Regional Development Between Cohesion and Competition – Current Theses and Fields of Action

Abstract

This contribution discusses regional development drawing on the EU member state Austria as an example. The crosscutting theme is illustrated from initial positioning through to relevant fields of action. In doing so, the way forward is seen as a process and those who accompany it are seen as the ones responsible for its implementation. Responsibilities are identified along theses. These are formed in the context of demographic change, mobility, energy, regional public services, residential development, cooperation and governance processes. Fields of action are discussed in accordance with the developed theses.

EU Rural Policy’s Capacity to Facilitate a Just Sustainability Transition of the Rural Areas

“…Rural change that is needed for rural development has not a single pathway. Visualizing change and thus, shaping the rural development policy requires taking into account all of the several narratives of rural change [52]. They include: agri-centric narrative, urban-rural access narrative, competitive narrative, and narrative of society-nature interrelationships [101].…”

“…The EU cohesion policy is supposed to increase the cohesion of the EU territory and its placebased approach, should support place-sensitivity in cross-sectoral development ensuring social inclusion [51]. Yet, some scholars question the emphasis on the competitiveness of the regions that appeared in the cohesion policy with the Agenda 2000 and continued with strategy Europe 2020, stating that increasing competitiveness does not translate into increasing cohesion [52]. Moreover, concentration on competitiveness, introduced in 2005 [53], leads to the marginalization of remote areas [54] as their potential to increase the competitiveness is lower than in regional capitals and other urbanized areas; therefore, in the assessment of applications they are at a disadvantage.…”

Vienna’s South-Eastern Hinterlands: Regional Development in the Austrian-Hungarian Border Area, 1910–2011

“…In terms of the latter, the differences between countries seemed to be diminishing after EU-enlargement (Heidenreich, Wunder 2008), while the latest studies are highlighting the reinforcing inequalities and the need for regional policy reform (Iammarino et al 2019). They show that borders have remained important ruptures in social and economic development, and cross-border policy has maintained its momentum in the latest EU planning periods, although the territorial approach and rural development seems to have been pushed in the background (Heintel et al 2018;Finta 2019; Leduc et al 2021).…”