Innovative Forms of Regional Structural Policy in Europe: the Role of Dominant Concepts and Knowledge Flows

Abstract The last decade has witnessed a revival of regional structural policy in the Western world. The new style of policy-making which has emerged differs markedly from the top-down distributional models that dominated the post-war period, but is also more pro-active than the hands-off approach of the 1980s. It is characterised by the prominent role taken by local organisations in shaping regional policy, by the strong orientation on improving local competitive advantage, and by a focus on local production systems. Moreover, in many cases, it involves close collaboration between actors from different domains: regional policy-makers, national and European policy-makers, business support agents, training agents, consultants, academics, etc. Consequently, the development and implementation of regional policy has become part of more complex systems of governance, with an emphasis on consultation, networking, partnerships, and consensus building.