1,720,971 research outputs found
The model of post-socialist rural transition: openness and (un)learning versus informal relations
No full textThe aim of this article is to discuss development issues at the locality level.Below, we are working with the learning economy theory and the conceptof bottom-up indigenous development in combination with other approaches.The principal transformation model for the post-soviet rural areas furtherdevelopment is elaborated.The acknowledgement of local social networks is crucial, especially in economicallydecreasing areas. Innovation and development potential in ruralareas with primary sector dominance, where few service industries andjobs have been created, remain usually low. Improving infrastructures andcreating jobs by outside authorities (state subsidies) and enterprises onlywill not be enough for the sustainable economic development of a localityor a region.Besides, in the case of strengthening informal structures and behaviour,local (self)exclusion will tend to grow as a side effect in these areas. The(self)closeness of the society can be considered as an important impedimentto indigenous development
Territorial Governance and Core-Periphery Relations: The Implications of European Policy Concepts for Central and Eastern Europe
No full text
Centre?periphery model explaining the regional development of the informational and transitional society
Get PDFThis paper analyses regional development and uses centre-periphery models (CPM) of Friedmann, Gibbs and Hautamäki as a base for theoretical discussion. In general, these centre-periphery models foresee stabilisation and de-concentration of population and economic agents after the concentration stages. The spatial processes of 1970s and 1980s were rather well described by the CPM. However, the 1990s turned to a new concentration in several countries. Classical CPM that assumed the continuity of industrial society and relevant factors, both negative and positive for concentration, influencing regional structures and settlement became useless. Therefore, first topic in this paper analyses concentration-deconcentration factors of the informational society and tries to plant the classical approach in the new soil. Secondly, we set a hypothesis arguing that Baltic Countries have followed partly similar, but simultaneously rather different spatial development stages. If the Western economies enjoyed particularly after the World War II economic and political stability, then regional development of their Eastern counterparts has been influenced by several political convulsions. Besides, even the same results in urban development may have had rather different causes in the West and former East. The empirical part analyses the regional development of Estonia in a historic perspective. The description of past developments attempts to outline (1) influencial causal factors, (2) periods of concentration and deconcentration, and (3) particularities compared with Western countries. The discussion is supported mainly by population data of past censuses, but uses also a limited number of soft empirical materials like small case studies, interviews and observations. Finally, we attempt to design a comparison of different urban development stages in UK, Finland and Estonia. This paper prepares and tests an extensive analyse of census and labour market survey as well as enterprise development data of the transition period, the 1990s. Key words: centre-periphery model, urban development stages, political factors in urban development
The Impact of Public Policy and Membership of the EU on Regional Policy in Estonia
Get PDFThe primary aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the development and topical issues of the Estonian regional policy along with public policy. In order to implement a public policy, choices must be made based on values, which in their turn considerably influence the actual result. Public policy is usually described as a process of making choices from the determination of the situation to evaluation of the policy being implemented. This process has often an irrational character, which is caused by limited information available to decision-makers and limited time. My approach moves on from the statement of Ludek Sukora and his colleagues (Balchin et al 1999, 163) which says that in Eastern European countries, thus, hypothetically in Estonia as well, the former centralised planning economy replaced by relatively small local governments under the conditions of new legislation, where national plans do not work and consistent regional development policies do not exist, has brought about a situation of uncertainty, application of ad hoc methods instead of long-term comprehensive planning, and the use of earlier experience in administrative techniques. Following the above I present following hypotheses: H1) governmental normative documents on regional development change frequently and are often contradictory; H2) institutions responsible for the implementation of regional policy are unstable; H3) national and EU plans do not work and sectoral development plans are not compatible; H4) regional political initiatives depend on activities of different officials or ministers - human factor is critical; H5) no attempts are being made in municipalities to achieve awareness of conceptual basics of national and EU policies and their objectives, instead, different lobbying methods have been applied. In theoretical part, we look at the concept of regional policy and it’s changes in Europe. The empirical part will give a description of the Estonian regional and administrative polices in time, primarily based on observations, on the content analysis of documents and the written media, and interviews carried out in 1990-2005.
Model post-socialističnega prehoda na podeželju: odprtost in (ne)učenje proti neformalnim odnosom
No full textThe aim of this article is to discuss development issues at the locality level.Below, we are working with the learning economy theory and the conceptof bottom-up indigenous development in combination with other approaches.The principal transformation model for the post-soviet rural areas furtherdevelopment is elaborated. The acknowledgement of local social networks is crucial, especially in eco-nomically decreasing areas. Innovation and development potential in ruralareas with primary sector dominance, where few service industries andjobs have been created, remain usually low. Improving infrastructures andcreating jobs by outside authorities (state subsidies) and enterprises onlywill not be enough for the sustainable economic development of a localityor a region. Besides, in the case of strengthening informal structures and behaviour,local (self)exclusion will tend to grow as a side effect in these areas. The(self)closeness of the society can be considered as an important impedi-ment to indigenous development.Prispevek na teoretičen in praktičen način (študija primera: Mustoce inKasepää) podrobno analizira elemente in instrumente, pa tudi poslediceprehoda v tržno gospodarstvo v Estoniji
Restitution of agricultural land in Estonia: Consequences for landscape development and production
No full text- …
