In the US and Europe many clusters initiatives have recently been launched. National and regional governments have been defining and implementing clusters policies and programmes with the aim to identifying, launching and finally consolidating international competitive clusters in their...

The access to Services of General Interest (SGI) is a highly relevant factor for territorial cohesion and in creating economic opportunity. Although the topic of SGI was not on the top of the policy agenda during the last decade, it attracts far more interest since the start of the economic...

An indicator is a measure of synthesis, thus representing an abstraction of a situation. Therefore, the indicators can have different functions, from offering the possibility to describe a situation, to the ability to simplify and measure that same situation being, par excellence, a means of...

Clusters and cluster policy has become a widespread phenomena. The general thought shows that, somehow, clusters are directly related to business competitiveness and regional growth. In this context, the Spanish Ministry of Industry has implemented a cluster policy since 2007 known as the AEIs...

There is quite common understanding of the importance of provision of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI) in the European states. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and several other official documents like green paper and white paper nevertheless guarantee every EU citizen...

There is no single or common definition or even understanding of Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA). Generally, the concept is described as a method based on a multi-criteria scenario and indicator approached analysis which will provide information about the territorial impact of a policy. The...

In the current new competitive environment, smart specialization has emerged strongly as a territorial development model to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of economic systems. An aspect from which it differs from previous models is the special emphasis on governance. In this...

The aim of this study is to discuss the impact of polycentric structures and other regional patterns on the provision of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI). Polycentricity has been a favoured spatial pattern of EU policies since the European Spatial Development Perspective ESDP 1999...