The territorial configurations of employment and lifelong learning

The ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’ was issued in 2010 by the European Commission. This document constitutes a growth scheme for the decade 2010-2020 that aims to help the European Union to emerge from the current crisis through the so-called smart, sustainable and inclusive dimensions of growth. In this context, the basic aim of the SIESTA (“Spatial Indicators for a ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’ Territorial Analysis”) Project has been to illustrate the territorial dimension of the ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’. In other words, to show how this document acts territorially, particularly at the regional scale, but, when possible, also at the urban level. The SIESTA Project has been funded by ESPON (“European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion”), a European Commission Programme whose mission is to support policy development in relation to the aim of territorial cohesion and a harmonious development of the European territory. This book includes most of the main findings and conclusions obtained through research of the SIESTA Project. The contents were presented and discussed as keynote addresses or communications at the SIESTA Final Conference held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, on 4-5 April 2013

THE ROLE OF POLYCENTRIC NETWORK IN THE DEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMIC OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

The present study is a concise form of some of the researches conducted within the Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Researches on Territorial Dynamics of the University of Bucharest, which had as an objective identifying the relationships between the development of the poles network and the evolution of demographic indicators. The study’s objectives are related to identifying the role of decisional impulses from the development poles level in the functional structuring of the local settlements system. The analyses were done at each census level, and the measures adopted by the decision makers in order to stimulate the economy of development poles were underlined. A special attention was given to the communist period, when decisional impulses were followed by immediate effects at the level of dissipative capacity of towns, towards which the investments allocated in order to develop industry were oriented

Qualitative changes in the entrepreneurial sector in emerging territorial systems – Craiova case study

The goal of the present study is to analyze the complex economic processes within emerging territorial systems, developed around big cities. Economic ventures concentrated inside these urban clusters in a short span of time, and they registered a spectacular evolution, compared to the neighboring areas. Intensification of the linkages between cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants in Romania and the surrounding areas led to the individualization of territorial systems apart, with a spectacular evolution of economic-social processes, which turn those systems into the most dynamic territorial structures. The present study means to identify the causes of those complex processes within emerging territorial systems, the manner of functional organization of the space, and the causes that determine the spectacular evolution of the economic processes within emerging systems

Geographic Analysis of Territorial Disparities in Maramureş County

After determining the development index at commune level, we have managed to sketch 4 advantaged areas and 3 disadvantaged ones. The most advantaged area is individualized around the county seat Baia Mare, the rest of the advantaged areas revolving around Sighetu-Marmaţiei, Borşa-Vişeu and Târgu Lapuş towns. The disadvantaged areas correspond mostly with the rural settlements situated afar from the high-polarizing centers at the county level (Baia Mare and Sighetu-Marmaţiei). This study reiterates the enormous discrepancy between the rural and urban areas, but also between the county seat city and all the other urban settlements. Maramureş County is situated somewhere at the lowest point in the counties hierarchy, not only because of its limited extension and of the precarious condition of the physical and social infrastructure, but also because of the chronic lack of investment in this area. Economically, Maramureş is characterized by a domination of the population employed in agriculture (the number of which has grown between the years 1990 and 2007, from 5% to 38%), in conjunction with a decrease in the number of population employed in the secondary sector (from 60% to 27%)

The Endogenous and Exogenous Perception of Bucharest City. A Connecting Element in the Rural-Urban Relationship

Seen from a geographical point of view, this paper o utlines the importance of urban perception from both an endogenous as well as an exo genous perspective not only for the strictly administrative area of the city, but also in terms of exceeding those limits to the rural area. The authors chose as a case study a complex city with a manifold population and a diversified and mosaic structure, in the same time the most importa nt economical, political, administrative, social, cultural and educational pole in Romania, n amely Bucharest. Therefore, at constant periods, respectively 2006, 2008 and 2010 the urban image could be analyzed at different scales of spatial and temporal levels, with a clear outside and inside perspective, using observation and survey approach. Considering the rich data collecte d in the three year period, we focus in this paper on the overall image of the city, while makin g at the same time reference to the importance of the perception in the rural-urban contex

Spatial Profile of Poverty.Case Study:The North-Eastern Development Region in Romania

In the present study the authors try to em-phasize the interdependent relations that are established between space and poverty, as well as the modalities through which poverty policies can be optimized and implemented at the territo-rial systems level in accordance to the polycen-tric development model.The f rst goal of the study is to understand the way in which the complexity of the territory, in its structure and relations, inf uences in un-equal ways the territorial pattern of poverty and development. The concept of territorial poverty that we use in the present study transcends the usual connotation of poverty as a simple lack of different kind of resources towards the incapacity of the system to offer a wide range of impulses and solutions to the encountered problems and thus induce a state of underdevelopment.The second goal is to understand in which ways the polycentric development theory can play a role in reducing poverty. In this sense the authors created a poverty index, and based on this index a polycentric development model was created for the North-Eastern region. This poly-centric development model has direct implica-tions for policy makers, as it highlights the areas that require the most attention and the develop-ment pole that should inf uence its development. By taking into consideration the results of this study, the next logical step for policy makers is to implement the necessary measures by consider-ing the relations between the development pole and the underdeveloped area that is under its in-f uence area. In this respect tailor-f t policies and measures can be applied in the effort to reduce poverty levels

Abordarea acţiunilor de management teritorial la nivelul ariilor restructurate funcţional

This study is based on the general analysis of functional restructured areas, whose evolution is achieved through interdependence relations at the economic level that support their development and assertion. The main major types are: a) traditional residential areas restructured for residential and services, whose relative stability is given by the slow process of changing at the structural level under the influence of different socio-economical processes; b) industrial areas restructured for residential and residential-services, whose interpretation is related to the multiple dimensions that the industrial restructuring process has in principal (economic, social and environmental); c) old industrial areas restructured in industrial parks, the new areas being often combined to a viable industrial environment, undistorted, based on competition and on a stable legal framework, simple and coherent, in order to ensure a sustainable economical growth; d) residential and services areas restructured for transport, the concerns in the transport restructuring representing a step absolutely necessary in the whole process of urban restructuring

Caracteristicile sectorului antreprenorial din sistemele teritoriale emergente

Economic ventures concentrated inside these urban clusters in a short span of time, and they registered a spectacular evolution, compared to the neighboring areas. Intensification of the linkages between cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants in Romania and the surrounding areas led to the individualization of territorial systems apart, with a spectacular evolution of economic-social processes, which turn those systems into the most dynamic territorial structures. The present study means to identify the causes of those complex processes within emerging territorial systems, the manner of functional organization of the space, and the causes that determine the spectacular evolution of the economic processes within emerging systems. Special attention was paid to the implementation of infrastructure projects, and to the manner they influenced the dynamics of the entrepreneurial sector