Theories of regional and local development-abridged review

Abstract

The more fluid national state borders become under the influence of globalisation shaping the world system, the more importance gains the role and position of regions. The currently common tendency in Europe to regionalise the role of national space and to “create” regions signals and emphasises the importance of regional (and local) socio-economic systems, not only in the European regions (Castells, 2000; Domański, Marciniak, 2003; Kukliński, 2003; Parysek, 1997). The differentiation and separation of regions are long-term processes, strongly determined by the stability of their context. This testifies to the essential need for ongoing observation and record of socio-economic reality on the regional or local scale as the basis for predicting future development, especially in the context of the European discourse of endogenous development. The numerous voices regarding the regions’ new tasks, the role of regionalism, and the form of regional policy can more and more frequently appear in the global-local relation. The neo-regionalist ideology as a reaction to the effects of the contact between local and global processes gave rise to a new regionalism in Europe which directly addresses the questions of state functioning and influence, socio-economic development, and cultural and identity problems as factors in economic development. There is a tendency to re-define the concept of regionalism so as to expose the social and economic rules of a given territory and to relegate folk accents into the background. Hence, the region is not treated as a territorial or historical unit, or a cultural niche, but it aspires to the role of a functionally alternative structure (a social field) which may take over some state roles and which may function in the world economy as a semi-independent unit while retaining an identity redefined from the regional identity of the inhabitants of the little homeland into a pragmatic identity of the region, which can be translated into economic acts and marketing attractiveness for investors and which can create a new image of the region. Such development conditions of regions should be related to two theoretical approaches: 1. the classic concept of regional development, 2. the concept of endogenous regional development. This paper offers an overview of the above concepts; a survey of the known, frequently applied theories and concepts is followed by the presentation of the more recent trends used to describe the current conditions.