REGinTRAN · Advanced manufacturing and the transition of regional economies: institutions, social regulation and development in Apulia and Lower Silesia

Advanced manufacturing and the transition of regional economies: institutions, social regulation and development in Apulia and Lower Silesia

REGinTRAN aimed to analyze under which conditions industrial policies in less developed regions might encourage an inclusive development trajectory. Industrial upgrading through the promotion of export-oriented manufacturing sectors is indeed considered as a development receipt for less developed regions in so far it tries to bind together mainstream approaches based on the attraction of investments with concerns for local economic development in terms of employment, gender dynamics and sustainable livelihoods. However, the impact of these industrial strategies on local economies is controversial. Industrial upgrading might turn out to be a re-looked version of traditional inward economic development policies which prioritize firm profitability over collective oriented objectives, namely improving workers conditions and citizens’ well-being. In that regard REGinTRAN aimed at scrutinizing the role that territorial politics and collective action might play in promoting industrial policies that can discipline the behavior of transnational market actors by introducing specific control mechanisms and criteria of redistribution to the local community. The research builds on a comparison of two regions located in the old and new European peripheries and analyzes the socio-political processes underlying the building of an autonomous development agenda. The economic peripherality of the two regions together with the heritage of a public culture shaped by a political and administrative dependency on the central state are two structural economic and institutional conditions that constrain the marge of manœuvre of local political and social actors to develop an autonomous agenda and steer socio-economic change. The project raised two interrelated issues which are important for society. First, the analysis aimed to disentangle the political dilemmas that peripheral local societies face when struggling to promote at the same time industrial upgrading and inclusive development. In that regard it aimed to recast traditional policy-receipts that use to put the emphasis on the virtues of managerial reforms to strengthen the institutional capacity of sub-national governments at the expenses of the promotion of forms of social and political democracy and representation. Secondly, the research touches upon governance problems by exploring the linkages between sectoral (industrial development) and territorial (regional development) policies. In that regard the research contributes to highlight the existing limits of industrial policies in adopting a place-base perspective driven by the objective of promoting a more even distribution of opportunities for people in the places where they live. Theoretically the project aimed at questioning the processes and mechanisms through which actors can deploy a capacity to bring about change in highly constrained contexts. The research aimed at contributing to an interdisciplinary literature on institutional and political change and globalization. The project was also driven by a policy-oriented objective in so far it aimed to study common challenges faced by the two regions in promoting an autonomous development agenda and inclusive development and to highlight approaches for overcoming lock-in effects to dependent models of development.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз