Small towns, narrow space, and aspiring goals
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Small towns, narrow space, and aspiring goals
An Austrian case study on how to integrate driving forces for a "smart region"
into a regional development process
Dipl. Verw.-Wiss. Manfred Walser
Senior Researcher, IMP-HSG
Manfred Walser
IMP-HSG, Universität St. Gallen
Dufourstrasse 40a, CH-9000 St. Gallen
Tel +41(71)224-2525, Fax +41(71)224-2536
E-Mail:
wiki.imwalgau.at
Paper to be presented at the RSA European Conference 2012 "Networked regions and cities in times of fragmentation: Developing smart, sustainable and inclusive places", 13th - 16th May 2012, Delft University of Technology
Introduction
The region Walgau has experienced a massive change over the past 50 years and doubled its population between 1951 and 2010. The small-scale structured settlement generates bottlenecks for example in infrastructure, administrative power, and land use patterns. The regional development process ‘Im Walgau' is aimed at handling this situation by increasing the cooperation between the 14 local municipalities. The process is characterized by a systemic approach. After a three years pilot phase funded by the federal state level a new association was created and started to continue the regional development process in 2012.
With respect to the idea of a 'smart region' a few components of the development process can be emphasized:
- The organisation of a multilevel governance structure to integrate the local, regional, and federal level using the 'Viable System Model' by Stafford Beer.
- The shift from a project- driven development process towards a consistent regional strategy using a cybernetic system model to gather and structure the information.
- The far-reaching time horizon partly dealing with a period of two generations (50 years) which includes a shift from anticipating the future development towards defining a desirable condition-to-be of the local community.
- And the integration of different target groups and the region's citizens using different (also web-based) methods of information, communication, and co-working which is also a question of how to advance from 'governance by government' to 'governance with government'.
The components seem to be able to foster a 'smart region' in the sense of minimizing the use of resources by processes of cooperation and compensation and by introducing new instruments into the regional governance structure. The approaches are not fundamentally new in regional science but constitute a huge challenge in practice. The challenge is not to introduce the use of a new instrument or methodology but to make it compatible with the rationality of day-to-day politics.
The paper is structured as follows:
1)A short introduction into the concept of 'smart regions’
2)The Walgau case study
- the region Walgau
- the regional development process
3)Main components to improve the region Walgau towards a 'smart region'
- the organizational structure of the process
- the cybernetic system functioning as the heart of the process
- the meaning of future foresight processes
- the communication patterns
4)Resumée: How to influence day-to-day politics
1)Smart is beautiful
Smart cities, smart regions, smart places - in the last decade the term 'smart' often can be found in the headlines of academic papers and it seems that the scientific community discovered a new buzzword. The speech is about 'smart growth'and 'smart infrastructure', even 'smart shrinking' (Thierstein 2004) is used to name an approach in spatial planning. But the term 'smart' is used in different ways:
- The technological approach: The origin of such 'smart processes' can be seen in the discussion about ICT and its spatial effects (Caragliu et al. 2009:47). Smart infrastructure systems based on the interaction between technical units and their users to enhance the possibilities to monitor the functionality of the technical infrastructure and to improve the just-in-time fulfillment of personal needs. Smart homes and smart mobility systems are part of this approach.In the Austrian discussion for example the goal of a 'smart city' is defined as a "sustainable, urban, post-fossil society" with a main focus on mobility and the use of energy and resources (Saringer-Bory 2012). Also the EU targets ‘Europe 2020’ connects smart growth with research / innovation (‘Innovation Union’) and the digital society (Digital agenda for Europe’). The strategy adds as a third flagship initiative ‘Youth on the move’ focusing on educational aspects(European Commission 2012) which can be allocated to a second approach:
- The human capital approach: Regions with skilled workforces are labeled as 'smart regions' (Berry / Glaeser 2005 and Glaeser / Berry 2006). In this approach a 'smart place' refers to the rate of adults having a bachelor degree - a fact which statistically can be linked with indicators like rising wages. Skilled workforce in this approach is closely connected with innovation and entrepreneurship and therefore seems to be a crucial precondition for economic development. A smart place means to be at the sunny side of the 'brain gap'.
- The sustainable development approach: A broad discussion widened the approach towards an integrated view on the development of cities and regions. The technological approach for example has been supplemented by questions of equal access; the human capital approach has integrated concepts like Florida's 'creative class' and the discourse on knowledge management. Environmental goals had been added and also the governance structures itself comes to the fore. As a result the concept of smart growth seems to be a remake of the discourse on sustainable development with a focus on urban areas (see for example The American Planning Association 2002, ÖIR / AIT 2011)
In the paper I refer to the definition of Caragliu et al. (2009) on smart cities, which summarize the third and most comprehensive approach of the concept of 'smartness':
"We believe a city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance." (Caragliu et al. 2009: 50).[1]
2)The Walgau Case Study
The Region Walgau
The Federal State Vorarlberg is an
alpine region with narrow plain
space and a rich mountain landscape
characterized by a small-scaled
settlement.(see figure 1 and 2).
83 % of the inhabitants are living in
31 % of the space.This space is located
in the regions Rheintal and Walgau
(see figure 2)
The region Walgau is an alpine trough valley
with a bottom of about 42 square kilometres
located at 500 m above sea level.
The ambient mountains rise up to 2.000 m above
sea level.The region encompasses 14villages
with around 38.000 inhabitants. At the bottom of
the valley,big enterprises are located mostly
belongingto the metal and food
processing sectorwhile the mountain area is
characterized by small rural communities with
agriculture and small manufacturing and service
enterprises.
Main problems of the region Walgau:
- The small-scaled structure of settlement.
- The differences between the industrial and
the rural part of the region.
The land-use conflicts in a narrow space.
The Regional Development Process
Starting from this a pilot project started in 2009 and lasted until 2011. The 'Regional Development Process Walgau' is aimed at supporting co-operative projects of the local communities and in a second step to work out a regional development concept out of these activities. The mayors decided to start the process with concrete projects to demonstrate the usefulness of cooperation quickly within small-scale local structures. The approach refers to the concept of ‘perspective incrementalism’ (see Ganser et al. 1993). The whole process had to be organized integrating different target groups and the region's citizens.
After the first phase of establishing the organizational structures and procedures, the conference of the local mayors and the regional representatives in the federal parliament decided to start the project phase with three core areas to be executed with different measures: (1) To enhance the regional identity, (2) to foster the cooperation between local communities and (3) to learn from each other.
A lot of projects have been started until now covering a broad range of topics: historical and cultural oriented projects, projects to enhance the regional value added in agriculture, projects dealing with the needs of young and elderly people, projects to intensify the cooperation between local communities and to collaborate between local administrations, projects to foster the regional economy and so on.[2]
After two and a half years the process shifts its focal point from concrete projects to enhance and inspire the idea of cooperation towards permanent organisational structures and basics for future planning. The decision was to continue the process which means that the mayors decided to autonomously finance the working structure after the pilot phase which completely has been funded by the federal state level.
… a ‘Smart Process’?
Is this regional development process a process to create a ‘smart region’? Using the definition given in section 1 of this paper some of the definition’s elements are incorporated into the process and the different projects:
One important goal of the regional development process is to minimize the use of resources through cooperation and compensation measures and to introduce new instruments into the regional governance structure. Driving forces for the process are common activities to enhance mutual understanding and trust between regional actors with an emphasis on local and regional decision-makers. Also the citizen’s involvement plays an important role in the process.
But at the beginning of the process the goals have been defined very generally. There were no ambitious targets towards sustainable development. Initially the regional development process was a rather conventional project.
The specific ‘smart’ quality of the development process is related closely to some process-related elements setting their stamp on the process:
- The organisation of a multilevel governance structure,
- the use of a cybernetic system model to gather and structure the information,
- the ongoing endeavours to define a desirablefuture condition of the region,
- and the permanent integration of different target groups and the region's citizens into the development process.
The components seem to be able to foster a 'smart region' in the sense of the definition above and will be described in the next section of the paper.
3)Main components to improve the region Walgau as a ‘smart region’
The organisation of a multilevel governance structure
In the starting phase the organizational structure of the development process has been fixed. Basically the institutional units have been defined by the mayors together with the federal level in the preparatory phase of the project. But while developing a communication concept for the pilot phase it was necessary to discuss the functions of the different actors and institutionsmore in detail. Here it seemed to be helpful to use a systemic approach.
The working structure of the regional develop-
ment process now derives from the Viable
System Model VSM (Beer 1979) which allows
to describe the minimum requirements (units
and cybernetic loops) of each system -
whether it is a ecological or social system - to
keep it viable. The functions described with the
model easily can be translated into an orga-
nizational structure and into requests for infor-
mation and communication. The model served
as a simple scheme in order not to forget
essential components while designingthe
organizational structure and developing a
communication concept. According to Beer
(the VSM is the basic “skeleton”) from which
no part can be removed without negative con-
sequences for the whole system. It can be
further developed and differentiated.
The use of the VSM with respect to a ‘smart region’
is the concentration on different functions and regulatory circuits. To bring them to the fore allows to concentrate on the specific tasks of an institution and to spread tailor-made information.
The use of a cybernetic system model to gather and structure the information
After two years of analyses and lots of workshops, public panels and working groups on very different issues, combined with many face-to-face interviews and discussions, the main problems and potentials of the region’s development emerged. At this point a cybernetic system model of the regional development has been generated by the Mayors and – at once as a 'control group' – by a group of dedicated citizens and entrepreneurs.
A cybernetic system model (see Vester 1999, Honegger 2008) tries to identify the influencing factors connecting different topics and goals. It also takes into account the levers (which means the opportunity for the region to successfully influence the development with own measures), the command variables (what the actors want to reach) and the external parameters (developments which cannot be steered by the region but have to be observed).
The cybernetic system model was so to speak
the point of culmination of the development
process. The model was an important step to
gather and structure all the information
collected within the first phase of the process.
Systemic modeling is able to raise the aware-
ness of the linkages and interrelationships
within and between a broad range of topics
and gives basic information for agenda-setting.
It provides the background for prioritizing goals and
measures and within specific feedback loops it clearly
shows the necessity for weighting the respective interests.
Taking the most comprehensive definition of Caragliu et al. (2009) into account such an instrument will be a necessary precondition for clarifying and prioritizing goals and measures.
The Future Foresight Process
Today the economic and social development of regions is confronted witha broad range of challenges and among them lots of external influences and framework conditions. Regional science concentrates on the question how locations can develop and which main factors of success or failure show empirical evidence.As well as the view outside the region towards competitors and the view inside to identify endogenous resources the 'view into the future' is an important factor of success. For this reason regions have to deal with processes of future foresight and assumptions about possible trajectories of development (Scherer, Walser 2008).A huge range of quantitative and qualitative methods to anticipate future processes of development exists but generally we can state a 'turning away from claiming an exact forecast and a turn towards more open methods of the prospecting and design of the future'. (Libbe 2002: 3).
The future of a region cannot be predicted because the co-evolution of different overlapping and nested systems on different levels (Voss 2006: 7) is an extremely complex process. Regional future foresight has another goal: to harmonize the perception of regional actors, to enable common goals and strategies and to facilitate the handling of uncertainty. To discuss the desirable future is a precondition to create this future. The extend and quality of the regional consensus concerning the desirable regional condition-to-be influences the trajectory of the regional development.
For this reason public workshops with researchers focused on issues of future foresights haven been arranged dealing with different issues of regional development (i.e. demographic change, land-scape development) to analyze the development in the past and to sketch the requested develop-ment in the future. Also the spatial development concept Walgau takes into account a time horizon which covers two generations (50 years). Looking for example at the growth of population over the last decades the question about the size of population fifty years later shows a lot of impact on spatial issues.
Aregional future foresight processis an important part of regional governance structures (Koschatzky 2005) and also a precondition to deal with different and partly conflicting goals as given in the definition of a ‘smart region’.
A communication structure to improve regional knowledge generation
Many of the theories and approaches on regional development emphasize the regional actors’ and institutions' knowledge, responsibilities, and the ability to learn as important parameters. Such approaches include for example collective learning processes depending on spatial proximity, the social capital of a region, and the mechanisms of endogenous knowledge creation (for an overview see Walser, Scherer 2012).These elements also seem to be an important precondition for a ‘smart region’.
But collective and organizational knowledge always starts with individual's personal knowledge because "the organization cannot create knowledge on its own without the initiative of the individual and the interaction that takes place within the group" (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995:13). Knowledge as the non-material infrastructure of a region possibly can be improved by systematically using tools which support individual learning processes. Within a regional development process actors can be provided with additional resources to enhance this kind of learning processes. Three examples used in the Walgau development process can exemplify the process of regional knowledge generation (see Walser 2011, Walser, Scherer 2012):
- A transdisciplinary agenda setting assures that"real-world problems" are defined by the regional actors and completed by scientific analysis.Methodologically spoken a kind of ping-pong between scientific expertise and local knowledge has been established in the Walgau region. The regional actors’ awareness of problems is a precondition for commitment and participation and needs to be at eye level with the scientific definition of needs for action.
- The huge amount of information connected with the development of a region needs a kind of repository for regional information. In the region Walgau the question arose how to use the huge amount of information from workshops, one-on-one interviews, and readings which should not be restricted on a few actors. To spread and further develop this information a regional Wiki has been developed (Walser, Radzieowski 2010). The WalgauWiki should generate added value and increase the amount of information in the sense of a 'learning document', by increasing the quality of the information through public reworking as well as through collective judgment, and by motivating regional actor's discussions on pros and cons of development issues. Such Web 2.0 tools are also said to enhance networking within the civil society for different reasons (Kruse 2010).
- The third element to improve regional knowledge generation is an elaborated set of methods which enable regional actors to improve the contacts to other regional actors dealing with similar or complementary issues.This endeavour also includescreatinga well-defined and structured space of communication, collaboration, and co-working.‘Smart’ development processes need trust and mutual understanding as a precondition for cooperation beyond win – win situations.
4)Resumée: How to influence day-to-day politics