Development in peripheral regions: Case studies in Sweden

Abstract

The rapid growth of the global economy has created new conditions in peripheral regions in old industrialized nations. Having earlier relied on traditional industry as the source of employment, many peripheral regions are today struggling to survive in a completely changed economic landscape, with new conditions for development. The dismantling of trade barriers, the accessibility of new markets for production, and faster and cheaper modes of communication and transportation — the underpinnings of concepts such as globalization and new economy — have combined to change the conditions for development. Based on two case studies, this article analyses the industrial dynamics and the role of policy in the transformation of peripheral regions in advanced nations. Through analysing the development of two Swedish municipalities — once home to vibrant forest-based industrial activities — it is shown that there are certain policy limitations in fundamentally transforming the development paths of peripheral regions.

Local and international networks in small firm internationalization: cases from the Rhône-Alpes medical technology regional cluster

“…Similarly, close co-operation with local actors, such as university hospitals, is especially important in the med-tech sector (Weigel 2011). However, studies in other sectors have found that local industries can operate for long periods in regions without any university presence (Nuur and Laestadius 2010).…”

Youth migration, rurality and class

“…The development requires rural communities to change in profound ways, for example cultivating landscapes to satisfy the expectations of the 'tourist gaze' (see Urry, 1990) and other forms of re-resourcing of land to attract the growing second-home populations in many rural regions (Overvåg, 2010;Perkins, 2006). In addition, regional policies are often explicitly directed towards growth within new knowledgeintensive industries where rural actors face urban as well as global competition (Nuur and Laestadius, 2010), emphasizing the role of exogenous factors in local development.…”

Business networks and the competitiveness of small manufacturing firms in Sweden's northern periphery

“…The improvement of network capital in peripheral regions, based particularly on cooperation and trust, is viewed as a critical success factor in the development of peripheral regions (Nuur & Laestadius 2010). Although locally embedded relations represent the necessary relational ground on which to build effective development strategies for peripheral small firms, recent studies concur by arguing that extra-regional networks may have more leverage for generating new business opportunities and sustaining long-term growth potential (Birley & Westhead 1990;Fløysand & Sjøholt 2007;Malecki & Hospers 2007;Young 2010a) by providing more valuable, non-redundant information, complementary to local knowledge and know-how (Atterton 2007).…”