Paweł Churski, Czesław Adamiak, Anna Dubownik (p), Maciej Pietrzykowski, Barbara Szyda (p)

Giulia Valeria Sonzogno

The place-based approach in regional policy implies taking into account the peculiarities of areas and their local spatial connections during development interventions. Of particular interest are urban functional areas, which reflect the spatial ranges of functional relations generated between cities and their commuting zones. The TIPERICO (https://tiperico.web.amu.edu.pl/en/), research project conducted precisely in the layout of urban functional areas, led to the new delimitation and classification of the inner peripheries in Poland. On the basis of migration, commuting and transportation accessibility two categories of inner periphery areas were identified.

The study presents the identifying the development trajectories of areas classified as inner periphery. A quantitative analysis of development dynamics was conducted to verify if the development inequalities between peripheral and core areas are widening. The results of the research may be of use to conclude whether cohesion policy intervention is effective in Poland.

The second part of the presentation provides the initial results of qualitative research on selected areas of the inner periphery in Poland. It was checked whether peripheral areas can become a place of development opportunity by stimulating their dormant and rebuilding lost development potentials. Especially interesting are the opportunities and challenges faced by the areas of the inner periphery after the covid crisis. Different components of the territorial capital of the inner periphery can guide these areas toward sustainable development.

Giulia Valeria Sonzogno (p)

Anna Dubownik

Nowadays, tackling the social and economic challenges of peripheral areas and of the most marginalised territories is on top of the policy agenda of the European Union.
In these areas, the long-standing socio-economic backwardness risks to be intensified by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The actual challenges consist in mitigating the increasing interregional and intergenerational inequalities between and within countries, which are leaving peripheral areas, especially those hit by natural disasters, struggling. In this context, the use of common resources of the wide-ranging recovery package mobilised by the European Commission and allocated through Recovery and Resilience National Plans represents an unprecedented opportunity. Member States are now called to demonstrate their capacity to provide a swift and effective response to the crisis by fostering recovery, increasing cohesion, and leading the transformation across the European Union. Policy makers and institutions at both the EU, national, regional, and local levels are faced with the choice of where, how, for what, and for whom to mobilise these resources in order to produce timely and effective impacts to reach the overarching objectives set by the Commission.
If these efforts to foster the relaunch prove to be unable to engage the segment of the population (i.e. young people and women) and the territories (i.e. the most peripheral and disadvantaged) which are most in need, this would likely fuel the discontent of dissatisfied citizens and areas. By leveraging an evidence-based approach to policy design and implementation, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing and still unexplored scholarly and policy debate on recovery measures. The paper develops a new conceptual and empirical framework to shed light on the effectiveness of recovery projects by addressing a single very specific driver of their possible success (or failure): the allocation and ability to engage the neediest segment of the population and territories. If it is true that an effective targeting is not a sufficient condition for a successful intervention, it will certainly contribute to the achievement of the objectives. By relying on novel and timely administrative data on the Italian Recovery Plan, this presentation will provide evidence-based insights for the assessment of this unprecedented public intervention.