Mediating Policy Competition through Campus Development in Dutch Limburg

Over the past decades, governments have switched from a managerial to an entrepreneurial style of governance in the strengthening of certain places at the expense of others. This coevolved with an increase in inter-urban and inter-regional competition for resources, also called ‘policy competition’. The issue for regional governments is how they balance their wish to strengthen their economic structure, without creating conflicts of unfair competition in the designation of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. This paper addresses this balancing act in the Dutch Province of Limburg, where a multinational threatened to leave the region. The case is analysed with the help of actor-network-theory and follows the translations through which an innovative policy tool was constructed that allowed the Province to invest in real estate. Through the innovative ‘campus’ concept, the Province could comfort the vested interests of the multinational, while balancing out the interests of other economic cores in the region.