scholarly journals Urban Planning and European Innovation Policy: Achieving Sustainability, Social Inclusion, and Economic Growth?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1137
Author(s):  
Kim Carlotta von Schönfeld ◽  
António Ferreira

Innovation has become a guiding principle for European Union policy. Funding schemes, research, and planning across all Member States are expected to be innovative. This article provides a critical analysis of the drivers and effects of this evolution. While positive results have been achieved due to innovation policies, this article proposes that taking a wider critical perspective reveals important caveats. The article zooms in on the EU’s innovation policies by analysing policy documents, projects funded, and on-the-ground impact on three citizen initiatives. The analysis asks whether and how the EU’s self-set goals of sustainability, social inclusion, and economic growth are approached and met in them. The findings suggest a problematic funnelling process. First, an emphasis on innovation is created with the objective of systematically unblocking resistance to the development and implementation of novelties in the name of competitiveness, job creation, and economic growth. Second, the idea of innovation is very loosely defined, while, when translated into urban planning, it is interpreted narrowly in terms of efficiency and behavioural change, digitalization, and smart technologies. As a result, (narrowly defined) innovation-led economic growth begins to supersede alternative values and visions for the future of European cities and regions. This can represent a problem for EU Member States as it creates a very limited, risk-based, and divisive direction of development. To contribute to the (re-)establishment of alternatives, this article finally offers policy recommendations primarily concerned with the reinstatement of the public interest beyond innovation-centred planning perspectives.

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Svitlana Shults ◽  
Olena Lutskiv

Technological development of society is of unequal cyclic nature and is characterized by changing periods of economic growth, stagnation phases, and technological crises. The new wave of technological changes and new technological basis corresponding to the technological paradigm boost the role of innovations and displace the traditional factors of economic growth. Currently, intellectual and scientific-technical capacity are the main economic development resources. The use of innovation and new knowledge change the technological structure of the economy, increase the elements of the innovative economy, knowledge economy, and digital economy, i.e. the new technological paradigm is formed. The paper aims to research the basic determinants of technological paradigms’ forming and development, and determining their key features, as well as to analyze social transformations of the EU Member States and Ukraine. The paper focuses attention on the research of the features of social transformations. The structural transformations are analyzed based on the Bertelsmann Transformation Index that estimates the quality of democracy, market economy, and political governance. The transformation processes are assessed on the example of the EU Member States and Ukraine. The authors argue that social transformations and structural changes in the economy are related to the change of technological paradigms that boost the economic modernization and gradual progressive development of humanity in general. The nature and main determinants of 5 industrial and 2 post-industrial technological paradigms are outlined. Their general features and main areas of basic technologies implementation emerging in the realization of a certain technological paradigm are explained. The conclusions regarding the fact that innovative technologies and available scientific-technological resources define the main vector of economic development are made. The new emerging technological paradigm is of strategic importance for society development.


Author(s):  
Cristina Chaminade ◽  
Bengt-Åke Lundvall

Scientific advance and innovation are major sources of economic growth and are crucial for making development socially and environmentally sustainable. A critical question is: Will private enterprises invest sufficiently in research technological development and innovation and, if not, to what degree and how should governments engage in the support of science, technology, and innovation? While neoclassical economists point to market failure as the main rationale for innovation policy, evolutionary economists point to the role of government in building stronger innovation systems and creating wider opportunities for innovation. Research shows that the transmission mechanisms between scientific advance and innovation are complex and indirect. There are other equally important sources of innovation including experience-based learning. Innovation is increasingly seen as a systemic process, where the feedback from users needs to be taken into account when designing public policy. Science and innovation policy may aim at accelerating knowledge production along well-established trajectories, or it may aim at giving new direction to the production and use of knowledge. It may be focused exclusively on economic growth, or it may give attention to impact on social inclusion and the natural environment. An emerging topic is to what extent national perspectives continue to be relevant in a globalizing learning economy facing multiple global complex challenges, including the issue of climate change. Scholars point to a movement toward transformative innovation policy and global knowledge sharing as a response to current challenges.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ovidiu Stoica ◽  
Otilia-Roxana Oprea ◽  
Ionel Bostan ◽  
Carmen Sandu Toderașcu ◽  
Cristina Mihaela Lazăr

Sustainable economic growth is considered a fundamental problem due to the effects that can be felt on the society as a whole, along with the phenomenon of banking integration that can influence the development of a country’s economy. This research aims to investigate the impact of banking market integration on sustainable economic growth in EU countries, especially in the context of financial integration, a good consolidation of the banking market is needed. We also identified the main factors by which the development of the banking market influences economic growth. The analysis was carried out for the period 2004–2018 in EU countries as a sample. According to the results obtained, we can say that European banking integration has a positive influence and has many benefits on the growth and sustainable development of the economy. The main factors by which banking integration significantly and positively favors economic growth are convergence of asset returns, convergence of interest rates, cross-border lending to the non-banking sector, foreign assets and foreign liabilities), the ratio of international banking activities, the ratio between assets and GDP, and the net interest margin (only when maintaining a low level) with some differences between the pre-crisis and the post-crisis period, the countries in the Euro Zone outside the euro, and the new EU member states and the old EU member states.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ma Jesús Delgado-Rodríguez ◽  
Inmaculada Álvarez-Ayuso

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 212-228
Author(s):  
Alma Mačiulytė-Šniukienė ◽  
Dali Sekhniashvili

Development of innovation is recognised as a most powerful tool for the economic growth of countries. However, their effects on the quality of the environment are still being debated. To achieve sustainable development, eco-innovation becomes significant. EU countries expand eco-innovation activities, but it is not clear whether its development achieves the goal of economic growth and improves the quality of the environment. Purpose – to present how EU Member States perform in economic growth, environment and eco-innovation development and to evaluate eco-innovations impact on economic and environmental performance. Research methodology – the random effect regression was used for investigation relationship between eco-innovation, economic growth and environmental performance. Findings – eco-innovation development influences not only EU MS economic growth but also has a positive effect on environmental performance. Research limitations – eco-innovations development and economic growth can be interdepended, but this research investigates just one-way dependence. Granger causality test can be used for relationship assessment in the future. Practical implications – the research results can be used for both the development of environmental policy and the policy of business support for eco-innovation implementation. Originality/Value – study results confirmed previous assessment results on eco-innovation and economic growth and provided new knowledge of their effect on environmental performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-190
Author(s):  
Plamen Pavlov ◽  

Innovations in the modern world are of great importance for everyone. They are the basis for high competitiveness of companies, economic growth of economies and prosperity of societies. The scientific objective of the article is to identify the various levers, models and specific incentives for innovation and research and development (R&D) in the five leading African countries in this area, according to the Global Innovation Index 2020. On this basis, conclusions and guidelines have been worked out, that are useful both from a scientific point of view and for improving the renewed innovation policy of Bulgaria. The article uses various research methods and approaches, including methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and causation, as well as systematic and complex approaches.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-537
Author(s):  
Verena K. Brändle ◽  
Olga Eisele

The article explores the influence of online participation on individual-level support for burden-sharing measures among EU member states. The analysis is set against the backdrop of the discussion about solidarity in times of EU crises and follows an innovative approach by operationalizing social inclusion in the European Union via online participation. It is argued that the specific nature of the European Union favors the use of online channels for political information and participation, but that despite its inclusive potential, online participation does not necessarily mean public support for the European Union. Instead, we hypothesize that people who make more use of online participation channels—thus are supposedly better equipped to participate in EU politics—are more critical in their evaluation of burden-sharing measures. Based on a large-scale survey among EU citizens in late 2016, we conduct a regression analysis taking into account the influence of EU support and general considerations on solidarity. Results lend support to our hypothesis that people who participate in political affairs online do not express greater support for EU burden-sharing measures but are more critical. Results are interpreted as an expression of the constraining dissensus regarding EU politics: Negative effects are read as criticism of how solidarity in the European Union is implemented, not as opposition to solidarity in the European Union as such.


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