Anna Rita Manca, Elisabeth Joosens, Slavica Zec, Peter Benczur, Balint Menyhert (p)

Peter Nijkamp

In the last two decades, the EU society has been exposed to many challenges such as demographic ageing, migration pressure, financial and economic crisis, climate changes and transformations of geopolitical equilibrium. These developments require a fit and resilient society, able to adapt to new situations.
Resilience is the ability to thrive in a time of crisis. It embraces the capacity of a region to absorb a shock, adapt to a new equilibrium or transform towards a better future. The aim of this paper is to operationalize the concept of regional resilience using a novel approach, which, beyond merely economic dimensions, includes dimensions of social capital and social inclusion and overall quality of life.
Using the financial and economic crisis (2008-2012) as a shock, we assessed the resilience of the EU regions (NUTS2) through a three-step methodology. First, we select a large list of economic and non-economic indicators that span the entire process of societal well-being production. Second, we compute resilience indicators as the joint dynamic response to the crisis. Finally, we look at characteristics that differentiate resilient regions from the non-resilient ones.
Results show substantial heterogeneity across regions. Resilience performance is different between the reaction in the immediate aftermath of the crisis and in the longer run. Moreover, results confirm the importance of expanding to a broader list of variables. Finally, regions with a better inclusion of women in the labour market perform better in absorbing the effect of the crisis in the medium run.

Jaako Simonen (p), Johannes Herala, Rauli Svento

Peter Nijkamp

At the start of this millennium, the city of Oulu and the surrounding region were a hub of mobile technology development. The high technology industry, led by Nokia Corporation, employed almost 14 000 people, representing 16 % of total employment in the region. After 2001, high technology employment declined by about 3 000 people until 2011. Recently, however, the sector has recovered quite significantly, and it currently employs approximately 13 000 – 14 000 people. In this paper, we analyse the recent development of the high technology sector in the Oulu region from the viewpoint of regional resilience. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data, we survey and describe the main aspects of the sudden structural change in Oulu region, particularly its effects on employment. In addition, and importantly, we explore the content and effects of some policy measures designed to alleviate the adverse effects of the structural change. According to our results, the Oulu region has recovered well from the ‘Nokia shock’ and has a good possibility of reaching the pre-shock growth rates. We argue that rapid recovering from the structural change has resulted from an efficient combination of creative destruction and correctly allocated policy measures.

Bogdana Neamtu (p), Calin Hintea, Viorel Stanica

Peter Nijkamp

The paper addresses the issues of collaborative governance in the context of the metropolitan areas from Romania. As secondary cities are becoming the engines of the national economy, there is a growing interest in how these cities can function better, develop even further, and moreover, determine spillover effects in terms of economic growth, better service delivery, and increased quality of life into the surrounding rural communities. The central government has mandated a type of “mandatory” cooperation in the framework of metropolitan areas attached to the growth poles, as a precondition for receiving European money. However, the communities that are part of these areas are currently searching for ways to move away from this top-down induced cooperation towards more bottom-up collaborative partnerships. Based on the literature review, we developed an analytical model for understanding how one specific metropolitan area, namely the Cluj-Napoca one, functions. The empirical research includes interviews with the mayors of all local communities from the metropolitan area. The results are rather interesting – legal and policy context are currently not very conducing for bottom-up cooperation and some of the drivers which foster cooperation, especially leadership, are emerging but not fully developed yet.

Şerife Betül Çetinkaya (p), Hilal Erkus Ozturk

Peter Nijkamp

In recent years, number and severity of natural disasters have been increasing due to climate change. Natural disasters are one of the most important crises faced by farmers who produce greenhouse. These farmers are more vulnerable to unexpected natural disasters as they struggle to adapt to changing economic environments. Although farmers are prepared for such disasters as heavy rains and frosts, they are not prepared for such disasters as hoses, storms, hailstones, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, these disasters have devastating effects on both greenhouse and the products grown in these areas. In this context, there is a growing need for development policies to reduce the negative effects of natural disasters on farmers. It is very important to measure the ability of farmers to adapt to natural disasters and to determine the magnitude of damages and to develop solution and support strategies. In this study, the ability and adaptability of farmers to natural disasters are investigated. Selected as study area where most greenhouse production in Turkey-Antalya and which has occured many natural disasters in recent years. Face-to-face interviews and surveys with farmers will be carried out to determine how adaptive farmers develop adaptation methods for natural disasters. The data obtained from surveys and face-to-face interviews will be evaluated with various quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. In line with the results, a discussion will be held to answer these questions in order to contribute to the strategies and policy production of local and public administration actors: How can farmers be more resilient to natural disasters and how can support mechanisms be developed for farmers after natural disasters?