Regional Competitiveness : An Elusive yet Key Concept ?

INTRODUCTION established a European Council of Competitiveness, and it undertook to produce a regular Competitiveness There is now widespread agreement that we are wit-Report on the performance of the economy of the nessing the 'resurgence' of regions as key loci in the European Union (the most recent being the seventh, organization and governance of economic growth and for 2003). In the European Union, the issue of com-wealth creation. A previous special issue of this journal petitiveness has taken on particular significance in rela-('Rethinking the Regions', Regional Studies (2003) tion to its Lisbon 'growth strategy', with its highly 37(6/7)) was devoted to recent developments and ambitious aim to close the 'competitiveness gap' with debates in regional development theory. The present the USA and to become the world's most dynamic special issue on 'Regional Competitiveness' is intended and competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010. to complement that earlier collection of papers by In addition, numerous private organizations and con-focusing on what has become one of the most discussed sultancies concerned with measuring and lobbying the aspects of the new concern with regions, namely cause of competitiveness have emerged recently, such their competitive performance. The competitiveness of as the World Economic Forum (Geneva, Switzerland), regions is an issue not just of academic interest and the Competitiveness Institute (Barcelona, Spain), the debate, but also of increasing policy deliberation and Council on Competitiveness (Washington, DC, USA) action. However, as the papers in this issue make clear, and the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness the very notion of regional competitiveness is itself (Harvard, MA, USA). complex and contentious, and even though policy-This focus on competitiveness has not just been a makers everywhere have jumped onto the regional and macroeconomic phenomenon, however. It has also urban competitiveness bandwagon, we are far from a assumed key significance at the regional, urban and consensus on what is meant by the term and how it local scales. Within governmental circles, interest has can be measured: as is often the case, policy has grown in the 'competitive performance' of individual raced ahead of conceptual understanding and empirical regions and cities, with identifying the key determi-analysis. The papers included in this issue are intended nants of regional and urban competitiveness, and with to advance that understanding and analysis. The pur-devising policies to promote and foster those determi-pose of this extended Editorial introduction is to nants. In the UK, for example, the improvement of …