The city of Essen is located at the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban and industrial agglomerations in Europe. Like many places in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia Essen had to deal with tremendous structural changes due to the downturn of coal mining and the...

The Baltic Sea region is one of the most socially, economically and technologically developed regions in the world. The region has a high GDP level, limited social inequality in a global context, leading positions in Doing Business and Global Competitiveness indeces. Meanwhile, the region is...

During the programming period 2007-2013 the Cohesion Policy of EU was adopted and is also implemented the policy of territorial co-operation with third countries. In this framework, the EU co-finances (through the European Regional Development Fund, the pre-accession instrument and the...

The global economic crisis of 2008 has affected all European countries; Greece of course could not be the exception to this "rule". First, the fact that Greece was unable to mitigate its public expenditures and to increase its revenues in comparison with the other European countries and other...

Regional, structural change is currently among the greatest challenges facing the public sector in many EU countries at the moment. In countries like Finland, where the public sectors have a large role in providing educational, health and social services, structural change rapidly becomes a...

The regional landscape in Europe has changed during the last decades. After a period of conversion, processes of diversion has reentered the scene. In the aftermath of the economic crisis South European countries and regions have suffered due to declining economic activity. The trend toward...

The theoretical development of place branding is in its early stages. The most important contributions so far have come from publications "translating" insights, methods and tools from corporate branding theory to places and cities in particular. Obviously, an academic field in its early stages...

The number of cities claiming to make use of branding has been growing considerably in the last decade. Competition is one of the key drivers for cities to establish their place as a brand and promoting that place to visitors, investors, companies and residents. Unfortunately, place marketers...