Piloting Regional Innovation or Much Ado about Nothing?—Evaluating the R&D Policy Initiative of Nordland,Norway

This article evaluates the results of almost a decade of experience with regional R&D development and implementation for enhanced innovation in the county of Nordland, Norway. Following a 2002 national devolution initiative, the county of Nordland was the first among Norwegian counties to coin and implement a distinct R&D policy for business-related innovation and development. This was done by setting up a broad regional partnership, framing a regional strategy and by coordinating substantial budgetary resources to implement the strategy. The evaluation describes the results of this process as ambiguous. This article looks at the process from three perspectives. First, we look at the organizational side of how the policy formation and implementation processes have performed. Second, we evaluate the business community response to the policy initiative to see whether any signs of altered behaviour can be found. Third, we look at how the partnership dynamic can explain policy outcomes. Theoretically and policy-wise we then discuss how our findings contribute to new insights in the field of analysing and generating regional innovation policy.     

Interpretation of archaeological small-scale features in spectral images

The paper's focus is the use of spectral images for the distinction of small archaeological anomalies on the basis of the authors work. Special attention is given to the ground truthing perspective in the discussion of a number of cases from Norway. Different approaches to pattern-recognition are considered in the light of the increasing availability of hyperspectral images that are difficult to analyse using visual inspection alone.     

Patterns of fertility change in Ghana: a time and space perspective

This article examines fertility change in Ghana based on a time and space perspective. The sample draws on three birth cohorts of women born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, resident in five distinct societies selected from three settlements in Ghana. The findings of the study show that fertility change is occurring in a socioeconomic and geographically distinct manner. Significant fertility declines are traced to the 1960 birth cohorts in all the study areas. For the 1970 cohort this decline continues in the elite areas whereas the urban indigenous areas exhibit a rise in teenage fertility which is not, however, followed by higher fertility after the age of 20. In the rural area fertility rises from the 1960 to the 1970 cohort up to age 24, which is the end point of study for this cohort. The spatial variability between the five study areas has profound implications for the ongoing fertility change in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa.