Regional connectivity through global production networks in Europe and beyond: new policy approaches
The assessment of the balance and complementarity between inward and outward global capital flows – in terms of creation/destruction and specialisation/diversification of regional and local economic activities, sectors and functions, employment, skills and innovation – is all the more urgent to enhance the understanding of regional development trajectories and resilience, and the ways to support them. This project proposal aims at reviewing systematically and comparatively, and in the light of a new conceptual framework, territorial (subnational) policy measures for the connectivity of regions, with a specific focus on the simultaneous occurrence of inward and outward productive capital flows. The current policy tools are still largely dominated by inward FDI attractiveness as a means to increase regional productivity. However, the current state of globalisation and the relevance of global production and innovation networks (GPNs) neither justify nor ensure effectiveness of such a narrow – and still largely nationally-designed – intervention to enhancing regional economic development. A critical and comprehensive review would be the starting point for the identification of both further theoretical and empirical research, and alternative policy tools for the variety of European regions.
Read the blog article Globalisation through FDI and regional development policy by Simona Iammarino here: https://blog.regionalstudies.org/globalisation-fdi-regional-development-policy/
The FeRSA grant allowed me to develop my arguments about the urgent need to adopt a territorial view on internationalisation processes and policies, and to expand some regional case studies on the topic. This is becoming a crucial issue in rethinking regional and cohesion policies in the European Union, and I am now collaborating with various stakeholders, including the European Commission, in a reflection on how to incorporate global capital flows and value chains into regional strategies and smart specialisation. This would have not been possible without the grant and the research assistance it provided, particularly as I was coming out from a period of intensive academic management. In addition, the FeRSA also allowed me to confront with major experts in the field outside Europe, and new and exciting research lines which came out of those discussions. RSA takes good care of its members, at all stages of career!