In a period of increasing globalization and rapid growth in emerging countries, recognizing sources of regional competitiveness is of paramount importance. This timely and informative book identifies and analyses changes in the origins of regional advantage. The expert contributors illustrate that sources of regional competitiveness are strongly linked with spatially observable yet increasingly flexible realities, and include building advanced and efficient transport, communications and energy networks, changing urban and rural landscapes, and creating strategic and forward-looking competitiveness policies. They investigate long-term interactions between regional competitiveness and urban mobility, as well as the connections that link global sustainability with local technological and institutional innovations, and the intrinsic diversity of spatially rooted innovation processes. A prospective analysis on networks and innovation infrastructure is presented, global environmental issues such as climate change and energy are explored, and new policy perspectives - relevant world-wide - are prescribed. Networks, Space and Competitiveness will prove an invaluable resource for academics, students and researchers across a range of fields including international and regional economics, regional science, economic geography and international business.
Contents: Evolving Networks, Spaces and Competitiveness Policies: Introductory Remarks Roberta Capello and Tomaz Ponce Dentinho PART I: EVOLVING TRANSPORT AND KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS 1. Transport and Communications and Regional Development: New Potentials and Challenges Klaus Spiekermann and Michael Wegener 2. The Urban Mobility System and Regional Competitiveness Jose Manuel Viegas 3. Change in the Energy Systems Paradigm and the Impact on Regional Development Paulo C. Ferrao and Carlos Santos Silva 4. The Knowledge Economy in European Regions: A Strategic Goal for Competitiveness Roberta Capello 5. Knowledge Relations and Innovation from a Regional Perspective Franz Todtling, Christoph Hoglinger and Markus Grillitsch PART II: EVOLVING CLIMATE AND LANDSCAPE 6. Climate Change and the Futures of Regions Carlos Roberto Azzoni and Eduardo Amaral Haddad 7. Methods and Models of Analysis in the Urban Housing Market Joao Lourenco Marques, Eduardo Anselmo Castro and Arnab Bhattacharjee 8. Land Use Regulation and Regional Form: A Spatial Mismatch? John I. Carruthers PART III: EVOLVING POLICY PERSPECTIVES 9. Collective Efficiency Strategies: A Regional Development Policy Contribution for Competitiveness Enhancement Rui Nuno Baleiras 10. Policy Failures and Food Crises in Less Developed Countries Ana Maria Fuertes Eugenio 11. New Challenges for Sustainable Growth Tomaz Ponce Dentinho Index
