Dana Kubenkova (p)

Riccardo Persio

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) initiative was established to celebrate cultural diversity, strengthen European identity, and foster social and economic transformation. Beyond its artistic and creative programming, it serves as a platform for examining how culture can influence social cohesion, particularly in regions facing economic or social challenges. Trenčín in Slovakia, designated as the European Capital of Culture for 2026, offers a unique opportunity to assess whether cultural initiatives can strengthen social ties, promote understanding, and mitigate social fragmentation. At a time of increasing social and economic uncertainty, this research examines whether cultural engagement can serve as a counterforce to polarization and social fragmentation. It aims to determine whether Trenčín 2026 can create lasting social impact and serve as an example of how culture can strengthen communities. This preliminary research explores the role of cultural engagement in fostering social cohesion and resilience in Trenčín. A major challenge in this analysis is the absence of recent data on social cohesion, making it difficult to assess long-term trends or the impact of cultural policies. This study seeks to fill that gap by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between culture and social cohesion. As part of the monitoring and evaluation of Trenčín 2026, a pilot data collection was conducted in 2024, gathering responses from 600 residents. This preliminary study forms the basis of a longitudinal research framework that will track changes over time, assessing whether cultural participation influences key social cohesion indicators such as interpersonal trust, community involvement, and cross-group interactions. The findings will contribute to both academic discussions and policy development, providing insights for future European Capital of Culture evaluations and cultural policy strategies. By positioning Trenčín 2026 as a case study, this research might contributes to the broader understanding of culture as a tool for long-term social transformation.

Riccardo Persio (p)

Alexis Parmentier

The analysis presented in this chapter evaluates the impact of the "Resto al Sud" program on the economic dynamics of Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs) in Southern Italy. The study provides nuanced insights into the program's effects on average firm size by employing the Synthetic Difference-in-Differences (SDID) approach and integrating Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to refine covariate selection. The findings reveal a significant reduction in average firm size, likely attributable to the proliferation of micro-enterprises driven by the program's incentives. While these results highlight the program's initial success in fostering entrepreneurship and addressing regional disparities, they underscore structural barriers to firm growth, such as limited access to credit and inadequate infrastructure. This chapter concludes by emphasizing the need for complementary structural interventions to support enterprise scaling and promote sustainable regions.

Alexis Parmentier (p)

Declan Jordan

Unlike other soft skills, self-confidence has rarely been analyzed in randomized control trials. This paper uses this framework to evaluate the impact of a short but intense training program for building self-confidence in young people not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in a French overseas territory, La Réunion, characterized by one of the highest NEET rates in Europe. The program evaluated took place in 2020-2021 and was attended by 157 young people among 349 volunteers. Using an original questionnaire, the study shows that the training program substantially improved self-confidence. The estimated intention-to-treat effect corresponds to an increase of at least one decile or quintile in the distribution of our self-confidence indicators in the population for more than 90% and 70% of youths in the treatment group, respectively. Heterogeneity analysis by sex demonstrates that these strong positive effects are only statistically significant for women. Cost-effectiveness analysis is also very favorable with regard to other training programs proposed around the world: the effects are at least in the top 20%, while the cost per youth is slightly above the median. Qualitative analysis based on the focus groups and individual interviews with the young people in the treatment group confirms our results. In addition, our paper endeavors to identify the effects of the training program on the young people’s professional integration and to determine the extent to which their improved self-confidence helped them find a job or, more broadly, to exit the NEET status 1.5 and 18 months after the program. Differences observed in the employment and NEET rates between treatment and control groups were not significant and could not clearly be attributed to the program.

Declan Jordan (p), John-Paul Clifford, Frank Crowley, Justin Doran

Dana Kubenkova

The consequences of deindustrialisation of regions has been a topic of substantial interest in recent years. Using the Irish case, we explore the impact deindustrialisation has had on regional deprivation. In this research, we explore a highly spatially disaggregated dataset which provides for a granular spatial level of analysis. The results of this analysis show vastly different impacts of deindustrialisation whereby cities and all urban regions experience no increase in deprivation. However, all rural region types experience some increase in deprivation, with rural regions in close proximity to urban centres, experiencing the greatest impacts. These results provide valuable insights to policymakers including the potential for more targeted and place-sensitive policies to address the negative impacts of deindustrialisation in areas with the largest impacts. The results also support the theory that a potential 'squeezed middle" emerge with regard to previous regional policy supports due to a lack of nuance in regional policy.