In a global economy and a world of increasing polarisation and unsustainable development, learning is critical to change. With most of the world's population in cities and the region increasingly the focus of measures to improve prospects, the learning region concept integrates the conflicting, diverse and complex issues of development. This thesis examines learning in networks and further develops the theory of the learning region through a case study in Melbourne, Australia. It begins with a case study of an industry network which was part of a research project - City Regions, Intelligent Territories, Innovation Competitiveness and Learning (CRITICAL). The CRITICAL research project examined learning processes in five cities and developed theory and tools to support learning regions. In this thesis the study of the industry network became the first step in a case study of the northern metropolitan regional economic development project. The study of the region demonstrated that there existed a strategic regional approach supporting local learning and action developed through projects based on local research and collaboration. The theories of 'communities of practice and 'architectures of learning' (Wenger 1998) provided the conceptual framework for the case study and proved to be a novel way to discern how learning was supported. A key finding in this thesis was how learning in networks was supported and that this led to organisational change, innovation and learning across differ ent sectors and organisations. Data was analysed using a typology of the learning region developed in the CRITICAL project and the region was found to have characteristics of a learning region although without wider connectivity across the city could only be considered a sub region. The study contributes to the body of work which demonstrates that the university can play a significant role in supporting the learning region and local engagement of key organisations, enterprises and government, and in the understanding of policy and programs to develop learning regions. The findings also contribute to innovation theory particularly with regard to networks and small to medium enterprises in manufacturing. Findings support the development of frameworks for urban regional development with the partnering of different levels of government to create new ways of operating and learning in the emerging mode of local governance partnerships and highlight the need to develop ways of measuring and understanding success or failure which capture the social, economic, cultural and environmental priorities of society.

In the era of knowledge-based economy, learning to learn and how to learn is crucial, and learning becomes a fundamental process for local development. Knowledge can be divided into two categories as the codified and tacit knowledge. For a local economy, tacit knowledge can not be traded easily as it is local advantages in the globalized age. Geographical proximity makes face-to-face communication essential, and it is important for the interactive learning. In addition, it also needs an institutional milieu that is advantageous to the innovation activities, and then a learning region comes to a fore. In this regard, the study aims to exam a learning region on textile industry with the case study in Tainan area. Via face-to-face interviews of the textile participators, the results show that the textile firms in Tainan area are supported by sharing a common social and cultural background. Social network helps the collective learning more effectively. The innovation activities derive from firms come from firms of supply chain, R&D institutes and business associations. However the connections within the firms of the same business, university and local government are limited, which weakens the learning of tacit knowledge and the creation of the synergy. To strengthen the learning mechanism for institutional thickness and learning region is suggested to the textile cluster in Tainan.

Abstract The development of Taiwan automotive industry has the long history. The output of Taiwanese automotive component industry had reached the new peak in 2002, after that the new highest record in history is that the output reaches NT 171,400 million. We found a lot of studies are about automotive industry not automotive component industry. Therefore, this study probes into the network relation among industries, the state in the network¡Ketc. which are important factors to explain these relations in the automotive component industry. This study used the view of the Learning Region to integrate the diversifying point of innovate learning and network relation¡Xlocation factors, learning systems and network relations that research innovate learning and real learning systems in Taiwanese automotive component industry. This study found Taiwanese automotive component industry possesses close geography so that auto makers and automotive component firms have the common competitiveness foundation and production system, manufacturing infrastructure are their common foundations. Because automotive makers are so near to supply help and this long-term relation formed a close industry network. The innovate learning activities of Taiwan auto parts firm are student system, production innovation mechanism, and cooperation with others departments of intra-firm, cooperation with suppliers and consumer¡¦s industries among the industries of the learning mechanisms, but other learning mechanisms (e.g. seminar, university, and administrative center of industrial area )didn¡¦t have high relations that weakens the learning of tacit knowledge and the creation of the synergy. It is easy to replace by other regions under the global competition. How to strengthen the learning mechanism of the innovative activity on the basis of original industry network to achieve the stronger system will be a challenge for automotive component industries to develop the learning region.

The presented thesis is analyzing the cross-border co-operation between three units, the Czech-Polish-Slovak Euroregion Beskydy, the Czech-Slovak Bílé-Biele Karpaty and the Czech-Polish Euroregion Silesia. The object of the work is to point out the concrete factors influencing the collaboration in these Euroregions in 2004-2006 period. From the beginning of this date caught the countries, on whose territory particular structures are situated, as the lawful Member States of the European Union draw the financial aid from the Community Initiative INTERREG. An important part of this Initiative, INTERREG IIIA Programme, was in the Multiannual Financial Framework concerned designated to the support of the cross- border co-operation. The criteria are built on the base of the Theory of learning regions, according which the collaboration in cross-border structures is analysed: a milieu, from which the co-operation arised, a participation of the other subjects on the activities of the Euroregion and main areas of the co-operation and knowledge imparted. The priorities specified at the beggining of the partnership are envisaged with the intern setting of the Euroregion and with the projects truly realized in the period defined.

This thesis deals with regional development policy in Corsica region in the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. During the first period region remained temporarily in objective 1 - Promoting the development and structural adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind. This period should facilitate the preparation for the transition into the developed European regions. The aim is to answer the question whether the region succeeded in coping with the new requirements of regional policy in 2007-2013 and if any shift towards an economy based on competitiveness and employment occurred there in contrast with the previous period. Based on the theory of new regionalism and learning regions this work defines three criteria which are used to compare of regional policy region in the given time frame. These are the institutional embeddedness with regard to who is involved in the negotiation of regional policy strategy, the environment in terms of economic configuration of the region and the density of institutions focusing on cooperation between fields of education, research and the private sector. The analysis shows that there has been an economic growth in the region. On the other side the regional policy could not fully focus on competitiveness and employment, as it has to deal with structural...

This research investigates the role of clustering, learning and innovation in retaining competitiveness in an existing tourism area in a peripheral region of Europe. To do this it draws on the tourism resort area known as the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. Structurally, it focuses on hotel and catering businesses, which are considered to be at the heart of the tourism industry. Tourism is shown not only to be fundamental to the development ofthis coastal agglomeration, but also critical to the development of the province of Malaga (of which the Costa del Sol is a part) and the wider region of Andalucia. Hence the need to examine the evolution oftourism, the sources of competitive advantage and how such advantage can be retained in a globalised marketplace. The key proposition is that retaining competitive advantage can best be achieved through learning and innovation and that agglomerations provide a milieu in which learning and innovation are stimulated. Agglomeration theory and the role of learning and innovation are tested through an examination of the spatial and temporal evolution of hotel and catering businesses and through questionnaire surveys covering these businesses. In particular, the surveys are directed at addressing the issues of learning and innovation and assessing the extent to which the Costa del Sol operates as a 'learning region'. Questionnaire work met with severe problems of non-response despite being undertaken in conjunction with local business organisations. Nevertheless, sufficient responses were obtained to provide some tentative answers to the questions being posed and to provide the foundation for further research. The principal conclusions were that the Costa del Sol has acted as a growth pole and seedbed for business development, and that learning and innovation are promoted as much by competition as by co-operation. Finally, some public policy implications are drawn from these conclusions.