Strategies for Shaping Territorial Competitiveness

This timely book explores different dimensions of a currently very important set of analytical and policy-relevant topics. The challenge of how to develop territorial strategies which enhance local economic development encompasses many more issues than simply cartographical notions of territory. Nowadays, territorial dimensions are generally understood in terms of their impacts on competitiveness, and these interrelationships open up a much broader set of discussions. Indeed, issues relating to location and economic performance hinge on the links between geography, technology and innovation, which themselves are also increasingly understood as being contingent on governance arrangements and the institutional set-up. Such issues cannot easily be transferred from one context to another, so the challenge is to identify which patterns or processes are evident more generally in different places from those which are largely contingent on the specific geographical or institutional context.

The challenges inherent in these debates are set out in the initial overarching chapter of the book by Valdaliso and Wilson. The book then provides five chapters in Part I addressing a framework for analyzing territorial strategy, followed by a set of six cases in Part II covering a range of territorial strategies in practice.

In Part I, the debate moves onto the first large substantive part of the book, which discusses the key elements contained in any framework for analyzing territorial strategies. The questions regarding “what?” territorial strategies are and exactly “how?” such strategies may be implemented are discussed right up front in the first chapters by Mikel Navarro, Christian Ketels, Mari José Aranguren and Miren Larrea. These set the groundwork for the subsequent questions raised in the chapters by Edurne Magro, Claire Nauwelaars and James Wilson regarding how to reconcile territorial strategies’ means and goals and evaluating such strategies. These are both essential, and also consistently thorny, issues which those aiming to develop “smart” development policies constantly face. These chapters chart a pragmatic path through these issues, allowing the reader to consider the extent to which these issues are relevant, pertinent and practical in one’s own regional context.

The applicability and workability of such approaches in different contexts is a crucial test of the usefulness of such approaches in the wider context, and the issues raised in the first section of the book are variously addressed in different dimensions and contexts in the six case studies presented in Part II. These case studies reflect regional development challenges in regions across northern Spain, Wales, Argentina, Denmark–Sweden and Canada. The chapters approach these different economic development dimensions and challenges from different perspectives, but the institutional and governance issues emerge consistently as being crucial arbiters of performance. Firms’ competitiveness is determined by numerous factors, many of which are beyond the control or influence of local policy-makers. On the other hand, good policy settings, consistent policy trajectories, well-designed governance arrangements and transparent institutional settings are all seen to play key roles in all locations. Alternatively, where things do not work as desired, institutional issues are typically part of the explanation.

The issues raised in the book are difficult and challenging, but at the same time, they are also critical, and making progress on these matters is essential for promoting good development policy. The book makes fine reading for all of us engaged in such matters.