developing countries and that despite the introduction of decentralization policies, local industrial development will, as before, very largely depend on central government resource allocation, the stability of government and the role played by large and medium scale enterprises, including Multi-National Corporations (MNCs). It is also argued that without special efforts to develop agriculture, local and regional industrial development are less likely to occur.     

Foreign Trade and Regional Development in China

This paper puts into focus the regional implications of China's recent open-door policy. The empirical analysis employs a cross-sectional approach with 1986 data. The results suggest that foreign trade is more readily translated into economic development in the most well developed and industrialized eastern coastal provinces.     

日本地域内中小企业发展问题初探

20世纪70年代初期,由于受到第一次石油危机的影响,日本从高速经济增长时期进入到安定经济增长时期,经济管理体制从传统中央集权模式向地方分权模式转变,经济发展进入到了“地域经济时代”。与此相对应,日本中小企业也由高速增长时期,进入到了安定发展时期,中小企业的创业与经营也由如何为大企业进行配套到如何开发与挖掘地域经济形态上来。我国是人口众多、国土面积庞大的国家,地区经济发展不平衡已经成为国民经济发展中的主要问题之一。…………     

From Clusters to Platform Policies in Regional Development

This short briefing paper addresses the next stage in the evolution of regional development policy. It is clear that the cluster idea has held sway in this field for some 20 years. By now, practitioners and academics are widely sceptical of policy capabilities to create let alone build clusters. Recessionary times make this more difficult. Moreover, where some recent success can be seen, it is associated with command economies such as China where normal market and democratic barriers to large public investments in such measures are absent. Nevertheless, clusters exist in many places and there is evidence, displayed in this paper, that in some regions they have mutated into multi-cluster platforms. Now, as regions seek to rebalance, platform policies are evolving and being implemented. This paper shows how this is in part a response to “Grand Challenges” and the emergence of “challenge-driven” innovation.     

区域对比:环境与聚落的演进

Through the comparative analysis considering environment, archaeological culture sequence, alteration of settlement quantities, relation between the change of environment and the movement of settlements, cultural embedding superposition exponent of ancient sites, ect. among three regions, the author thinks that they respectively represent three different developing patterns of ancient settlements. The middle and lower reaches of Yellow river and the Valley of Xilamulun River respectively represented different development patterns of the two native cultures, namely, the agricultural civilization of Great River and the half-agricultural and half-stockbreeding civilization of northern districts. The Valley of Hulu river, located in the northwest, can be the representation of secondary cultures, which originated from civilizations of great river, but dissimilated during the course of spreading abroad towards west.     

西王母神话地域渊源考

在中国神话中,遥远的西方有一位女神,就是西王母。西王母的故事在中国神话乃至中国宗教中具有重要的地位,由西王母演变而来的西华金母更是道教神谱中一位地位显赫的女神,民间世俗信仰中的王母娘娘也是由西王母演变而来的。     

生态旅游:区域可持续发展战略与实践

本文回顾了国际生态旅游发展的基本背景,明确生态旅游实际上是一种区域可持续发展开发的战略。在通过对目前国内生态旅游研究评述的基础上,指出目前我国生态旅游理论研究与实践的不足。本文提出了要站在更高的层次上将生态旅游定位于区域可持续发展的重要战略。同时作为区域可持续发展的实践活动,要从生态旅游认证,生态旅游规划、循环经济与生态工程等3个方面来发展生态旅游,真正体现生态旅游的内涵,确保区域的可持续发展。     

区域旅游产业发展战略研究论纲

本文回顾与反思了我国近年来区域旅游产业发展战略研究的进程,并对我国区域旅游产业发展战略的研究进行了客观分析和评价,提出了区域旅游产业发展战略研究的基本框架,定义、界定,廓清了区域旅游产业发展战略研究的基本体系、概念和范畴,探讨了进行研究的可能范式,认为这一研究对丰富和完善我国旅游经济和区域旅游产业经济研究,推动我国旅游经济健康、稳定和可持续发展将有十分重要的意义和价值。     

Neoliberalism and the Institutions for Regional Development in Australia

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.     

Sectoral Versus Territorial Regional Planning and Development in Norway

New regional policies in Norway and many other countries try to empower their regions through creating a balance between central governing with emphasis on redistribution of activities and resources, and local mobilization with emphasis on self reliance, innovation and learning by doing. In Norway municipalities and counties have for a long period had this double function, but we now see that the vertical policy of implementing national welfare policy has grown and become dominant. As a consequence, the horizontal policy of social mobilization has been neglected, and has to some extent been taken over by inter-municipal and interregional organizations. Normally, these organizations are in practice organized as regional development agencies. They seem to be vulnerable political institutions that seek legitimacy from--and need acceptance and support from--both territorial and sectoral governments. The regional planning process is regarded as an important tool in their political institution building process. In this paper I want to explain how regional planning and institution building in Norway in practice have moved towards a two-parallel system.     

Development in Nunavik: How Regional and Local Initiatives Redefine Sustainable Development in Nunavik

ABSTRACT

For more than 50 years, the Inuit of Nunavik have been subjected to development plans devised in the south by the Government of Canada and Quebec that has a profound impact on Inuit people and their culture. The latest plan, known as Plan Nord, proposes sustainable development for the North based on the protection of 50 percent of the territory. However, the Inuit of Nunavik face many social challenges and this is reflected in the socioeconomic indicators of the region. In order to alleviate these social circumstances, numerous regional and local initiatives are attempting to establish programs better suited to the culture and needs of Nunavimmiut. Examples at the regional level include childcare and midwifery services supported by Quebec. At the local level, initiatives such as the Unaaq Men’s Association and the Innavik Project are making an effort to address local needs. In this paper, following a presentation of the Nunavik governance architecture, we will analyze how local (Unaaq, Innavik) and regional initiatives (Midwifery Program, Childcare, Preparation for Post-Secondary Education, Nunavik Parks) contribute to the sustainable development of Nunavik.