In a world of systemic environmental destruction and growing social inequality, it is important to explore how decision-making institutions communicate about development and how they attempt to achieve social and environmental sustainability. The institutions define the problems, suggest the strategies, make the policies and set the targets in order to address the present socio-ecological crisis. Using the following key research question, this study focuses on one of these institutions, the Swedish Government: What ideologies and discourses underpin the Swedish Government’s National Strategy for Sustainable Regional Development Throughout the Country 2021-2030, and how consistent are they to the purpose of the strategy?  In order to answer the question, this research uses critical discourse analysis based on Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for empirical research in communication, culture and society. Through a framework of postdevelopment and postcolonial feminist theories, this study questions mainstream discourses that are still today reinforced by decision-makers and practitioners within regional development in Sweden. It further examines a potential discourse paradox in the national strategy: In order to solve social and environmental problems, the document promotes economic and technological solutions that are based on the same logic of infinite growth, unidirectional progress and competitiveness that may have caused the problems.  Through explaining and discussing the discourses within a wider social context, this analysis concludes that the Swedish national strategy for regional development reinforces discourses that are problematizing and may impede the purpose of contributing to social, economic and environmental sustainability throughout the country. The study discusses how this can have negative effects on social and environmental relationships not only in Swedish regions, but also globally, and suggests ways for future regional development to become more contributive to social equality and environmental protection.

The role of community participation in protected areas has long been debated. Sweden is in the process of establishing two new National Park, of which one is located on the island of Gotland. In order to figure out the best approach to management of the area, it is important to listen to the residents. Through a qualitative study, I have therefore investigated whether residents would like to be included in the Park implementation and management, along with how the National Park could help Gotland reach its sustainability agenda by 2040. The findings show that communities are eager to be included in the National Park project, but also that Region Gotland should revise the way they address regional development.

In this thesis I analyze regional labor markets in the interwar period using a firm-level wagedatabase. Using wages for both men, women, and minors I show that previous studiesunderestimate regional inequalities. Wages for all workers converged slightly between 1922and 1930 but male wages diverged. The thesis also shows that wages were positively correlatedwith local union density levels and negatively correlated with unemployment. Wages weremore responsive towards unemployment in 1922 as compared to 1930. The findings in thisthesis point towards a new understanding of regional development during the interwar periodand sheds new light on the dawn of the Swedish model.

Undeniable geopolitical significance of the Russian Far East renders development of the region a matter of national priority for the entire 21st century. Enormous untapped potential of the region is not limited to the range of possibilities offered by export of its natural resources. Developing a non-resource export potential of the Russian Far East offers a way of ensuring sustainable economic growth - a key component of regional, and national, competitive capabilities. At the core of Michael E. Porter's book "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" is a model of national competitive advantage that introduces the concept of business clusters as drivers of economy. Applying Porter's analytical framework and building on recent experience of government-driven innovative cluster development in Russia, the thesis seeks to propose an economically sound model of International Medical Education Cluster for the Russian Far Eastern Federal District. The cluster will support Russia's engagement with Asia and complement one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries - that of healthcare - by addressing one of its most acute needs, namely the growing worldwide shortage of healthcare personnel. The proposed model capitalizes on federal policy of internationalisation of Russian higher education,...

As a response to meet climate targets, transit-oriented development is seen as a tool in Swedish regional development to decrease car dependency. By national infrastructural investments in new train stations, small municipalities are expected to continue the transit-oriented development by plan dense areas with housing in connection to the new train stations. Previous research has shown that sustainable development plans are hard to implement, and that there is a lack of research about the processual dimension of implementing transit-oriented development plans, especially in rural areas. The aim of the thesis is to scrutinise the conditions in which these plans are supposed to be put into place at a municipal level, and in what way municipal interest affect to the implementation. The research question is asking how sustainable development is enacted in practice from the example of transit-oriented developmentin rural areas close to bigger cities. The chosen case studies are two neighbouring municipalities in Västra Götaland region that got new train stations in 2012, according to the planning norm of TOD and due to being located in a designated transport corridor. The empirical data consist of five comprehensive plans and interviews with six municipal politicians. By using a theoretical framework of governmentality studies the rationalities and underlying assumptions that makes the certain enactment of the plans intelligible are analysed. The result show that there are different logics behind the implementation of transit-oriented development plans at the regional and at the municipal level. The rationalities to implement the municipal plans conflict with the stated aim of the plans. When striving for a bigger tax base, the municipalities build housing that attract middle class families, which are the opposite of the dense development close to the train stations that are the goal of the regional plans. Because of interurban competition for a certain population, a sustainable development though transitoriented development can be hard to implement.

This bachelor thesis deals with the determination of influence of territorial infrastructure on regional development. Basic concepts of the issue and a procedure of the construction of a composite indicator are explained in the theoretical part. Methodology of work lies in the creation of two composite indicators characterizing areas of territorial infrastructure and regional development using appropriate input statistical data. These indicators are then subjected to a correlation analysis.

The submitted diploma thesis deals with the issue of regional development of Slovenia and Croatia. The theme of regional differences and territorial differentiation is one of the classic themes of social and political geography. The main goal of the diploma thesis is - a comparative analysis of the regional development of Croatia and Slovenia at several scale levels. At the same time, the aim is to map the change in the regional image of Slovenia and Croatia over a longer period of time, especially since the end of the war in the Balkans, which took place here in the early 1990s. At the same time, the work aims to find out what general and specific factors play the most important role in regional development. A data set covering a wide range of socio-economic and demographic variables serves to achieve the proposed objectives. With the help of quantitative methods, the trends of regional disparities of the monitored countries, the influence of the most developed areas and the monitoring of regional variability of both countries are examined. Data comparing the regional development of both countries confirm that Slovenia is becoming a stronger dimension of social and regional policy than Croatia, where a significantly higher deepening of regional disparities and the concentration of production in...

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On the island of Gotland in Sweden, “wicked problems” related to socioeconomic inequalities are growing. These are linked to the complex social sustainability issues that are tackled in the Regional Development Strategy “Our Gotland 2040”. With this strategy, Region Gotland aims at governing and coordinating stakeholders through collaborative governance toward a more sustainable future. The purpose of our research is to understand the experiences of participating organisations in this early stage of development of the social sustainability program, through the lens of collaborative governance theory. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews that underwent thematic analysis. Within the interviewed organisations two main themes have emerged: Collaborative Process and Political Influences. Each of them is discussed with additional subthemes. Given the exploratory character of our study, the findings create a basis for further, more conclusive research. Our recommendation for the ongoing collaboration is to pay attention to the political environment and how it impacts the collaboration. Furthermore, setting shared goals should be a priority, since participants encounter both strengths and challenges during this process.

This dissertation offers insights into the use of ideas in policies designed to address uneven territorial development in regions outside metropolitan areas in the European Union (EU). The focus is on integrated territorial development policies which draw on the notion of territorial cohesion in two different national contexts within the EU: Germany and Romania. The theoretical background of the thesis traces how territorial disparities are addressed in key theoretical paradigms which have influenced regional development thinking. Integrated territorial development is singled out as a key policy approach designed to overcome development disparities by tapping into underutilised endogenous assets and knowledge as part of a cross-sectoral vision within a defined space (be it an urban, rural, or regional context). Forward-thinking as this approach strives to be, it faces fundamental challenges in places which have been grappling with a rise of economic, social, and political disparities for many years. Understanding these processes through the relational concept of peripheralisation steers research towards engaging with people’s perceptions of spatial disparities and policies designed to address them. The conceptual framework of the thesis is designed around principles which enable an interpretive analysis of public policy. This mode of inquiry is based on an anti-foudnationalist ontology and a constructivist epistemology. The cornerstone of this approach is understanding policy actions as indeterminate, prone to unintended consequences, and fundamentally shaped by the backtalk of the complex social system it seeks to influence. Policy-making and implementing is hence viewed as a setting in which disparate and contingent beliefs and actions of individuals come together to shape a temporarily concerted course of actions. Different types of policy ideas (in many cases belonging to different schools of thought) hence come together in a process of policy framing where policy substance, actors’ identities and relationships, and the policy process are shaped. To operationalise this framework, the methodological design of this research follows an abductive mode of scientific inquiry which pursues an iterative engagement with the field and the theory. The empirical research is designed around two case study regions – the Chemnitz Region in The Free State of Saxony (one of Germany’s 16 federal states) and the North-West Region in Romania. The rationale behind the selection of the case studies was to choose regions in starkly different policy contexts, yet which are as similar as possible in terms of their socio-economic development trajectories. The study analyses three policy instruments: integrated urban development funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), integrated rural development funded through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and regional development planning initiatives. The primary data stems from 43 semi-structured expert interviews conducted with 46 policy practitioners and experts. Policy documents, local and regional strategies, and statistics have served as a source of secondary data. The analytical approach draws on principles of grounded theory for inductively developing theoretical categories and establishing causal explanations in the form of mid-level, provisional theories. The first block of the analysis engages with the substance of integrated territorial development policies and strategies, showcasing different interpretations of territorial cohesion in national contexts. Governments in both contexts view territorial cohesion as a means of strengthening the governance and coordination of policies, with a focus on local development conditions. Nonetheless, little emphasis is put on the competitive polycentric development approach, balanced development, and the environmental dimensions. In both studied contexts, polarised development is grasped as an inevitable approach for overcoming broad regional structural weaknesses. The second analytical block engages with policy processes which underpin the implementation of integrated territorial development strategies. This serves to highlight the settings in which policy-relevant actors apply the integrated instruments available to them. The analysis centres on the separation of urban from rural development, the ownership of the goals pursued through integrated development and the ensuing impact on actors’ motivation to engage with complex policy procedures, and the role of experts in guiding policy beneficiaries The final block of the analysis touches on the problematisation of peripheralisation in relation to integrated development instruments in four domains: demographic change, structural economic shifts, infrastructures and services of general interest, and place identity and marketing. These domains are not tied to any specific policies, but have rather emerged as salient in the inductive analysis. The research concludes with a number of open questions and suggestions for policy makers. A key observation is that the notion of territorial cohesion itself tends to bring little value added to policy programmes, as many topics are already addressed in bespoke national normative concepts and policy programmes. Far from being an end-state, territorial cohesion comes across as a process which is shaped by contrasting perceptions on competitive and balanced development; by centralised and devolved modes of governance; by functional territorial planning or network-based development windows of opportunity. The added value of policies which draw on territorial cohesion to address territorial disparities may lay in bringing the perspective of peripheralised policy communities to the forefront of the debate and enabling innovative forms of cooperation.:Preface and acknowledgments – iii Table of contents – vii List of figures and tables – xi Abbreviations – xv Introduction – 1 PART I: THEORETICAL, CONCEPTUAL, AND METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS 1. Theoretical insights into territorial cohesion and disparities in the EU – 15 1.1. Key shifts in regional development policy thinking – 15 1.1.1. The neoliberalisation of regional and local development – 16 1.1.2. The neoliberalising logic of strategic spatial planning – 23 1.1.3. New approaches towards development policies – 24 1.2. Normative and policy dimensions of territorial cohesion – 26 1.2.1. Establishing European planning concepts – 27 1.2.2. Dimensions of territorial cohesion and its integrative role – 30 1.3. Towards a relational understanding of territorial disparities – 36 1.3.1. Understanding territorial disparities through peripheralisation – 36 1.3.2. Ideational dependency in development policies – 39 1.4. Territorial cohesion and peripheralisation: research perspectives – 40 2. Conceptual framework – 43 2.1. Policy analysis: a constructivist perspective – 44 2.1.1. The case for an anti-foundationalist ontology of public policy – 45 2.1.2. Policy analysis in an interpretive epistemology – 49 2.2. Understanding the role of prominent policy ideas – 52 2.2.1. Decentering political science – 53 2.2.2. Prominent policy ideas: an interpretive perspective – 54 2.3. Reflexive agency in public policy – 56 2.3.1. Putting travelling ideas to use in policy design processes – 56 2.3.2. Policy frames and policy framing – 61 2.4. Guiding principles – 64 3. Methodology – 67 3.1. Interpretive analysis in spatial policy research – 68 3.2. Research design – 72 3.2.1. Key principles – 72 3.2.2. Comparing two case studies – 75 3.2.3. Generating theory: principles and quality criteria – 79 3.3. Methods – 85 3.3.1. Qualitative interviewing – 85 3.3.2. Policy and document analysis – 90 3.4. Case and respondent selection – 91 3.4.1. Selecting regions in Germany and Romania – 91 3.4.2. Selecting respondents – 95 PART II: CONTEXT 4. The administrative context of integrated territorial development policies – 105 4.1. The ESI funds and the Cohesion Policy: a brief overview – 106 4.1.1. The key aims of the ESI funds – 107 4.1.2. EU priorities for the Cohesion Policy – 108 4.1.3. Integrated territorial development – 110 4.2. Planning and regional development in Saxony and Romania – 112 4.2.1. Saxony – 113 4.2.2. Romania – 114 4.3. Policy instruments for integrated territorial development – 115 4.3.1. Saxony – 115 4.3.2. Romania – 120 4.4. Policy directions – 125 5. Territorial structures of, and development trends in the studied regions – 127 5.1. Territorial structures – 127 5.1.1. The Chemnitz region in Saxony – 127 5.1.2. The North-West region in Romania – 130 5.2. Population and demography – 133 5.3. Transport infrastructure – 135 5.4. Economic profiles – 139 5.4.1. Employment concentration – 139 5.4.2. Commuting – 142 5.4.3. Economic sectors - 142 PART III: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 6. The substance of integrated territorial development policies and strategies – 149 6.1. Normative positions on territorial cohesion – 149 6.1.1. Normative Positions – 150 6.1.2. Linking the storylines – 152 6.1.3. Key remarks – 153 6.2. The substance of governmental policies – 155 6.2.1. Categorising space: the inevitability of polarised development – 157 6.2.2. The role of integrated territorial development policies – 163 6.3. The substance of local and regional strategies – 169 6.3.1. Integrated Rural Development Plans – 169 6.3.2. Integrated Urban Development Plans – 174 7. Ideas in action: making sense of integrated territorial development – 189 7.1.Practical constraints and affordances of using integrated instruments – 189 7.1.1. The urban-rural split in ESI-funded instruments – 189 7.1.2. Centralising the ownership of European goals – 196 7.2. The role of experts in framing integrated responses – 203 7.2.1. Experts’ roles beyond bureaucracies – 204 7.2.2. Attuning expertise to local conditions – 204 7.2.3. Conveying expertise at a regional level and beyond – 208 7.3. From ideas to action – 210 7.3.1. Fostering motivation – 210 7.3.2. Eroding trust through complex bureaucracies – 215 8. Problematising integrated development: a local-regional perspective – 219 8.1. Demographic change – 219 8.2. Structural economic shifts – 225 8.2.1. Regional economies in transition – 226 8.2.2. Towards competitive territories – 231 8.3. Infrastructures and public services – 235 8.3.1. In-between adaptation and expansion – 236 8.3.2. Key remarks – 240 8.4. Place identity and marketing – 240 8.5. From problems to perceptions of cumulative disadvantages – 247 PART IV: CONCLUSIONS 9. Conclusions and implications – 255 9.1. Summary of the research approach. Key findings – 255 9.1.1. Research approach and theoretical anchors – 255 9.1.2 Policy ideas and their role in policy framing 258 9.2. Reflections and implications – 264 9.2.1. Methodological reflections – 265 9.2.2. Policy implications – 266 9.2.3. Perspectives for further research – 269 References – 271 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Analysed policy documents – 301 Appendix 2: Analysed strategies – 303 Appendix 3: Details about the interviews – 305 Appendix 4: List of original quotes – 311