Innovation Policy has been a high priority matter on the political agenda in Norway during the first half of this decade. In 2003-2004 the first two official policy-documents on innovation policy where publicised with great publicity. Based on official policy-documents, Norwegian research and analysis of public action plans for innovation, this thesis aims at finding the essence of Norwegian innovation policy. In addition, this thesis also tries to prove the relevance between contemporary theories of innovation and Norwegian innovation policy. This thesis could be seen as a critical scientific based remark to whether or not innovation should be claimed as a distinct area of politics in Norway.

Uppsatsen ”Östersjön – hav eller resurs?” är skriven 2008 av Amanda Haak på C-nivå med hjälp av handledaren Hele Kiimann, doktorand Kulturgeografiska institutionen Uppsala Universitet. Gasledningsprojektet är ett av de mest debatterade projekten idag. Dagligen publiceras nya artiklar och skrifter om projektet och majoriteten av kritiken som riktas mot det är negativt. Syftet med denna uppsats är att jag skall beskriva de bakomliggande aspekterna för att därefter förklara gasledningsprojektet samt själv slutligen besluta om jag är för eller emot bygget av gasledningen. Efter att ha läst på om de om de olika argumentenoch studerat fakta är jag fortfarande mestadels negativt inställd. Detta beror på de omfattande negativa effekterna på Östersjöns marina miljön. I min analys har jag tittat på tabeller över antalet ton landad fångst per år av ett fåtal fiskarter i Östersjön. Tanken var att jag därigenom skulle kunna se att arterna redan är under stora påfrestningar och därefter ställa en amatörmässig och spekulativ prognos om en gasledning antingen kan förvärra eller förbättra läget. Analysen visade att mängden torsk i Östersjön har minskat drastiskt de senaste åren. Detta tros bero på ökat fiske under 1980-talet i samband med en minskning av inflödet från Atlanten och därmed minskad salthalt. Gasledningen kan minska detta inflöde ytterligare vilket kan medföra att torskens reproduktion, som är beroende av en specifik salthalt, kollapsar och arten kan dö ut i Östersjön. Detta kan få konsekvenser både för fiskenäringen och för artsammansättningen i havet. När jag började jobba med denna uppsats var det bestämt vilken väg gasledningen skulle ta genom Östersjön, men efter påtryckningar från delvis Svenskt håll har man nu börjat studera en alternativ dragning vilken även skall inkludera en förgrening till Sverige. Funderingarna kring en ny dragning uppkom på grund av att gasledningen skulle dras allt för nära Gotland och allt för långt in i den Svenska ekonomiska zonen. Den alternativa dragningen är endast på planeringsstadiet, men anses idag bli den slutgiltiga vägen förledningen. Detta kan vara intressant att följa upp och eventuellt göra en nykonsekvensanalys när den nya rutten är beslutad.

Marginal regions in discursive space: an examination of socio-economic conditions, development paths and spatial differentiation in the economic systems of the Canadian and Russian North Andrey N Petrov Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto 2008 This dissertation is an effort to provide a new insight into the problem of regional development in remote areas under changing global and national political and economic conditions. It undertakes an assessment of shared economic histories, recent changes and future possibilities of socioeconomic prosperity and sustainability in marginal regions of Canada and Russia. The first chapter re-examines the structure of Canada’s and Russia’s space-economies by evoking the concept of regional multichotomies and economic marginality. I consider whether outcomes, geographic patterns and spatial logics of regional differentiation in the two countries are similar and explore the evidence of similarity between the North(s). Finding development outcomes in the Russian and Canadian North strikingly similar, the second chapter uses a combination of discursive analysis and regulation theory to re-interpret the origins of present-day problems and examine the genealogy of northern development. It argues that the Canadian and Russian northern development regimes shared profound commonalities. From these positions, the chapter compares and critiques past and present policies of regional development in the two Norths, and discusses their viability. The third chapter dwells upon a concept of ‘development regimes’ to analyze and compare contemporary regional development policies. It further investigates how recent economic development policies in the two Norths are adapting to changing economic and political realities, and if they were able to deliver desirable results to northern communities. The chapter compares and critiques contemporary policies and discusses possible alternative perspectives that reconcile an emerging postcolonial paradigm of development and realities of post-Fordism. It introduces the notion of the neo-staple development regime and describes its manifestations (Impact and Benefit Agreements). The fourth chapter presents a case for fostering knowledge based development and creative capital in the North. It builds on the innovation systems and institutional geography literatures to argue that the creative capital in the periphery is a pivotal factor of regional development. The chapter provides a conceptualization and empirical analysis of the creative class in remote regions. Contrary to the metropolitan bias, I argue that creative ‘hot spots’ beyond metropolis exist, and could become the centres of regional reinvention, if appropriate policies are introduced in support.

Marginal regions in discursive space: an examination of socio-economic conditions, development paths and spatial differentiation in the economic systems of the Canadian and Russian North Andrey N Petrov Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto 2008 This dissertation is an effort to provide a new insight into the problem of regional development in remote areas under changing global and national political and economic conditions. It undertakes an assessment of shared economic histories, recent changes and future possibilities of socioeconomic prosperity and sustainability in marginal regions of Canada and Russia. The first chapter re-examines the structure of Canada’s and Russia’s space-economies by evoking the concept of regional multichotomies and economic marginality. I consider whether outcomes, geographic patterns and spatial logics of regional differentiation in the two countries are similar and explore the evidence of similarity between the North(s). Finding development outcomes in the Russian and Canadian North strikingly similar, the second chapter uses a combination of discursive analysis and regulation theory to re-interpret the origins of present-day problems and examine the genealogy of northern development. It argues that the Canadian and Russian northern development regimes shared profound commonalities. From these positions, the chapter compares and critiques past and present policies of regional development in the two Norths, and discusses their viability. The third chapter dwells upon a concept of ‘development regimes’ to analyze and compare contemporary regional development policies. It further investigates how recent economic development policies in the two Norths are adapting to changing economic and political realities, and if they were able to deliver desirable results to northern communities. The chapter compares and critiques contemporary policies and discusses possible alternative perspectives that reconcile an emerging postcolonial paradigm of development and realities of post-Fordism. It introduces the notion of the neo-staple development regime and describes its manifestations (Impact and Benefit Agreements). The fourth chapter presents a case for fostering knowledge based development and creative capital in the North. It builds on the innovation systems and institutional geography literatures to argue that the creative capital in the periphery is a pivotal factor of regional development. The chapter provides a conceptualization and empirical analysis of the creative class in remote regions. Contrary to the metropolitan bias, I argue that creative ‘hot spots’ beyond metropolis exist, and could become the centres of regional reinvention, if appropriate policies are introduced in support.

The history of Taiwan has formed the developed structure of Taiwan cities, policies of industry development caused the main markets focusing in north Taiwan, generating the problem of uneven development between regions. This article adopts ¡§New Economic Geography¡¨ proposed by Krugman to discuss the differences between north region and south region in Taiwan. Moreover, this article extends the issue to real estate market and researches the influence of industrial clusters, transportation construction, labor market and migration of employed population. The empirical results indicate that money supply, industrial cluster and the construction of transportation will affect the development of regional house prices.

Base on Krugman¡¦s NEG model, we subsume urban cost in this study. Referring to study procedure of Murata and Thisse, make few changes of the model. Then, we get 3 conclusions of this study: (1) Due to the difference between commuting costs of each region, the symmetric distribution of workers will no longer make the largest total mass of varieties. While a region attend to traffic construction in order to drop people¡¦s commuting cost, agglomeration economic will not certainly make a negative impact on urban cost or effect people¡¦s variety consumption behavior. (2) In the case of an agglomeration, if the transportation costs are sufficiently large, the agglomeration equilibrium will be stable. The larger the transportation costs between regions, the larger cost of consuming other regions¡¦ commodity. Thus, chose to agglomerate in a bigger region can get cheaper and variety manufacturing commodities easily. And the agglomeration equilibrium will be stable. (3) Any change of commuting cost of the other region will not influence the stable of agglomeration equilibrium.

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.P.D.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162).