This book examines the roles of communities in the general framework of territorial innovation, particularly in the context of less developed regions. With a specific focus on Portugal, it offers conceptual improvements that will be of use to other European regions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of regional governance and politics, from public administration to economics, sociology, geography and political science, as well as to practitioners.

Despite three decades of continuous globalization, transitional economies in many countries remain marginalized. In order to maximize the positive growth of employment creation opportunities in various sectors, including agriculture, existing patterns of long-run sustainable equilibrium relationships, technology transfers, and trade to promote export-led economic growth must be examined and identified. Regional Trade and Development Strategies in the Era of Globalization provides a comprehensive overview of globalization and regional initiative trends of trade and development through the examination of theoretical and practical experiences of their underpinning principles through approaches to overcome the obstacles of globalization and its positive and negative impacts on global trade and economic development. The content within this publication examines economic integration, foreign investment, and financial risk. It is designed for trade specialists, government officials, students, researchers, policymakers, business professionals, academicians, and economists.

'Innovation, Global Change and Territorial Resilience is indeed a timely contribution addressing the challenges that the global economy poses for local, regional and national economies. In the current situation, resilience is instrumental and innovation is the key mechanism to get there. In this volume, an impressive line-up of international authorities in the field – from across Europe and beyond – present highly valuable insights, models and hypotheses on innovation dynamics and activities in current day economics, as well as policy analysis and advice.' – Anders Malmberg, Uppsala University, Sweden the critical message of this book is that in the current context of global change, local and national territories have to upgrade their resilience in terms of improving both their competitiveness and capability to innovate. Localized creativity, small high-tech entrepreneurship, related innovation platforms, social capital embedded in dynamically open territorial communities and context-specific though continuously upgrading policy platforms are all means to face new challenges and to promote increased absorptive capacity within local and national territories. the contributors illustrate that these capabilities are much needed in the current globalized economy as a path towards sustainability and for creating new opportunities for their inhabitants. They analyse the challenges and development prospects of local/regional production systems internally, across territories, and in terms of their potential and territorial connectivity which can help exploit opportunities for proactive policy actions. This is increasingly relevant in the current climate in which the balanced allocation of resources and opportunities, particularly for SMEs, cannot be expected as the automatic result of the working of the market. Exploring conceptual and methodological aspects, and documenting original accounts of innovative territories, this book will be of great interest to academics, students and researchers within the fields of economics, industrial organization, and technology and innovation.

The concept of social innovation offers an alternative perspective on development and territorial transformation, one which foregrounds innovation in social relations. This volume presents a broad-ranging and insightful exploration of social innovation and how it can affect life, society and economy, especially within local communities. It addresses key questions about the nature of social innovation as a process and a strategy and explores what opportunities may exist, or may be generated, for social innovation to nourish human development. It puts forward alternative development options which variously highlight solidarity, co-operation, cultural-artistic endeavour and diversity. In doing so, this book offers a provocative response to the predominant neoliberal economic vision of spatial, economic and social change.

In the face of megatrends such as globalisation, climate and demographic change, digitalisation and urbanisation, many cities and regions are grappling with critical challenges to preserve social inclusion, foster economic growth and transition to the low carbon economy. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set the global agenda for the coming decade to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. A Territorial Approach to the Sustainable Development Goals argues that cities and regions play a critical role in this paradigm shift and need to embrace the full potential of the SDGs as a policy tool to improve people's lives. The report estimates that at least 105 of the 169 SDG targets will not be reached without proper engagement of sub-national governments. It analyses how cities and regions are increasingly using the SDGs to design and implement their strategies, policies and plans; promote synergies across sectoral domains; and engage stakeholders in policy making. The report proposes an OECD localised indicator framework that measures the distance towards the SDGs for more than 600 regions and 600 cities in OECD and partner countries. The report concludes with a Checklist for Public Action to help policy makers implement a territorial approach to the SDGs.

This pioneering volume proposes a compelling new theory of how regions have sustained their economic viability in the era of multinational corporations. Unlike traditional approaches, which analyze economic systems in terms of their mechanics (inputs, outputs, prices, technology, etc.), this work views them as systems for coordinating human actions and relationships. Reconceptualizing the role of learning, technology, and local institutions in development, Storper illuminates the key role of regional economies as building blocks of the increasingly connected world. A thought-provoking and timely work, The Regional World carries resounding implications for educators, students, and policymakers in economic geography, economic sociology, and international business. It is an essential primary or supplementary text for graduate-level courses on economic, regional, or industrial development and policy and international business.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of contemporary issues of regional development. It places particular emphasis on its socio-economic and socio-political determinants which accompany the problem of existing and ever-widening differences in the level of regional development in various parts of Europe. In order to diagnose the scale of those differences and to indicate the main forces behind the divergence of development, the authors propose an original systematisation of regional development factors, drawing attention to the need to consider them within the framework of present-day socio-economic megatrends. The proposed approach to the development factors is also used for the author's operationalisation of the concept of territorial capital, which is at the centre of regional place-based policy. The wide spatial aspect of the analysis (national and local) and its extensive temporal scope (2004-2019) yields unique results and creates an important element of added value for this book, which shows the regularities of the process of regional development in Europe at three spatial levels - pan-European, national and intra-regional. Furthermore, it indicates the challenges faced by regionalists who attempt to carry out research on different territorial levels with a diverse number of units (205 EU regions, 16 Polish voivodeships, 2,478 Polish local units) and extended observation periods (2004-2017). The solutions proposed by the authors, who show the potential of overcoming the barriers resulting from limited access to complete and comparable statistical data series, should be inspiring for many researchers. The unique results of direct research carried out on a large sample of respondents and entrepreneurs via diverse field research techniques constitute a valuable source of information on local conditions that impact contemporary development processes in less developed regions. Their value is even greater because they were carried out in a unique laboratory created by the authors for testing the regularity of formation and impact of socio-economic development factors in various locally determined conditions of this process. It consists of purposefully selected test units (LAU2). Located in a less developed region, they represent all growth types and functional test units identified in the course of the research. Consequently, the results obtained may be generalised and applied to other areas showing similar features of territorial capital. The monograph is addressed primarily to a wide group of regionalists connected with economic and social sciences as well as to practitioners involved in the implementation of development policies at various levels.

This report sets out how regional policies in Peru can help it to improve productivity and maintain its growth trajectory. It also includes recommendations for how Peru can develop a comprehensive approach to urban policy, including enhancing linkages with rural areas.

Introduces the learning region as a theory to explain how regional actors perform regional learning. This title presents a discussion of concepts such as regional networks and social capital. It focuses on learning between regional actors and the relations they have with one another and with other actors in their social context.