Won-im Jung (p), Yeong-ok Son (p), Jumong Na

This study examines Japan's central and municipal government legal system regarding empty houses, and uses a comparative perspective to derive implications to solve South Korea’s empty house problem.
South Korea and Japan are facing very similar social problems. Population changes in Japan, which is characterized by low fertility and aging society have resulted in empty houses in both urban and rural areas. According to the Population and Housing Census of the National Statistical Office, the number of empty houses in South Korea is 1,086,919 households, exceeding a million households for the first time in history. Empty houses in urban areas vary widely. However, detailed and comprehensive survey of empty houses and the management system for empty houses are at a marginal level. Especially in the residential areas of old downtown areas, population decrease, population outflow, and delays in maintenance work have accelerated the occurrence of empty houses, and the phenomenon has been neglected.
Empty houses in Japan account for 13.5% of the total number of houses with 8,200,000 households, and empty houses are estimated to increase every year. Therefore, the central government enacted the "Special Measures for the Promotion of Empty Houses and Other Measures" in 2015, and reorganized the management system for empty houses.
In South Korea, the management system for empty houses is vague and ambiguous, while the central government and municipal government legal systems in Japan are strictly followed with administrative vigor through empty house ordinances, in accordance with the provisions of the Act on Special Cases relating to Empty Houses.

Wojciech Jarczewski (p)

Urban regeneration/renewal is an inner-city process that began in the 1950s in Western Europe and the USA aimed at regenerating degraded residential environments and since the 1970s – at improving the attractiveness of places (market objectives – generating an increase in the value of property). In Poland, until 1990, during the period of real socialism, city centres were underinvested, but one can distinguish certain, gradually more and more original processes implemented in these areas: reconstruction, neo-integration, and later, retroversion.
The urban renewal method, known in Western Europe and North America as urban regeneration/renewal, was more widely popularized in Poland as "revitalisation" around 2004, after Poland's accession to the EU. The Regional Operational Programmes co-financed by the EU provided funds for "revitalisation" as an important instrument of urban renewal.
Following detailed research of the projects implemented as part of "revitalisation" projects, it was found that in practice "revitalisation" in Poland was a specific process, only partly referring to the experience of urban regeneration/renewal. Three groups of activities are collectively referred to as revitalisation:
1. Transformation of post-industrial and degraded areas and their adaptation to new functions
2. Renewal/aestheticisation of city centres (and in recent years also of rural areas)
3. Implementation of other projects important for local communities
The vast majority of the "revitalisation" projects focused on the renewal of centres, which at the same time were constantly losing their functions. Revitalisation was not able to stop this process. However, it was found that local communities needed city centres to build their (territorial) identity and were willing to allocate public funds to them, even if they do not currently use these areas.
The research is a part of the NewUrbPact project co-financed by the National Centre for Research and Development within the Strategic Programme of Scientific Research and Development Works "Social and economic development of Poland in the conditions of globalizing markets" – GOSPOSTRATEG.

Andrés Rodriguez-Pose , Jose A. Belso-Martinez (p)

Fostering innovation is increasingly the key element in long-term European and Spanish development policy strategies. However, innovation remains often elusive. The large variety of policy schemes and their often mixed success is putting finding more efficient innovation policies centre stage (Conte al., 2009). In this context, who is targeted by innovation policies and the extent to which such policies improve the innovation prospects of the recipients is crucial, but has, so far, attracted limited interest (Busom et al. 2017). Previous research has mainly focused on the characteristics of recipients, while overlooking factors related to how a firm’s subsidy history and trajectory affects the probability of support being awarded (Aschhoff 2010; Busom et al. 2017 are notable exceptions). Moreover, the importance of the formation of networks for innovation has also been neglected. Whether firms attracting innovation support become embedded in local – mostly through clusters – or external networks is, nevertheless, regarded as an important factor for the success of innovation policies (Broekel et al. 2015; Feldman & Kelley 2006 are exceptions).
This paper uses a dataset including 17866 observation relating to two different innovation support programs implemented by the Valencian Institute of Competiveness – Instituto Valenciano de la Competitividad (IVACE) – during the period 2004-2012 in order to assess (1) who were the recipients of innovation subsidies and (2) whether receiving support increased the likelihood of becoming embedded in a network and of achieving innovation later on.
The results of the analysis indicate the presence of a certain path dependency in the targeting of subsidies. Firms embedded in networks and, in particular, in local clusters, are far more likely to be supported. This may reflect the lower administration costs of targeting innovation to firms existing clusters, but is a factor that may undermine the very innovation pursued by the scheme medium-term. While firms located at the centre of local networks get more and more repeated support, this leads to lock in and limited innovation improvements. Firms located at the fringes of existing networks, by contrast, receive less support but make more in terms of innovation, mainly by their capacity to forge partnerships outside the cluster.

Žofia Sinčáková (p), Oto Hudec

City elections are related to the bottom up choosing, what kind of government and urban policies the citizens prefer and wish to see put into practice. The traditional concept of urban management considers free elections as a proof of democratic lawfulness. However, legitimacy depends on the local government’s capacity to meet citizens’ needs and to keep election promises. Signs of increasing mistrust of government, undermining its legitimacy to govern, are ever more evident all over the world. Activists and citizens call for the modernisation of the local government towards more participatory democracy. Obviously, participatory citizenship does not end with the participation in elections and represents instead a chief learning process for local governments, calling for open communication.
Various scandals including corruption have also hit the Slovak political scene in the second decade of the 21st century. The feeling of frustration and helplessness have stirred up among the people manifested in the lower turnout rates in the local elections. Among all Visegrad countries, the highest distrust in political parties is in the Slovak Republic (IVO, 2017). In recent elections, the phenomena of the independent (nonpartisan) candidates appeared in several countries (e.g. Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic), representing people of various backgrounds. Many former members of political parties decided to distance themselves from political parties and to act as independent candidates or activists. A number of new electoral candidates have emerged as a new wave of activists. The topics highlighted by the activists are primarily focused on the transparency, environment and community life. In comparison to partisan candidates, they can do much better to open dialogue and reach out to the citizens, also thanks to social networks.
Even if the topic of transparency seems to resonate in public and media the most, it is not yet confirmed, what are the main factors of higher transparency in cities. The proposed model examines how the political party affiliation matters in transparency (socio-demographic, financial, political). Discussion about the local political shift from the party to the anti-partition spectrum is raised, in order to reveal if it is not only the way to win the voters heart. The preliminary results of the research have shown the relationship with the size of the cities and non-partisanship of the candidates. Further research investigates a wide variety of other factors as well.