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Chris Collinge, Stewart MacNeillBirmingham Business School

University of Birmingham

THE RISE PROJECTRegional Integrated Strategies

in Europe

• Regional Integrated Strategies (RIS) are emerging as way to focus on economic, social and territorial cohesion to secure integrated sustainable development

• There is no single model of RIS. Instead they consist of a combination of several core thematic and spatial topics, which vary depending on the regional contexts.

• RIS can be used as a valuable tool for regeneration, but there are methodological challenges in developing and implementing a RIS

Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion

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1. Analyse the emergence and significance of RIS in different territorial and institutional settings

2. Develop typologies of Regional Integrated Strategies: based on 4 case study regions:• Randstad (Netherlands) • Zealand (Denmark)• Västerbotten (Sweden) • West Midlands (UK)

3. Develop and test a typology and RIS-toolkit applicable in the four stakeholders’ countries and Europe

4. Conclusions and recommendations

RISE Project Aims

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RISE: Västerbotten (S), Randstad (NL),

Zealand (DK), W. Midlands (UK)

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Stakeholders:• Birmingham City Council (Lead Stakeholder); • Regional Council of Västerbotten; • Region Zealand; • Randstad Region (Brussels Office)

Research Partners: • University of Birmingham Business School• Delft University of Technology – Research Institute for Housing, Urban

and Mobility Studies (OTB)• University of Copenhagen – Forest & Landscape, Denmark (FLD)• University of Umeå – Centre for Regional Science (CERUM)

RISE – Regional Integrated Strategies in Europe

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1. Regional Profiling: an analysis of economic and social data to present a statistical overview of the four regions

2. Literature Review: on policy transfer and learning; Meta-governance and new forms of governance; and Collaborative planning, legitimization and partnership.

3. Case studies: Interactive Learning approach: 1) Review of secondary sources; Interviews with practitioners and

policy makers 2) Assessment of practice 3) Verification of learning with the practitioner community- focus

group discussions 4. Devise Toolkit, RIS typology, Ladder of Integration

Methodology

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• Sectoral integration: intra-sectoral and inter-sectoral alignment of objectives and instruments

• Organisational integration: co-ordination at strategic level (strategy statements) and operational level (delivery mechanisms)

• Territorial integration: vertical (policy coherence across spatial scales) and horizontal integration (policy coherence between neighbouring authorities)

Policy Integration

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• Government - rigidly demarcated administrative territories or jurisdictions legally controlled by a body

• Governance - decision making power is spread over a range of stakeholders.

• Good governance - characterised by participation, openness, accountability, effectiveness and coherence

• Governance network - interdependent actors negotiating within a framework of rules, to produce ‘public value’

• Meta-governance to coordinate network to give coherence but not stifle autonomy of actors

Governance and meta-governance

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1. Ignorance = the absence of contact and discussion between policy-makers in different but adjacent fields.

2. Policy-scanning = policy-scanning and exchange of information between policy-makers.

3. Evaluation of interactions = evaluation of policy interactions amongst candidate policies.

4. Negotiated redesign = policy contradictions identified and work done to minimise contradictions and improve the consistency of policies.

Findings: Ladder of Policy Integration

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5. Embedding = where the efforts towards integration have been pursued over a period of time, and contradictions addressed to bring consistency.

6. Institutional and territorial alignment = realigned institutional and territorial frameworks producing a common point of binding authority, greater territorial coterminosity, and arbitration procedures for building trust and resolving differences.

The Ladder of Policy Integration

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1. Governance consolidation: the degree to which the governance of the region is institutionally consolidated at the regional level or devolved to the sub-regional level in various ways, or centralised to the national level.

2. Policy integration: The proportion of policies (for sectors &/or between sub-regional territories) that are integrated within strategies that attempt to align objectives and to align delivery to produce integrated strategies at the regional-level.

Findings: A Proposed RIS Typology

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Policy Integration X Governance Consolidation

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REGIONAL POLICY INTEGRATION

REGIONAL

GOVERNANCE CONSOLIDATI

ON

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

NATIONALLY CENTRALISED

West Midlands

REGIONAL UNIFIED

Västerbotten

SUB-REGIONAL BIFURCATED

Zealand

SUB-REGIONAL PLURALISTIC West Midlands Randstad

There may be a relationship between governance consolidation and policy integration:

1. regional governance consolidation will simplify regional policy integration, bringing this process within a single agency and a single point of authority. But it may disconnect policies from their roots.

2. OR, in the absence of regionally consolidated governance, sub-regional agencies may want to cooperate, and they will be better equipped to represent their sectoral or spatial interests and objectives

Causality

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1. Analytical work• Surveillance of development trends and presentation of

scientific and professional knowledge about regional development

• Integration of multiple sources and forms of knowledge• Development of a capability to discover and understand

emergent patterns, new insights and new events• Strengthening of the relation between strategies, local

conditions and projects• Strengthening the relation between strategies and

solutions to concrete problems in the territory

DEVISING A TOOLKIT

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2. Link-making work• Participate in numerous collaborations and networks of

importance for strategic development in the area• Mobilise and facilitate relations and collaboration between

important actors and institutions in the regional territory in relation to strategy making and implementation

• Perform strategic network design and management, professional process governing

• Create relations and linkages between different regional issues and problems: e.g. climate, business, health – stress the multidimensional aspect of regional space

• Make networks and collaboration legitimate by balancing power relations and connecting to formal political institutions

DEVISING A TOOLKIT

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3. Framing/consensus-making work• Making a strategy is about focusing attention and making

choices for specific strategic issues• Make explicit the different interests, values and perspectives in

the area• Develop some form of common meaning and mental frames

about certain issues in the region, its problems and solutions, e.g. through story telling and discursive framing

• Strengthen the creative and innovative potentials in collaborative and integrative processes

• Create “contemporary restings” of strategies: “we agree on this for now, but are open to new ideas and sudden change”

TOOLKIT

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• ‘Family-zising’ strategies & agents – work in concert

Taking an Integrative approach

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A regional integrative strategy is not a final plan

but a dynamic document …

CONCLUDING REMARKS

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