ESPON Seminar Aalborg – 13 June 2012 Workshop 2: The role of innovation, attractiveness and creative economy in specific types of regions Erik Gløersen Department of Geography and Environment University of Geneva

The GEOSPECS project GEOSPECS categories Development opportunities and challenges in specific types of territories: Mountain areas, Islands, Sparsely populated areas, Outermost regions, Border regions, Coastal areas, Inner peripheries. GEOSPECS categories 2

Policy context Mention of GEOSPECS areas in EU Treaty (Article 174) EU-Parliament Intergroup Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion 5th Cohesion Report DG REGIO Working paper on areas with geographic specificities (Philippe Monfort, 2009) Regional policy focusing on growth and sustainable development rather than on compensation for handicaps 3

Research question Do geographic specificities affect the capacity of a local community or region to be - innovative? - attractive? - creative? 4

Research question “ceteris paribus” Is this reasonable? TERRITORY Mountain Island Sparsely populated Coastal Border Outermost Well-functioning / unbalanced governance Affluent / Poor Extensive/ limited infrastructure TERRITORY TERRITORY Sluggish / dynamic demography Centrally located / Remote Is this reasonable? «Innovative» «Creative» «Attractive» “ceteris paribus” Strong / weak identity Highly urbanised / rural Attractive / repulsive climate 5

GEOSPECS categories Identifying the defining features of each category of geographic specificity. For example, mountains are characterised by: Specific topography (slopes, altitude) Harsher climate Lower population densities & concentration in valleys 6

GEOSPECS categories 7

Mountain areas in Europe Mountain areas can be found in most European countries. There is a great diversity of socio-economic situations, both between and within massifs.

Population potentials Number of persons with commuting distance (45 minute) by road

Cross-delineation The table reads as follows: ESPON_Area Border area (within 45 minutes) Border area (within 90 minutes) Coastal area (within 45 minutes) Coastal area (within 90 minutes) Sparsely populated and PC areas Island without fixed link Island with fixed link Outermost region Mountain area Urban area > 100 000 inh. Urban area > 750 000 inh.   100.0% 10.9% 20.5% 38.6% 0.1% 4.7% 31.6% 34.2% 11.5% 57.1% 13.0% 23.5% 25.5% 0.4% 3.3% 29.9% 40.4% 13.9% 8.9% 18.6% 26.8% 14.6% 2.9% 3.6% 38.3% 40.8% 13.2% 10.4% 20.8% 61.9% 21.5% 10.8% 1.8% 2.3% 39.5% 12.7% 34.6% 25.4% 32.9% 7.0% 1.0% 5.9% 55.9% 0.2% 0.0% 82.7% 99.0% 42.3% 6.7% 71.9% 16.7% 3.0% 3.8% 17.5% 39.9% 23.3% 15.0% 51.2% 62.8% 48.8% 83.8% 15.9% 12.2% 0.6% 14.4% 23.8% 21.3% 0.5% 17.6% 3.7% Urban area > 100 000 habitants 18.3% 37.9% 26.7% 41.7% 1.9% 30.4% Urban area > 750 000 habitants 20.3% 42.9% 28.4% 44.0% 1.1% 0.9% 14.1% The table reads as follows: - Within mountain areas (9th line), 21,3% of the area is also a coastal area (3rd column)

Main parameter: access to urban areas modifies the possibilities of implementing strategies for innovation, attractiveness and creative economy

The Alpine range: surrounded by metropolitan areas Proximity to metropolitan regions and large urban regions influences development perspectives for the Alps positively and negatively.

Mountains and potential urban commuting areas Only a limited part of European mountain areas are within commuting distance of medium to large cities 13

Mountains and potential urban commuting areas The proportions of mountain area populations within commuting distance of cities are quite varied. 14

Attractiveness for tourism

Employment in tourism Proximity to metropolitan regions and large urban regions influences development perspectives for the Alps positively and negatively.

Attractiveness for tourism 17

Attractiveness for tourism Tourism in coastal areas can be concentrated along a narrow strip along the coastline.

Climatic attractiveness: sunshine duration

Conclusions It is not generally meaningful to seek to identify statistical correlations between “geographic specificity” and indicators of “attractiveness”, “innovation” or of “creative economy” The natural limitations to the emergence of innovation clusters can be compensated by other factors Pro-active policies can be one of these factors Categories of geographic specificity are rather useful as components in the design of tailor-made strategies for each region or locality 20