Cohesion Policies and the Creation of a European Identity: The Role of Territorial Identity

Abstract

Among the factors highlighted by the literature as crucial for the success of cohesion policies in generating satisfaction among citizens, and therefore in acting positively on the constitution of an European identity, this paper emphasizes a particular one, territorial identity. Elaborating on the definition of territorial identity as a local condition in which private interests coincide with public ones, the paper claims that territorial identity plays an important role in a European identitybuilding process. In fact, by increasing the probability that local public expenditures match private interests, territorial identity generates a favourable context where the critical factors that hamper the successful programming, design and implementation of cohesion policies can be overcome.

Cohesion Policy and European identity building: Trust as a mediating element

“…In this sense, identification has a strong economic effect on individuals' behaviour and, in particular, on social interactions, stimulating cooperation within the same community. As pointed out by Capello (2018), when identity occurs, individual recognize that their private interests coincide with public ones, and they behave accordingly. In other words, pursuing one's own interest is not just increasing personal utility but, at the same time, creating a benefit for the whole group.…”

Interpreting and understanding territorial identity

“…A collective logic is therefore fed by private interests, with the possibility of carrying out collective actions freed from opportunistic behaviours. As I said in a previous work: “when this is the case, a local community works together in an harmonious way, in an orderly ensemble, to solve problems; separated individuals amalgamate, merge and form a single entity, a community destined to remain stable over time” (Capello, , p. 495).…”

“…An important normative field where these reflections should be taken into consideration is represented by cohesion policies. When such policies are devoted to real needs and in a way that citizens recognize as important for their own private interests, they do not only achieve higher effectiveness, as recently witnessed (Capello, 2018;Capello & Perucca, 2017), but participate in the construction of a territorial identity and, through it, local competitiveness.…”

The regional costs of market size losses in a EU dismembering process

“…where y T-t measures gross value added growth between t and T (in this case, respectively equal to 2008 and 2013 3 ). This is regressed against a matrix Z of regional growth factors, including a NUTS 3 region's settlement structure, its urbanization economies, accessibility, saving propensity, level of trust, human capital, intensity of knowledge and product innovation activities, and spare productive capacity, as suggested by the main theoretical paradigms behind regional growth theory, namely the theory of bounded rationality and decision-making under conditions of uncertainty (Malmgren, 1961;Simon, 1972) and their application to industrial innovation (Dosi, 1982;Nelson & Winter, 1982) and the cognitive approach to district economies and synergies, which comprises the Italian school (Becattini, 1990), the French "proximity" approach (Gilly & Torre, 2000), the GREMI approach to local innovative environments (Camagni, 1991;Camagni & Maillat, 2006), and Michael Storper's concept of "untraded interdependencies" (Storper, 1995), highlighting agglomeration economies, innovation, knowledge and cultural aspects, in the form of territorial identity (Capello, 2017) as sources of competitiveness.…”