Ana Viñuela (p), Alberto Diaz Dapena, Ricardo Martinez de Vega

Madalena Fonseca

Territorial inequalities are barely studied at a local level in Europe in a comprehensive way mainly due to the lack of comparative data or proxies of economic activity. Without local data it is impossible to proof the agglomeration of economic activity (in the cities) and therefore the growing gap between rural and urban areas, between the centre and the periphery of the country or between the core and the fringe of the large metropolitan areas. This is one of the reason why, when studying the areas that have been left-behind, instead of focusing on areas researchers have to either focus on regions (if trying to cover a country or the whole EU) or focusing on case study (and therefore just having a partial image of the issue).

In the European Project EXIT we try to combine both qualitative and quantitative research on areas (as opposed to regions) that indeed have been left-behind the paths of economic growth of prosperity. The aim would be answering some of the following questions: What is the meaning of the left-behindness concept? How can we identify the left-behind areas? Where are those areas? What are their characteristics? What quantitative data are available to study left-behindness? Are there any common past characteristics that might explain their present situation? What can be done at the different levels of governance (European, national and local) to improve their situation? What has been done in different areas of Europe? And what about regional or local stakeholders? Are citizens mobilizing somehow to either protest or react in order to reverse their localities´ situation?

In order to answer all those questions, data at local level is needed, and the first essential variable is some proxy of well-being or income. However, in the European databases and due to confidentiality reasons, in the best of the cases only information on the NUTS2 region of residence is provided. Following Fernandez et al (2022), average household income and AROPE at local level can be estimated by disaggregation of regional data from EU-SILC.

These income and AROPE estimates, combined with data collected at local level on several socioeconomic indicators such us employed population, aged population, population structure, accesibility to public services etc., will offer a multidimensional approach of the areas being left behind in some European countries where local information is available.

Nevelina Pachova (p), Adriana Veran (p), Ralph Horne

Ana Viñuela

Leaving no region vs leaving no one behind: Exploring the perceptions and capabilities for transformative change among marginalized communities in seven regions at risk of being left out

Abstract
The European Commission has committed to making Europe carbon-neutral by 2050. This implies the phasing out or transformation of a range of carbon-intensive industries, with significant implications for the territorial development of the areas and regions where they are based. With view of avoiding the risks of leaving those regions out in the process of change, the EU has set up a Just Transition Mechanism to help off-set some of the negative impacts of the processes of decarbonization by providing targeted funding aimed to catalyse and support innovation that enables a shift towards less carbon-intensive pathways for territorial development. It remains unclear, however, whether the EU funds allocated to leave no region behind will be used in a way that also leaves no person behind in the process of change. Participatory planning is arguably essential for this but challenges to participatory planning processes raise the question of whether it is sufficient to ensure it. In order to explore this questions, we examine the perceptions and capabilities of marginalized communities across seven carbon-intensive regions across Europe included in the EU Just Transition Mechanism. Specifically, we look at the desires, hopes and visions of women, youth, ethnic minorities and other structurally disadvantaged communities in the examined regions, relate those to official decarbonization priorities and funding support for the process and explore whether and if so how marginalized communities can be better integrated in existing just transition governance mechanisms, so that their voices can be heard and their concerns addressed in the process of change. The study draws on ca. 70 semi-structured interviews and 20 focus group discussions employing the photo voice method as an entry point for discussion of the perceptions of marginalized communities of the process of decarbonization in their respective regions. Special attention is given to understanding the individual capabilities and collective agency of marginalized communities to influence the process of decarbonization and what is needed to support them in the process. The study was undertaken in the framework of the EU-funded BOLSTER (Bridging Organizations and marginalized communities for Local Sustainability Transitions in Europe) project, which aims to understand how marginalized communities are affected by the EU Green Deal and whether engaging them can make the transition more acceptable and just.

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

Nevelina Pachova & Adriana Veran

Inner peripheries (according to ESPON) are common throughout Europe, irrespective of a country’s level of development. The peripheral nature of these areas is affected primarily by the limited extent of their relations with the economic environment. These sites can be called permanently marginalised or left behind areas. In political discourse, these concepts have recently been widely used and multiplied. In this respect, it is worth paying attention to the concept of lagging regions, which refers to NUTS-2 units whose development was stopped as a result of the 2008 crisis. This approach is somewhat a spatial over-interpretation. We argue that the level of development and its determinants should be investigated on lower spatial scales, for instance, in the scale of functional areas of small and medium cities and towns. Left-behind places are also touched by multidimensional peripherality whose description should go beyond the purely economic indicators. This approach is used to identify inner peripheries

The TIPERICO research project (https://tiperico.web.amu.edu.pl/en/) aims to delimit, investigate and inform policy interventions in the inner peripheries of Poland. In the project’s initial stage, such areas were delimited and classified within the urban functional areas (FUA) framework. Afterwards, we conducted in-depth case study research on Poland’s four peripheral FUAs. In the presentation, we aim to identify specific development opportunities and challenges unique to these areas with the use of a comprehensive quantitative analysis aided with statistical indicators.

This study is based on the results of interviews with the FUAs’ central city authorities, focus interviews with local entrepreneurs, politics, and NGO leaders, as well as telephone surveys conducted among the populations. We identified the most important development factors and barriers in case study areas. We have attempted to assess the importance of core FUA cities as local development centres. We got to know the opinion of residents on whether peripheral areas can become a place of development opportunities by stimulating their dormant and rebuilding lost development potentials.

Alberto Díaz-Dapena (p), Ana Viñuela, Esteban Fernández Vázquez, Fernando Rubiera-Morollón, Elena Lasarte-Navamuel

Barbara Szyda

The identification of left-behind areas is increasingly becoming a central topic of Regional Economics and the public debate. From an academic perspective, the existence of these areas and their evolution raises a problem of territorial inequality. The identification of key variables could allow researcher to identify what could cause the stagnation of certain places in relative terms to others. These places with a weak economy, do not only matter from a perspective of inequalities, but they could also point towards a problem of incorrect incentives, creating an inefficiency in the allocation of resources. This topic is also increasingly becoming central in the public debate. If the Government tries to modify the incentives of the population to agglomerate in certain places, it could easily need a high public investment in these areas to compensate their handicap. Consequently, there is an intense debate about the necessity of these resources. Citizens in declining areas demand a higher intervention from the public authorities while those in dynamic areas do not want to suffer a higher fiscal burden.
From an empirical perspective, identifying these areas to evaluate their situation and create guidelines for policy makers is extremely challenging. Most of the time, there areas are far too small for Statistical Institutes. As a result, there are no official figures about them in most of the official databases.
Given this lack of data, our research provides local estimations of economic indicators for Spain, Italy, France and United Kingdom. These estimations are obtained thanks to the extrapolation of economic relationships from microdata of the European Income and Living Conditions Survey over the microdata of the national census. The application of entropy econometric techniques allows to obtain consistent indicators with available information coming from official sources.

Madalena Fonseca (p)

Alberto Díaz-Dapena

The periphery is both a condition and a situation or geographical setting. The latter is determined by the physical distance from the center, which, in turn, may be the reason for the peripheral condition. The peripheral condition, however, is a stage in an evolution and is marked by inherent vulnerabilities. It's essential to note that vulnerability, in this context, isn't necessarily a negative attribute but signifies an instability that can evolve in various ways. Therefore, being in a peripheral condition is not an inescapable fate.
The wording has changed and the most popular term in the most recent bibliography is undoubtedly that of left-behind regions or places. Most studies on left-behind places implicitly blame public (development) policies, suggesting that these territories have been abandoned by the very policies designed to improve them. It is important however, to ask: left behind by whom, how, since when and for what reasons? This is the main content of this paper. Long time series of several indicators to assess the decline and depletion of resources of those territories and a snapshot of the present conditions.
The central argument of this paper, however, is that those peripheral regions have not been abandoned solely by policies but, more significantly, by their inhabitants, particularly the younger generations.
Following on from previous studies, the article analysis the inflow of higher education students into small towns on the Portuguese periphery, for a long time series of more than twenty years, with the aim of assessing the potential of these flows. We want to switch the perspective; not just looking at outflows but identifying inflows and their magnitude and their potential as drivers of socioeconomic change.
It is an exploratory study to test some hypotheses and methodologies that would break with traditional approaches from the centre.