Nowadays Vilnius Region is a territory divided between Lithuania and Belarus. Many changes in political affiliation during last ten centuries caused that now it is still a region inhabited by many different nations: Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Belarusian, Jewish etc. An existence of so many nations in this area caused lot of conflicts but also some forms of cooperation. During many years Lithuania and Poland was one country and lots of mutual historical facts are evaluated totally different by both sides. In 2004 Lithuania became a member of European Union what caused that part of historical Vilnius Region came under UE law. It has changed a situation of national minorities in this territory.
The 'Europe of the Regions' debate in the late 1980s and early 1990s influenced the current regionalization process in Sweden; regional actors used it as an argument for further decentralisation of power with a degree of success (Warleigh-Lack & Stegmann McCallion 2012). Thus one important element in any discussion around a 'Europe of the Regions' and its possible obsolescence is its impact not just at the EU level but also in the regionalization processes within member states. If the EU is a multi-level polity, then for a Europe of the Regions truly to be 'obsolete', it must be absent at each level of the polity, in each member state. This article argues that a Europe of the Regions is far from obsolete, although it may well be patchy and expressed differently, and to different degrees, in each EU state. Focusing on the case of Swedish regional actors, the paper argues that officials and politicians from this level, who participate in politics at the EU level or in the EU arena, see this participation as a win-win situation that they wish to preserve.
Der Begriff Region wird je nach dem wissenschaftlichen, politischen, kulturellen oder sozio-ökonomischen Kontext unterschiedlich definiert und interpretiert. Es besteht Einigkeit, dass es keine allgemeingültigen "Universalregionen" gibt, sondern dass Regionen merkmals- und zweckspezifische Konstrukte sind. Regionsbildung erfolgt unter empirisch-analytischen oder normativ-programmatischen Aspekten sowie nach Ähnlichkeits- ider Verflochtenheitsprinzipien.
According to economic theory, regional development can be achieved by economic and non-economic development. By the term regional development we understand an economic and also a social process, which aims to create a viable and productive territory. One of the objectives of regional development is to start the process of building a sustainable competitiveness of the region through the effective use of its potential and spatial peculiarities on the basis of monitoring and analysis of market needs and competitive behavior. Regional development has its own characteristics, which should be respected because they are mainly due to the landscape pattern. Each area fulfills concrete economic and social functions that affect the pattern of the landscape potential. An attractive area has better chance to succeed in the market area, because it attracts financial and high-quality human capital that can provide its further development, prosperity and wealth growth then. The competition of market areas is as strongly as in other markets, so most of the procedure for draft the strategies of the regional development has a common base - searching for competitive advantage. At the present time, in creating competitive advantage, the focus is removing from orientation of the market share growth to the efficiency growth in terms of improving competitive advantage. Every region achieves a competitive advantage in a different way in dependence on its potential, on environment in which exist, on the market in which is active and on its competitors. If the region will be competitive and thrifty, it must capture and retain creative people. This is possible only if combine talent, technology and tolerance in region. Most of new, creative thoughts and ideas originate by interpersonal interaction mainly among different and talented persons. An important role plays an education and contiguous information and knowledge transfer. Talented persons are mostly concentrated in cities, especially in capital cities. In consideration of the population of Slovak Republic is therefore important that all municipalities should have develop their own talents, constrict new talent and practice tolerance by respect for diversity. This approach forms the basis for definition competitive and also creative strategies of development of the municipalities, cities or whole regions. A serious problem that needs to be solving in connection with the development of talents at the local level is the cooperation among government, business sector, universities and cultural institutions. The paper deals with the creativity of regions and its monitoring in the region of Žilina. The measurement will be realized by the selected indicators of creativity.
What role will the 'regions' play in the emerging governance structures of the European Union? This unit examines the rise of the regions and regionalism in Western Europe. You will look at the possible development pathways for Europe: will it become a Federal super-state or a decentralised 'Europe of the Regions'?
Nicht Nationen, sondern Regionen sind die Hauptakteure der Weltwirtschaft und damit auch die maßgeblichen Träger der nationalen und weltweiten Wirtschaftsleistung. Doch in zunehmendem Maße entwickelt sich zwischen den Regionen ein Wettbewerb um Investoren, Anwohner und Touristen. Wollen Regionen in diesem sich verschärfenden Konkurrenzkampf bestehen, so müssen sie ein professionelles Konzept des Regionenmarkteing entwickeln und umsetzen. In diesem Beitrag werden die wesentlichen Elemente des Marketing-Managements für Regionen skizziert. Sie reichen von der Situationsanalyse über die planung der Marketing-Konzeption, d.h. der Ziele, Strategien und Maßnahmen des Marketing, bis hin zur Umsetzung und Kontrolle der Konzeption des Regionenmarketing.
Regional studies are right in the center of scientific and political discourse at the moment; regional issues acquire special significance in the countries with a transition economy. However, there is still no clear definition of the term "region". Due to its multifaceted nature, it certainly has natural, cultural, economic, political, and social dimension. At the same time, this term occupies a wide range of phenomena from small parts of countries to huge continental interstate formations. The goal of this paper is the analysis of various theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of the region. We have brought different approaches, from the classical school to the New Economic Geography. The latter considers the region as a unit of space for economic activities. Thus, the region becomes a multidisciplinary object of research within the framework of economic theory and economic geography. In Europe, the integration processes put the region on the forefront of economic policy. The issues of regional policy are equally important in the light of the economic modernization processes taking place in Russia and Serbia. This article also summarizes the experience of regional studies of Serbian and Russian schools. The results can be used in further theoretical and applied research, writing theses in the field of economics and economic geography.
Acknowledgement: The University of Malta would like to acknowledge its gratitude to the Committee of the Regions of the European Union for their permission to upload this work on OAR@UoM. Further reuse of this document can be made, provided the source is acknowledged. This work was made available with the help of the Publications Office of the European Union, Copyright and Legal Issues Section. ; Since the opening of accession negotiations in February 2000 with six new candidate countries (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia), as decided by the Helsinki European Council, the Committee of the Regions entered in a pre-accession dialogue with the regions and cities of these countries as well as making initial contacts with those of Turkey. The CoR has had a key contribution to make to the success of the forthcoming EU enlargement due to its closeness to citizens and to its natural links with the local and regional elected representatives of the applicant countries. Indeed, the CoR first made contact with elected representatives of the candidate countries in 1997. These relations have been formalized through the establishment of a number of joint committees for the Association Council with representatives of local and regional authorities of candidate countries, and the CoR now plans to welcome these colleagues as observers. The local and regional authorities of the applicant countries have a major role to play in developing modem democracy in their countries and implementing pre-enlargement institutional reforms. In addition, the success of accession to the European Union relies on a better preparation and information of the citizens of these countries, and here again local and regional authorities have high responsibilities. And we know their role will grow further, especially with the process of devolution currently underway in these countries. This study complements the first CoR study "A Europe of Regions and Cities - Strategies and Prospects for EU Enlargement" on the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus published in 2000. It highlights significant differences with the countries dealt with in the first study in particular a strong history of centralism. However, there are positive driving forces to decentralisation and regionalisation to be seen, such as a convergence of regional identities and regional administrative structures. ; N/A
The author of the paper offers as his central thesis a need for a certain degree of flexibility when it comes to setting up structures for the region, be this at national or international level. Such a flexibilizing is here felt to be a need imposed by the speed of the changes being suffered by regions on account of economic globalization and the democratic demands now made upon the regional setup as such. So that such a degree of flexibilizing might be achieved. the paper recommends a renouncing of any directing initiatives and a "from the centre downwards" philosophy when it comes to defining a region that this thinking be replaced by initiatives springing from its social basis which would lead on to defining of the region in terms of neighbouring territories and even of those with no common border or even of different countries. The technological and scientific revolution now under way is seen to call for new ways of understanding the region given that once long-standing limits founded upon territorial neighbourhood and their size no longer hold. Structural complexity is now the over-ridding factor in identifying regions, it is felt. their size being of little at the moment. The paper proposes a new typology for regions in which would figure 'pivotting' regions, these being the smaller units in our present-day political and administrative configuration but at the same time of a sufficient complexity as entities, associative regions which would freely enter into political association and count among them at least one pivoting region and one or more of the political and administrative regions neighbouring this and 'virtual' regions, created by tacit agreement between pivoting regions or associative regions when not sharing common borders. The Columbian Constitution is said here to offer a practical legal framework in which the above suggestions could be accommodated. The Peruvian Constitution is likewise felt to offer regional flexibility whereas that of Chile is. on the contrary, utterly inflexible. ; El autor plantea una tesis central: la necesidad de introducir un considerable grado de flexibilidad en la generación de estructuras regionales. tanto al interior de los países como en términos supra-nacionales. La flexibilidad es un requisito impuesto por la velocidad del cambio en el entorno regional. por la globalización de las economias y por los requerimientos democráticos en la conformación de regiones. Al fin de alcanzar tal grado de flexibilidad, se propone abandonar los esfuerzos dirigistas y "del centro hacia abajo" en la conformación de las regiones, para dar paso a iniciativas que surjan de la base social y que permitan la configuración regional entre territorios contiguos y también, entre territorios no contiguos, incluso, no necesariamente pertenecientes al mismo pais. La revolución científica y tecnológica en marcha obliga a idear nuevas formas de región, dando por superadas antiguas restricciones vinculadas a la contigüidad de los territorios integrantes y al tamaño de ellas. La complejidad estructural es ahora el factor crucial para identificar regiones, no importando su tamaño. En la propuesta se presenta una nueva tipologia regional en la cual se reconocen regiones pivotales (correspondientes a las menores unidades de la actual división político-administrativa que sean al mismo tiempo de una suficiente complejidad), regiones asociativas (conformadas por la unión política voluntaria entre a lo menos una región pivotal y una o más unidades político-administrativas colindantes), y regiones virtuales (conformadas mediante acuerdos tácticos entre regiones pivotales o entre regiones asociativas sin que medie contigüidad entre ellas). La Constitución de Colombia representa un marco jurídico práctico que permite encuadrar justamente este tipo de proposiciones. La Constitución del Perú también es un ejemplo de flexibilidad regional en tanto que, por el contrario, la Constitución de Chile es totalmente mandatoria.
The prosperity of the capital city and surrounding area has been used as one fundamental argument for localisation of large foreign companies. But recent research on regional systems of innovation has emphasised, not just the structure of the system, like strong educational institutions, better transportation systems and access to political actors, but also the local knowledge base as determinants. Today, the structural factors are less important in part because of ICT, but also because policy initiatives have become embedded in the local political system, whereas the local knowledge base and access to highly specialised personnel like engineers (Dalum et al., 1999) are strongly emphasised. The success factors of a region has been narrowed down to eight (Isaksen (1998) and Voyer (1998)): specialisation within one or more industries; the role of local networks; availability of R&D and educational institutions; access to a qualified work force; access to competent financial institutions; cooperation between firms and other institutions; contacts to knowledgeable milieus elsewhere and a high degree of innovativeness (differences are seen between Isaksen and Voyer, these eight are based on Isaksen (op. cit. page 15-21). The aim of this paper is to explore some of the above mentioned success characteristics for the 14 counties ('aemter') in Denmark to discuss whether the main economic region in Denmark is also the competence region, and to what extent it is successful. The paper tries to assess to what extent the financial strengths or weaknesses reflect the innovation capacity of the region and how the relationship evolves over time. Furthermore, the paper attempts to identify the main drivers of growth within the regional system of innovation. Hence, does the capital region (Copenhagen and surroundings) of Denmark encompass better conditions in terms of the local knowledge base, the scientific and technical potential and the availability of trained personnel than the Western part of Denmark (incl. Funen and Jutland) for the development of knowledge intensive clusters. A discussion of the terms economic and competence region is given in the paper and indicators are applied. The local knowledge base is in particular thought of as the technological and scientific knowledge, which are proxied by patents, bibliometrics and educational data. The dual nature of knowledge production is stressed in the discussion of the regions. On the one hand, the firm localises in areas of complementary knowledge assets within the same industry, but benefits can accrue to a region from the activities of firms in that region (Voyer 1998: 81) as well. Furthermore, the role of universities and research institutes is important in two respects, first as sources of significant innovation-generating knowledge (Acs et al. 1998: 112), and second as educators of future employees of the firms in the region (for empirical tests see Almeida (1999)). To address these issues, the paper presents indicators of the science potential, the availability of personnel as well as the density of scientific and technical personnel. Finally, the role of local policy makers is discussed in two short case studies in the final part of the paper. From the descriptive parts the paper moves on to test whether the above variables are determinants of value added (economic growth), technological specialisation (strong local knowledge base) and international .?
"Ich kann mir unter Großregion den SaarLorLux-Raum vorstellen und Trier noch mit einbezogen." – solche und ähnliche Antworten geben Grenzgänger auf die Frage nach der 'Großregion'. Dabei kommen erstaunliche Gebietszuschnitte zum Vorschein: "Ich würde mal behaupten, dass damit Luxemburg gemeint ist." oder "Alles, was so um Trier drumherum gehört." Die Zitate zeigen, dass sich die Menschen unterschiedliche Begriffe von der 'Großregion' machen, hierfür unterschiedliche Bezeichnungen verwenden und schließlich das verfehlen, was von politischer Seite einmal als 'Großregion' definiert wurde. Ferdinand de Saussure folgend sollten das Bezeichnete (politisches Gebiet 'Großregion'), sein subjektiver Begriff und das Bezeichnende (Name 'Großregion') eindeutig zusammengehören. Das gelingt jedoch nicht immer angesichts der vielfältigen Gebietszuschnitte sowie der etwas sperrigen Setzung durch den Gipfel : Großregion Saarland - Lothringen - Luxemburg - Rheinland-Pfalz - Wallonische Region - Französische Gemeinschaft Belgiens - Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens.
International audience ; The 'region' has been a prominent focus of economic development studies for many years, fuelling conceptual and political debates about the relevance of this particular scale of activity as a unit of analysis and a site of social activity. Although these questions are still far from resolved, the nature of the debate has shifted decisively towards a larger, more compelling question – namely the scope for sustainable development in capitalist societies.
The authors look at the concept of social facilitation as a possible component of Russian social consolidation in the course of social reforms. The article focuses on the results of an empirical study of the levels and characteristics of competence in social facilitation, which is here understood as the ability to apply certain knowledge and systems of skills and as a success rate of actions based on experience in improving the conditions of social development. The study was conducted in the Kaliningrad region in 2012-2013. The data was obtained through a survey of 400 respondents using the authors' methodology encompassing eight basic elements of competence and a structured interview aimed at a better understanding of the subject of the study and attitudes towards it. The data is compared against the results of a similar study in two regions of central Russia with similar conditions.The results suggest a disharmonic and inconsistent structure of competence in social facilitation, low motivation for social activity in youth, and a narrow range of ideas about possible areas of personal activities in the current conditions. Gender differences are identified in the level and structure of competence.The authors believe that certain differences in competence components identified through mathematical methods are determined by the geographical characteristics of the Kaliningrad regionits exclave nature, a relatively small territory, and proximity to the EU countries. It is stressed that the regional conditions affecting motivation, forms and areas of activities, and structure of experience should be taken into account in selecting means and methods of organising youth activities. They can also serve as a basis for the regional youth policy.
The conceptual bases of resilience in modern political science are analyzed, including the key conceptual approaches that are used in academic studies for understanding the policy of resilience, characterizing the reaction of subjects to stress or threat of any kind and origin. The concept of resilience is applied to analyze the cooperation among the Baltic-Black Sea countries as a regional interaction model which should be formed in order to reduce or avoid security crises. The Baltic-Black Sea countries have developed and formed strong ties in different dimensions among one another, opening an opportunity for intellectual adventures in the area of the conceptualization of their interaction modes under the regional cooperation frameworks. Based upon the analyzed doctrinal views and available documentary backgrounds on resilience in the UN and the EU, the possible visions and scenarios for the creation of the Baltic-Black Sea region as a resilient one are given. The existing and potential obstacles to cooperation in the region are highlighted. The main threats and challenges for the Baltic-Black Sea region at present are investigated. ; W artykule przeanalizowano koncepcyjne podstawy odporności we współczesnych naukach politycznych, w tym kluczowe podejścia koncepcyjne stosowane w badaniach naukowych zmierzających do zrozumienia polityki odporności, charakteryzujące reakcję badanych na stres lub zagrożenie dowolnego rodzaju i pochodzenia. Pojęcie odporności zastosowano do analizy współpracy między krajami regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego jako regionalnego modelu interakcji, który należałoby utworzyć w celu ograniczenia lub uniknięcia kryzysów bezpieczeństwa. Kraje regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego stworzyły i rozwinęły łączące je na różnych płaszczyznach silne więzi, co otwiera okazję do intelektualnego przedsięwzięcia w zakresie konceptualizacji trybów interakcji występujących między nimi w ramach współpracy regionalnej. W oparciu o przeanalizowane poglądy doktrynalne i dostępną dokumentację dotyczącą odporności w ONZ i UE, przedstawiono możliwe wizje i scenariusze utworzenia region Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego jako regionu odpornego. Wskazano na istniejące i potencjalne przeszkody we współpracy w regionie. Zbadano aktualnie występujące główne zagrożenia i wyzwania dla regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego.
The conceptual bases of resilience in modern political science are analyzed, including the key conceptual approaches that are used in academic studies for understanding the policy of resilience, characterizing the reaction of subjects to stress or threat of any kind and origin. The concept of resilience is applied to analyze the cooperation among the Baltic-Black Sea countries as a regional interaction model which should be formed in order to reduce or avoid security crises. The Baltic-Black Sea countries have developed and formed strong ties in different dimen¬sions among one another, opening an opportunity for intellectual adventures in the area of the conceptualization of their interaction modes under the regional cooperation frameworks. Based upon the analyzed doctrinal views and available documentary backgrounds on resilience in the UN and the EU, the possible visions and scenarios for the creation of the Baltic-Black Sea region as a resilient one are given. The existing and potential obstacles to cooperation in the region are highlighted. The main threats and challenges for the Baltic-Black Sea region at present are investigated. ; W artykule przeanalizowano koncepcyjne podstawy odporności we współczesnych naukach politycznych, w tym kluczowe podejścia koncepcyjne stosowane w badaniach naukowych zmierzających do zrozumienia polityki odporności, charakteryzujące reakcję badanych na stres lub zagrożenie dowolnego rodzaju i pochodzenia. Pojęcie odporności zastosowano do analizy współpracy między krajami regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego jako regionalnego modelu interakcji, który należałoby utworzyć w celu ograniczenia lub uniknięcia kryzysów bezpieczeństwa. Kraje regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego stworzyły i rozwinęły łączące je na różnych płaszczyznach silne więzi, co otwiera okazję do intelektualnego przedsięwzięcia w zakresie konceptualizacji trybów interakcji występujących między nimi w ramach współpracy regionalnej. W oparciu o przeanalizowane poglądy doktrynalne i dostępną dokumentację dotyczącą odporności w ONZ i UE, przedstawiono możliwe wizje i scenariusze utworzenia region Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego jako regionu odpornego. Wskazano na istniejące i potencjalne przeszkody we współpracy w regionie. Zbadano aktualnie występujące główne zagrożenia i wyzwania dla regionu Morza Bałtyckiego i Czarnego.