Workshop 2.3: ESPON TeDi
The use of comparative advantages
in regional strategy building.
Open Seminar
ESPON Evidence for
Regional Policy-Making
Contributing to the Europe 2020 Strategy
9-10 June 2010
Alcalá de Henares, Spain
The ESPON TeDi project team
- Island Consulting Services, Malta
- University of Akureyri, Iceland
Erik Gløersen
Demographic trends
Erik Gløersen
Age structure
Pronounced ageing in many
localities,
but also significant overrepresentations of young people
High age dependency ratios are
a shared feature of most areas
Erik Gløersen
Economic activities
Main deviations from average
profile of case study areas
 Diversity of situations
Erik Gløersen
Economic activities
Relative importance of
- Agriculture
- Services
- Manufacturing
Erik Gløersen
Economic activities
Deviations from average
profile in terms of
employment per
economic branch.
Erik Gløersen
Ensuring a sustainable development based on
regional comparative advantages
-
The assets are generally well identified
-
However, the analysis of key obstacles to their exploitation is generally
insufficent, e.g:
- Demographic decline
- Lack of appropriate competencies
- Insufficiently developed infrastructure
-
Conceptualisation of
development opportunities
as a combination of factors
that need to be brought into
coherence
 Capacity of an approach
based on regions with
geographic specificities
to contribute to this.
Erik Gløersen
Ensuring a sustainable development based on
regional comparative advantages
-
Identification of situations where the market fails to take proper
advantage of an identified resource.
-
Insufficient regional returns on the exploitation of natural resources
 Acknowledging the existence of conflicting interests at different
territorial scales
-
Multiplicity of development models that needs to be recognised
 Challenging the monolitical character of the Lisbon agenda
Erik Gløersen
Improving the foundation of development
•
Overcoming the duality in local development strategies,
– Seeking to assert their uniqueness
– While also aspiring to mainstream development objectives-
•
Question of the institutional capacity to formulate strategies: The case
study regions have developed variable solutions to design a
development strategy based on their unique characteristics;
•
The relative isolation of many TeDi areas limits the capacity to see
opportunities and think out of the box.
•
The value of wide ranging, incremental approaches of innovation could
be further recognised;
•
Self-perception and identity need to be further highlighted as central
factors of local development.
Erik Gløersen
Achieving a continuous long-term improvement
of quality of life
•
A number of recurring issues in the TeDi areas:
– Income
– Gender balance
– Focus on youth as a basis for economic development
– Branding, self-perception
– Symbolic role of knowledge-intensive activities
– Minimal requirements in terms of services
– Diversity of lifestyles as a European value
•
The main issues are however related to small and (relative) isolation of
settlements
•
A more in depth undetstanding of the importance of promoting
alternative lifestyles as an instrument of territorical cohesion.
Erik Gløersen
Inputs to European policy debates
Conceptual clarifications needed:
(1) Level of performance ≠ Structural obstacles to growth
 More than average scores ≠ good scores
 Geographically specific area ≠ Lagging area
(2) Economic importance ≠ Economic weight
(3) Balanced, harmonious and sustainable development requires
more than economic growth
 geographic specificities may help identifying
contradictions and mutually beneficial effects of different
types of policies
Erik Gløersen
Inputs to European policy debates
Dealing with geographic specificities is often about creating
new types of connections between areas
- Within regions
- Across regional and national boundaries



Compensating for imbalances in flows
Creating alliances through which actors can strengthen
the robustness and resilience of their local communities
Gaining greater weight in economic and political
systems dominated by main urban areas
At the European scale, a change of focus of territorial
policies, incorporating the sub-regional scale is
required to encourage and accompany these
processes.
The focus should be on potentials rather than on
relative performance
Erik Gløersen
Economic development strategies
for ”Territorial Diversity”
The second main policy perspective concerns the defense of
a European model of society.
Is a maintained human presence justified everywhere?
If one does acknowledge that some presence and certain
types of resource exploitation are needed,
the question are
- what social form this should take,
- what public interventions are required for this
purpose.
Erik Gløersen