Beyond core-periphery relationship in the EC cooperation

During the current process of EU enlargement, regions are confronted with a need to revise their relative position within the newly formed socio-economic, spatial and cultural spaces. As existing equilibria are severely affected, the type and direction of developmental trends of member states (and regions) are increasingly questioned. Concerns are being raised about the risks that the annealing process would trigger a number of undesirable processes, i.e. loss of comparative advantages, regions lagging behind, accentuation of socio-economic gaps, social unbalances resulting from migration flows of poor population. These might hamper the path of European integration and eventually result in a reinforcement of the more accessible well developed areas and a loss of more peripheral and relatively underdeveloped ones. In this context, cooperation amongst the member states, and in particular, their local governments, may play a significant role to both overcome those risks and favouring the EU integration process. Information on cooperation (and integration) for the European countries is extensive and provides detailed accounts of the initiatives which have been undertaken since the establishment of EU programs in the early sixties. Although the variety of cooperation (integration) programs which have been launched as the EU unification progressed are well documented, existing studies have rarely questioned the kind of evolution ( i.e. type and extent of the changes underlying the various initiatives) those programs underwent. The aim of this paper is to undertake a preliminary step in this analysis. A claim is made that: a. on the one hand, the widening of the scopes of cooperation programs and increasing number of eligible actors involved are significantly reinforcing the potentials of cooperation in favouring the integration process not only among the member countries but also different kind of areas (i.e. between metropolitan and peripheral cities); b. on the other hand, there is a need to refine the current approaches to cooperation and develop a conceptual framework which serves as a basis for both formulating the various initiatives and defining effective benchmarks for their evaluation. The paper is organized in three main sections. The first addresses some methodological questions about the definition of what should be understood as a cooperation situation. An effort is made to identify a conceptual framework which might be relevant for dealing with cooperative actions in a institutionalised setting. This is then used in the second section to provide an account of the evolution of the EU programs on cooperation. Finally, in the last section attention is turned to the strengths (i.e. greater attention to the spatial dimension of cooperation programs, more equalitarian relationships amongst the participants) and weaknesses (i.e. lack of a shared model of cooperative actions) of the current approaches to cooperation. An effort is made to emphasize a few relevant questions which can be challenging in the current EU policies and thinking.

REVISTING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BROADBAND DIFFUSION AND REGIONAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT: A PRIMER

As they create generative conditions for socioeconomic development ICTs and broadband technology, can be understood as an innovation kernel for system evolution. Whereas for a regional system (a local area), technological progress may at certain times be regarded as exogenous, information endowments and expected level of functionalities are not. An innovation kernel, in fact, cannot exist outside the organization of the regional/local system which it belongs to. To grow and deploy its potentials, a fertile environment capable to adapt pro-actively to the changes it produces is needed. In this paper the conceptual underpinnings of an innovation kernel are overviewed and their relationships with those conventionally addressed in regional science studies briefly discussed. Bbuilding upon the IRES research undertaken as a part of the Piedmont ICT Observatory activities, an effort is made to pinpoint the determinants and processes of regional development on which an innovation kernel would encroach. A conceptual framework is outlined which makes it possible to elicit some main relationships between ICTs, broadband and developmental processes in a regional system.

Simulating a Post-Fordist urban system: Results from the PF.US model

In a previous we argued that some major novelties to be addressed by a new generation of urban models should be related to: i) the knowledge expectations connected with the use of a model (i.e. epistemological background), ii) the feasibility of its application domain (i..e. the operational underpinnings) and iii) the urban phenomena and perceptions characterizing the present cities ( i.e. the so-called Post-Fordist cities). We also emphasized that many drawbacks and limitations which nowadays make the classical urban modelling unsatisfactory were not caused so much by their methodological underpinnings but rather by the limited scope of the whole model application. This paper presents an operational simulation model (the PFUS model) which broadens the focus of the classical model application and allows to explore some features of the new kind of development taking place in modern cities (i.e. the local-global interactions, the role of localized resources). The paper is articulated into three parts. Part 1 outlines the conceptual and formalised structure of the model. Part 2 presents the results of its application to the Piedmont region. Finally in part 3 the main novelties of the PFUS model application are discussed emphasizing in particular their implicattions for planning purposes.

La città in rete. Una ricognizione sulla dotazione delle infrastrutture telematiche nel sistema metropolitano di Torino e in Piemonte

Quaderni di ricerca Ires ; n.100- Abstract #8- Indice #10- Introduzione #13- Comunicazione e reti #24- Evoluzione delle reti in Italia #67- Reti civiche e iniziative telematiche di Torino e del Piemonte #91- La diffusione di Internet in alcune scuole dell'area metropolitana di Torino #126- Osservazioni conclusive #149- Appendici #159- Bibliografia #20

Le attività di modellizzazione all'Ires: una rassegna e prime considerazioni

Working Paper ; n.160/2002- Indice #5- Presentazione #7- Modelli e attività di modellizzazione #9- Le attività di modellizzazione realizzate all'Ires #13- Alcune osservazioni sulle esperienze di modellizzazione condotte all'Ires #39- Bibliografia #45- Abstract #4

Chi cambia casa : un'analisi dell'intenzione di cambiare alloggio a Torino ed in altre due aree del Piemonte

Working Paper ; n.102- Indice #3- Introduzione #5- Elementi di uno schema concettuale dei determinanti della mobilità residenziale #10- Chi cambia casa #32- Un modello esplicativo dell'intenzione di cambiare casa #50- Conclusioni #74- Appendici #84- Riferimenti bibliografici #10

Beyond core-periphery relationships in the EU cooperation

Contributi di ricerca ; n.183/2004- Indice #3- Presentation #5- Abstract #7- Introduction #9- A conceptual framework for cooperative action #11- An analysis of European cooperation #17- Concluding remarks: cooperation vs. cooperative actions #25- References #2

Info-mobility e propensione al telelavoro: un'analisi esplorativa per il Piemonte

contributi di ricerca ; n.195/2005 : Contributo LABSIMQ ; n.4- Indice #3- Abstract #5- Introduzione #7- Le relazioni tra ICT e mobilità cenni concettuali #9- Informazione e mobilità: alcune evidenze empiriche #15- Stima ed interpretazione della propensione al tele-lavoro #25- L'impatto delle propensioni al tele-lavoro sulla riduzione degli spostamenti casa-lavoro #35- Osservazioni conclusive #41- Bibliografia #43- Appendice #4

Experimenting a multi-agent model: the SimAC Model

Contributi di ricerca ; n.184/2004 ; Contributo LabSIMQ ; n.1- Indice #4- Premessa #6- Abstract #8- Introduction #10- Putting the SIMAC model in perspective #12- The SIMAC model #16- Model building #20- The model achitecture #26- SIMAC in action: some results of simulation #30- Concluding remarks #38- References #4