LECTURE 12

 

Regionalism, competition and geopolitics: European integration in Central Europe

 

The problem from which discussions during this lecture started underlines a basic dilemma of current regional development policies: namely, what effects the implementation of region-based development designs might produce at the scale of larger territorial entities beyond the geographical borders of a region. Is regional development likely to reduce economic discrepancies, or, on the contrary, by focusing on a particular region, is contributing in fact to the deepening of the gaps between the development levels of various regions? Analysing the situation in their home regions, students agreed, that both tendencies are present. The discussion then looked for possible solutions to overcome the unintended negative effects of regional development and to reduce economic inequality.

 

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