1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. GEOSPECS categories 7

8. 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.

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

10. 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 > inh.
Urban area > 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 > habitants
18.3%
37.9%
26.7%
41.7%
1.9%
30.4%
Urban area > 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)

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

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

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

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

15. Attractiveness for tourism

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

17. Attractiveness for tourism17

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

19. Climatic attractiveness: sunshine duration

20. 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