1. Small industrial towns in Europe: a review
State of the art and a presentation of the BRIGHT FUTURE project
David Bole
Senior research fellow,
Research centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

2. contents 1. Small industrial towns in Europe: state of the art
2. Project presentation
3. Preliminary resulty
4. Discussion

3. State-of-the-art
Daniell Bell (1972): The comming of the post-industrial society
„… life, work, production will be fundamentally changed by new
technologies and new innovations…“
Decline of manufacturing, less industrial jobs, more proffesional and skilled jobs that ultimatelly lead to „more highly developed societies“.

4. State-of-the-art Krugman (1991), Scott (1983), Scott & Storper (1987)
„… vertical and horizontal disintegration of production in the World…“
Outsourcing of production; de-industrialisation of the „west“; industrialisation of the „East“
Urban areas: dispersion of big, labor intensive plants; concentration of small, knowledge intensive firms

5. State-of-the-art
The post-fordist city (regulation school, flexible specialisation school, Schumpeterian school …)
Jessop, Storper …

6. State-of-the-art
the „cultural“ turn, the „creative“ turn, the „neo-liberal“ turn
the post-fordist and post-industrial city:
the creative city, the cultural city, the innovative city, the post-industrial city
Focus on: bigger and service orientated cities (Sassens „global city“); cultural cities (Scott) and creative cities (Florida)

7. State-of-the-art: the „invisible“ industrial town
post-industrial versus industrial
Mellander C., Florida, R., Rentfrow, J. 2012: The Creative Class, Post-industrialism and the Happiness of Nations. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 5: 31–43.

8. State-of-the-art Last 50 years in urban geographical research:
Service-based economy, neo-liberal approaches to creativity, culture
Larger cities and networks
Urban shrinkage = deindustrialisation
Urban planners and urban policies:
Culture-led development, „new knowledge cities“
Attractive urban environment for young, innovative, creative people

9. State-of-the-art: the „return“ of the smaller town?
BUT…
29 % of EU small towns still hold their industrial profile (Hamdouch et al. 2017)
Re-industrialisation of deindustrialised small and medium-sized cities (Katowice, Poland: Krzysztofik et al. 2016)
Success stories: small industrial towns going global (Idrija, Slovenia: Nared, Bole & Urbanc 2013)
Are those examples only exceptions to the general rule?

10. State-of-the-art: the industrial revival?
BUT…

11. Motivation – Slovenia, Poland

12. Socio-cultural specificities and spatial specificities
Project BRIGHT FUTURE Reinventing European industrial towns and challenging dominant post-industrial discourses
Industrial towns possess a set of factors that influence their development and distinguishes them from the ‚capitalist‘ city. We presume that those arise from:
Socio-cultural specificities and spatial specificities
Industrial traditions / history of industrialisation embeddedness regional and national context / spatial characteristics
specific knowledge, personal networks, cultural-social practices and traditions, territorial identity, social cohesion, daily routines and lifestyle, …
With a combined quantitative and qualitative approach: Some specificities more important then others, perhaps a combination of factors, influlences on the better development perspectives and vibrant societies and economies
And perhaps some can be used as social innovations – products, services, institutional improvements that can further improve the quality of life
role in regional/national macro dynamics, core/periphery relations, external territorial identity (perceptions), vacant spaces, under-utilised building stock, tangible industrial heritage …
Social innovations

13. Envisioned project results
Research: to understand small industrial towns, their dynamics, local narratives, strengths and weaknesses
Local communities: to support them with endogenous, territorial based approach to development
Policy: to develop alternative views on post-industrial development
Conceptual model of the industrial town
Comparative analysis of industrial towns
Social innovations – methods and implementation
Policy recommendations

14. First preliminary results
Quantitative analysis of industry and development (EU-wide, NUTS 2 level)
1/4 of all jobs in EU in industry
1/3 of industrial jobs are in medium-/high tech industry
Industry generally negatively correlates with economics and demographics, but:
industry and regional shrinkage: weak correlation (-.244, p<.001)
medium-/high tech industry and regional shrinkage: no correlation!
medium-/high tech industry and unemployment: moderate correlation (-.323, p<.001)
Very preliminary: industrial employment lowers overall GDP but positively effects employment
Wp2:not just criteria (one-size fits all solutions) but also location and the role (importance)
- using soft criteria - specific to the national system (industrial history, centrality, peripherality ...)
WP3: narratives (especially of 'regular' people, but also decision makers, managers etc- social relations, socio-economic structure, ideas, interests, practices) that show values and heritage specific to industrial towns
WP3: can we trace certain positive practices (socio-cultural) or the ‚forgotten heritage if industrial citis‘ in present day development?
WP4: those practices could be used in creating forms of social innovations – enabling disscussion – making future plans, improving the quality of life

15. First preliminary results
Regression modelling (NUTS 2 level, step-wise OLS)
industry is negatively associated with population growth, BUT:
medium/high tech employment is positively associated with population growth, as is the number of industrial enterprises ( ) or the number of high-growing industrial enterprises ( ).
medium/high tech employment highly correlates to bigger GVA
NUTS 3 level:
Industrial regions more resilient (60 % ind.reg. vs. 40 % non-ind.reg. not affected by crisis)
Weak negative correlations between total GVA and share of industry (around -.200)
Wp2:not just criteria (one-size fits all solutions) but also location and the role (importance)
- using soft criteria - specific to the national system (industrial history, centrality, peripherality ...)
WP3: narratives (especially of 'regular' people, but also decision makers, managers etc- social relations, socio-economic structure, ideas, interests, practices) that show values and heritage specific to industrial towns
WP3: can we trace certain positive practices (socio-cultural) or the ‚forgotten heritage if industrial citis‘ in present day development?
WP4: those practices could be used in creating forms of social innovations – enabling disscussion – making future plans, improving the quality of life

16. Project partnership Kajaani Corby Herleen Fieni Velenje
SI: Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
FI: University of Eastern Finland – Department of Geographical and Historical Studies
RO: University of Bucharest – Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Research on Territorial Dynamics
NL: University of Amsterdam – Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)
UK: Social Life Limited;
The Young Foundation
Kajaani
Corby
Herleen
Fieni
Velenje

17. Questions & Answers david.bole@zrc-sazu.si
project updates: ReserchGate
reinventing-European-industrial-towns-and-challenging-dominant-post-industrial-discourses
possible cooperation: workshops at conferences; project twinning; sharing experiences