Industrial Policy in Wallonia: A Rupture with the Past?

One of the main issues facing almost all European regional policy-makers is how to ensure a smooth adaptation of their industrial structure in the face of changing societal and technological parameters. In the case of the Belgian region Wallonia, industrial decline has particularly marked the economy during recent decades and the need to promote structural change has been a central preoccupation of national and, subsequently, regional governments. At the same time, the highly complex system of governance in Belgium renders the definition and application of a coherent regional industrial policy difficult. This paper explores the development of industrial policy in the Walloon region with particular attention to the period since 1990 and the pertinence of the instruments and delivery mechanisms with respect to the underlying structural issues facing the regional economy. The paper is divided into four sections: the first offers a historical profile of the industrial development of the Walloon economy and in particular identifies some of the factors which provoked a serious structural crisis. The section reviews the economic impact of the successive phases of rationalization and diversification which have taken place since the 1970s and discusses how the industrial strategies adopted by the business sector and supported by the regional government have influenced the speed of economic regeneration. The second section considers the complex federal system of government in Belgium and how it influences the freedom of action for regional industrial policy. The governance of the economy by the numerous public or semi-public institutions active in the field of industrial policy is a crucial issue. A critical review of the main initiatives, instruments and targets of industrial policy in Wallonia is offered in section three, while the paper concludes by contrasting the Walloon industrial policy with initiatives taken in the neighbouring area of South-West Flanders and ponders the issue of whether in the end the key factor arresting the development of Wallonia is the insufficient level of 'social capital'.     

The Dark Sides of Social Policy: From Neoliberalism to Resurgent Right-wing Populism

This Forum Debate explores the confluence of neoliberal, populist, conservative and reactionary influences on contemporary ideologies and practices of social policy, with a focus on the poorer peripheries of global capitalism. Several fundamental tensions are highlighted, which are largely overlooked by the social policy and development literatures. First, many recent social policy innovations have been discredited by their association with neoliberalism. The rising political Right has been much more successful than the Left at exploiting this discontent, despite simultaneously deepening many aspects of neoliberalism once in power. At the same time, right-wing movements have proactively used social policy as a political tool to fashion the social order along lines deemed amenable for their interests and ideologies, expressed along nationalist, racialized, ethnicized, nativist, religious, patriarchal or other lines, and to innovate practices of segregation, exclusion and subordination. While these synergies of neoliberal and right-wing populism are observed globally, they need to be carefully and differentially interpreted from the perspective of late industrializing (or late welfare state) peripheral countries. Nonetheless, common themes occurring across both centres and peripheries, as identified by the invited contributions to this Debate section, include exclusionary identity politics, hierarchical and subordinating inclusions, and patriarchal familialism. In this context, segregationism is an ominous possibility of post-neoliberal social policy.     

From Contention to Co‐governance: The Case of the Right to Inhabit Movement in Rome (2000–2013)

Based on interviews with activists and local government officials and on secondary data, this paper analyzes the development and effects of the Roman Right to Inhabit Movement (RIM) from its origins till 2014. The first section describes the origins and characteristics of the new housing question in Rome. The second presents a brief genealogy of the RIM, paying special attention to how it has framed the housing question. The third describes the activities of the RIM by focusing on its interplay with the city politics and administration and the resulting changes in the housing policy of the city of Rome. The fourth section analyzes the modes of state regulation and of political articulation of the housing question that these transformations have brought about. The final section argues that these emerging arrangements are a significant example of how new forms of social protection are being created by urban movements after the neoliberal erosion of the welfare mechanisms.     

Weathering the Storm: Social Policy and the Great Recession

This review discusses recent challenges to the welfare state arising from the Great Recession (GR). The GR was a significant event for social policy analysts, as it tested the responsiveness of welfare systems in the midst of a recent trend toward austerity politics in advanced economies. Social policy changes were part of the toolkit advanced democracies used to respond to the GR, and the welfare state mitigated the consequences of the GR. However, a stark limitation of the social safety net in the United States was the failure to assist immigrant households. The nexus of immigration and social policy is likely to be a significant controversy as we consider the meaning of social citizenship.     

The Ecology of Games as a Theory of Polycentricity: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

The Ecology of Games approach to examining complex governance systems in democratic societies has been recently refurbished to infuse renewed vitality in the analysis of institutions and collective action in polycentric governance systems. This opening article to the special issue on the Ecology of Games Theory (EGT) will discuss the main component elements of the theory, as well as recently produced empirical advances that test and extend it. The article is structured in three sections. The first section describes the EGT as a theory of polycentricity and explains why it is critical to study both the structure and function of polycentric governance systems, including collaboration among policy stakeholders, learning about problems, and equitably distributing the resources generated by policy interactions. The second section reviews empirical evidence that examine structure and function in polycentric systems, including their coevolution. Finally, the third section will provide insights on future research needs to strengthen this newly developed theory of polycentricity.     

New Responsibilities of Faith-Related Agencies

Nonprofit agencies with a religious base may be strongly affected by recent public policy changes; they tend to deliver services in areas where federal resources are further declining and are eligible for the special government purchase of service contracts that now may be provided to religious entities. Religious agencies also are now widely expected to deliver uniquely beneficial services and to mobilize social capital to compensate for increasing restrictions of some governmental programs. The current article reports on a qualitative, longitudinal, interview-based investigation of program changes and their relation to policy changes in a two-city sample of what are called "faith-related" agencies. In so doing, it investigates the implications of relying on religious agencies for service delivery. Making use of an extensive framework concerning how agencies are organized, the work finds that faith-related agencies mildly contribute to increased variety of service delivery styles in the examined cities, but that they rarely expand services significantly to meet increased need or otherwise provide dramatically unique service content in response to recent public policy changes. The patterns in part reflect trade-offs between fully emphasizing the unique aspects of religion and entering the public arena, and they thus question the likely role of religion in reforming social service systems.     

De-centring the European union: policy diffusion among European regional organizations – a comment

Abstract

This article comments on the special issue from a political science perspective. It starts with an attempt at interpreting the contributions from a diffusion perspective. The articles show a sophisticated understanding of diffusion as “interdependent decision-making”, that is multi- rather than uni-directional, focuses on diffusion as a process (not an outcome), and takes a decidedly agency-centered view. The article then highlights some of the empirical findings in this special issue. This concerns, among others, the crucial role of the Council of Europe (CoE) as a laboratory for generating new policy ideas and an agenda-setter, as well as the equally important function of the various parliamentary assemblies as mechanisms by which policy ideas diffuse. At the same time, there is also a power story in this special issue. The EC ultimately dominates the processes in most policy areas. The article concludes with remarks on the fruitfulness of an interdisciplinary dialogue between historians and social scientists as documented by this special issue.     

REVIEWING CHILD ABUSE POLICY IN AMERICA: A SOCIAL SERVICE APPROACH

For all the recent attention to the problems of child abuse and neglect, this specific policy area has rarely been examined as belonging to the more general area of social service policy. This article begins to remedy this omission. First, the article examines child abuse policy in terms of the conflicts of value faced in the formation of social service policy. Next, the relationship between child abuse and other recent social service issues responding to familial violence or childhood dependency is discussed. Here the article shows that governmental response to child abuse has been used to encourage governmental interest in adoption reform, sexual exploitation of children, domestic violence, and day care.     

Core and Periphery in the Evolving Russian Economy: Integration or Isolation of the Far East?

An American social scientist explores the relations between core and periphery in the post-Soviet economy, using the Russian Far East as a case study. His analysis draws on Western and Russian conceptual literature on economic peripheries, as well as on the Russian periodical press and recent interviews with officials in the Far East (conducted during research in Primorskiy Kray in January-February 1996). A concluding section outlines policy options for regional development, either in concert with Moscow or through an independent course of action. 52 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O10, P2, R58.     

中国社会服务业外商直接投资的空间格局研究

利用省际数据探讨我国社会服务业FDI的空间集聚特征及格局影响机制,以期从新视角分析各地的对外开放程度。研究发现:①我国社会服务业FDI呈地带性分布特征;②社会服务业FDI的空间布局并不完全追随地区的经济发达程度;③我国社会服务业FDI存在不显著的空间正相关,其空间集聚程度低于生产性服务业FDI;④近年来空间正相关省份数量明显增多,东中部沿海及长三角的极化作用加强。⑤经济发展较快的区域逐渐显示出吸引外资进入社会服务业的优势;⑥政策及实施细则、经济发展水平和行业属性,是空间格局的重要影响机制。     

MIGRATION AND THE WELL-BEING OF THE ‘LEFT BEHIND’ IN ASIA

This paper serves as an introduction to the three substantive papers in this themed section on the impact of migration on the well-being of the ‘left behind’ in Asia. In the light of recent migration trends such as the ‘feminization’ of migration and ‘brain-drain’ of health workers in the region, the paper provides a brief review of the existing scholarly literature on the vulnerability of different groups of the 'left behind’, particularly women, children and the elderly. It argues that a multi-dimensional approach is needed, taking into consideration not only the economic impact of remittances but also factors such as social networks and gender effects.     

Politics of Social Policy in a Late Industrializing Country: The Case of Turkey

This article approaches social policy as an integral component of a capitalist society and, by drawing on the notion of the double movement introduced by Karl Polanyi, argues that social policy intervention both limits and contributes to market expansion. While this argument could be generally applied to recent social policy changes in the current context of economic globalization, these changes were shaped against different histories of social policy development in early and late industrializing countries. This article examines the increasing importance of social policy in late industrializing countries by focusing on the case of Turkey. It is argued that social policy transformation in Turkey has involved the expansion of social security coverage along with the privatization and marketization of health and pension systems. A new system of labour market regulation has contributed to the commodification of labour while the ‘state-supported familialism’, which forms an important aspect of current trends in the area of social care, has served to integrate women in the prevailing flexible employment relations by simultaneously sustaining their position in the gender division of roles within traditional family relations. The populist strategy of polarization pursued by the ruling government is discussed to show how opposition to these trends toward privatization, marketization and labour commodification has been isolated.     

Suburban citizenship? The rise of targeting and the eclipse of social rights in Toronto

The decline of ‘universal’, welfarist forms of social citizenship and the rise of selective or targeted social policy is generally considered to be a recent phenomenon, and a constituent element of neo-liberal citizenship and state forms (Brodie ), or ‘advanced liberal’ technologies of government (Rose ). This paper documents how targeted policies were in fact being defined at the height of Keynesian welfarism, in the newly consolidating post-war suburbs of Toronto. I suggest an alternative account of the genesis of these practices, which sees the spatiality of the post-war metropolis as key. The analysis considers how the mutual consolidation of these social and material spaces, and of hegemonic suburban political practices enabled the articulation of a suburban style of citizenship, which was both intensely familial and entrepreneurial in form. Through a case study in recreation policy in the Toronto region, this paper demonstrates how selective, targeted and residual approaches to service delivery evolved in suburban municipalities in the immediate post-war period, and were only generalized across the city more recently through the restructuring of a municipal amalgamation. It documents how these approaches have relied on radically different assumptions about citizenship that were dependent on the articulation of suburban life, literally built around the private family in private space. Thus this paper also documents ways in which these approaches to social policy, increasingly dominant across a range of policy areas and at a variety of spatial scales, construct gendered and racialized identities and problematize non-nuclear family forms.     

Decentralized Industrial Policies in Practice: The Case of Austria and Styria

Unlike other European countries, most industrial policy in Austria still takes place at the Federal level. With recent open access to European funding programmes on the one hand and increasing regional engagement in industrial policy questions on the other, we see ongoing changes in this structure. As a result, industrial policy strategies for Austria are more and more designed in close complementarity with both international and regional strategies. The recent shift toward technology policy observeable in nearly all industrialized countries has also taken place in Austria and has favoured major urban areas. Nevertheless, a consensus-oriented tradition in stabilization and social policy have had remarkable negative effects on laggard regions up to now. The plan of this paper is documenting the actual situation as well as recent chances in Austrian industrial and technology policy. Furthermore, philosophy, principal targets and instruments of new industrial policy at the Lander level (Styria) are examined to offer a closer view on advantages and possible disadvantages of regional industrial policy.     

转型期乡村多功能性及景观重塑

本文以全球化为背景,阐述了基于乡村发展多功能性和景观功能的概念。乡村多功能概念的兴起,为重新审视乡村地域自力发展带来一种机会,而乡村景观多功能可能是塑造乡村地域多功能的潜在动力和机制。构建乡村景观多功能的目的,主要在于保护和改善农村环境,以维持生物多样性之生态功能和作为旅游和特色文化场所的社会－经济功能,以及传承历史之文化功能。对于现阶段转型中的乡村,应该妥善规划和运用并积极重塑景观的多重功能。通过乡村多功能和景观重塑之讨论,可以为乡村地域景观重塑规划实践策略提供一种新视角。     

A stage and eclectic approach to industrial district development: two policy keys for ‘survival’ clusters in developing countries

This article analyses the history of Italian industrial districts (IDs) to identify lessons to help small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) clusters in developing countries to move to higher stages of development. Transforming the 1990 seminal work of Brusco on distinct models of SME clustering into a stage approach, this article identifies a sequence of different maturity stages which the IDs passed through: initial craft production; industrialization through large firms; the fragmentation of production followed by the growth of smaller specialized units; and, finally, new routes to innovation and competitiveness. These phases help explain how development is a stage process which needs to be carefully considered and not rushed, through attempting to cross too many stages at once. Realistic steps are always necessary to create an effective base for growth. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is presented, which identifies three factorial levels that have intervened in the ID development process over the past 50 years. Economic, policy and social factors are identified and presented as drivers that work together to produce the structural changes that explain an effective development process. The final section emphasizes the relevance that this kind of analysis can have on the policy‐making schemes being applied in developing countries, with special reference to less developed types of clusters.     

THE BUSINESS OF MOBILITY: GEOGRAPHY, LIBERALISM, AND THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS

Inspired by some important inter-disciplinary work in both legal studies and human geography, I explore the vision of geography - with special reference to the theorization of mobility - that appears to be expressed within mainstream legal discourse. I argue that the legal account is premised on the privileging of certain components of liberal thought, including the individual, the private sphere, and concepts of frictionless spatial mobility. I try to demonstrate that this vision is partial and selective and ignores an alternative and insistent account of the geography of social life that appears prevalent within civil society. Evidenced by the reactions of many small towns to threats of economic dislocation, the emphasis here appears to be one that elevates concepts of place and the community. Drawing upon recent higher court decisions in British Columbia concerning the meaning of section 6 (mobility rights) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I argue, firstly, that the legal vision is ultimately indeterminate and contingent but, secondly, that its hegemony has certain implications for social life, social justice, and the city.     

关于黄南州经济更好更快发展的思考

近几年来,国家对藏族聚居区经济建设尤为重视,先后出台了一系列政策。对黄南藏族自治州来说,这是一个难得的历史性机遇。为此,必须认真总结黄南州经济社会发展的经验和教训,深入研究国家藏族聚居区建设政策,推动黄南州经济更好更快更大发展。     

A ‘Europe of the regions’? A view from Liverpool on the Atlantic Arc periphery

The paper attempts to address recent debates surrounding the supposed emergence of a ‘Europe of the Regions'—from the perspective of a city situated at the core of a lagging region’ on the European periphery, Liverpool. After briefly exploring whether the social and economic regeneration of Liverpool makes sense in this European context, the paper attempts to explain why the city's political participation in Europe has hitherto been relatively limited, drawing upon a combination of economic, social, political and cultural factors. Some of the constraints and choices that the city is facing in its attempts at urban regeneration are used to throw light on broader issues surrounding local and regional development in the European context and political and policy lessons are suggested.