Knowledge and Proximity

Over the years knowledge has come to be seen as crucial for economic progress, and proximity as conducive to knowledge exchange. As a result, knowledge-related processes are often considered as possible explanation of the spatial agglomeration of economic activities. However, knowledge and proximity are general concepts that have to be detailed before it is possible to specify the concrete mechanisms at work. Building on recent work that focuses on proximity, this paper develops a perspective in which proximity features as an enabling element, but no more than that, in ongoing processes of knowledge creation, transfer, absorption, and change. We argue that knowledge is to be viewed as activity and process, rather than object or commodity. Concentrating on “knowledge agents”—those engaged in knowledge-related processes, individuals and collectives—will be more productive than persisting to rely on the distinction between tacit and codified knowledge to explain spatial aspects of the economy. Finally, we argue that regions are different when it comes to the extent, and the way, they facilitate creation, transfer, and other knowledge processes. Contributions to local or regional economic development, whether through research or policy, have to take existing repertoires—patterns in collective knowledge—into account.     

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.     

The Scientific Trajectory of the French School of Proximity: Interaction- and Institution-based Approaches to Regional Innovation Systems

The multi-faceted concept of proximity is often used nowadays in many theoretical and empirical analyses. It mainly originates in some French regional scientists' attempt, in the early 1990s, to develop new conceptual and methodological avenues with a view to the study of the industrial and spatial dynamics. The wide diffusion of the resulting research findings is explained by the fact that these scholars realized early on that it was in their interest to collectively structure their works through the setting-up of a research group. The present paper sets out to outline the scientific and institutional trajectories of the French group “Proximity Dynamics”, while underlining the progressive broadening of its scientific and institutional dimensions, as well as the main theoretical research fields these trajectories have permitted to investigate.     

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.     

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.     

Proximity and the trust formation process

Trust is a key mechanism for explaining the ease and frequency of knowledge spillovers within regions. While the importance of trust is virtually uncontested, there have been few attempts to rigorously disentangle the way in which trust formation is related to space and proximity. The aim of this paper is to advance the understanding of trust formation in terms of its main antecedents within the context of regional studies. This is done by reviewing the rich literature on trust formation from psychology, sociology, and organization studies and connecting it conceptually to different types of proximity. In doing so, the paper maps out a number of avenues for future research on trust and geography.     

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.     

市场经济体制下的民族区域自治法与民族关系的深化发展

《民族区域自治法》是我国的一项基本法律．是少数民族和民族地区经济化发展和各民族共同繁荣的法律保障。《民族区域自治法》颁布至今．民族地区在各个层次各个领域都取得了较大的发展,这有力地促进了民族关系的健康发展。与此同时．《民族区域自治法》自身也有许多不完善之处。我们必须根据社会主义市场经济的总体要求．修订《民族区域自治法》．确保民族自治地方的自治地位．最终达到促进民族关系深化发展的目的。     

Proximity,trust and morality in networks

Network interaction is embedded in social settings, which allows for the development of trust. Trust is supposed to be an efficient functional equivalent of contracts, guarantees, insurances, safeguards, etc. Trust between actors reduces transaction costs. However, trust cannot be introduced and enforced within interaction relationships. It is argued that trust is more likely to occur and to be prevalent when actors have the spatial capability for personal, direct interaction. Thus, proximity and trust are supposed to be positively related to each other. Proximity is strongly interrelated with embeddedness. In the discussion about morality in organisations, there is an assumption we referred to as the 'moral spill-over effect': it is impossible, it is said, to restrict moral competencies and moral behaviour to one particular situation, environment, or topic. However, we argue that, even though trust is a term that is described in moral theory, trust and morality are not necessarily positively correlated. This means that even if embeddedness and proximity in a network lead to an increase of trust between network partners, it does not necessarily produce moral spill-over effects. Thus, proximity and morality do not necessarily have to be positively correlated with each other. The influence of proximity on morality can be positive or negative, depending on the social surrounding in which network collaboration is embedded.     

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.     

影响中日关系发展的深层原因解析

近年来,日本对华政策趋于强硬,对华政策中的消极面逐渐凸现。由此．造成了中日关系的“政冷经热”局面。特别是近一段时期以来,由于日本现任主要领导人依然没有完全放弃参拜靖国神社的立场,日美两国公然把台湾问题列为日美共同战略目标之一,日本还在教科书问题上．在东海油气田开采、专署经济区划分和钓鱼岛主权归属上咄咄逼人,态度强硬,企图逼中国让步,并公开阻挠欧盟解除对华军售禁令等,致使中日关系出现了复杂局面。此外,日本企图在未解决历史问题之前急于成为联合国安理会常任理事国的做法,也引起了包括中国在内的许多国家人民的强烈不满。     

唐代洛阳的地域文化与职官制度

本文第一部分论述了洛阳职官制度的特殊性在洛阳地区形成了有利于文化发展的三大条件 :一 ,聚集了大量的官僚 ;二 ,分司官职务悠闲 ;三 ,能吸引青年人来洛阳。以此来说明唐代洛阳文化繁荣的部分原因。在第二部分 ,解释了河南尹清静为治以及赤县令以社会治安为政绩的原因     

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。