Roberto Camagni

Urban mobility and urban form: the social and environmental costs of different patterns of urban expansion

Abstract The question of the environmental or social costs of urban form is increasingly attracting attention in spatial policy, but scientific debate in this field is often marred by prejudices and abstract visions; empirical analyses are very rare. The present study aims at establishing, in the metropolitan area of Milan, whether different patterns of urban expansion could be associated with specific environmental costs—in particular, for land consumption and mobility generation. Different typologies of urban expansion were defined, and an impact index weighting differently journey-to-work trips with reference to mode and time length was built at the municipality level. The statistical analysis confirmed the expected “wasteful” character of sprawling development patterns in terms of land consumption, though suggesting that recent urban development is becoming relatively ‘virtuous’ with respect to the past. With reference to the mobility generated, higher environmental impacts were proved to be associated with low densities, sprawling development, more recent urbanisation processes and residential specialisation of the single municipalities. Public transport seems to be strongly influenced, both in terms of efficiency and competitiveness, by the structural organisation of an urban area: the more dispersed and less structured the development, the lower its level of efficiency and competitiveness and consequently its share of the mobility market. On the contrary, trip times for private transport appear to be correlated not so much to urban dimension or density as to the presence of recent housing development, indicating the emergence of new models of lifestyle and mobility which are very different from those of the past.

On the Concept of Territorial Competitiveness: Sound or Misleading?

In a globalising economy, territories and not just firms increasingly find themselves in competition with each other. In fact, unlike countries, cities and regions compete, in single currency areas, on the basis of an absolute advantage principle and not a comparative advantage principle. This means that no efficient, automatic mechanism—like currency devaluation or prompt flexibility of wages and prices—exists to grant each territory some role in the international division of labour, whatever its relative performance. The competitiveness of territories thus emerges as a central issue, in order to secure employment stability, benefits from external integration, continuing growth of local well-being and wealth. The arguments put forward by Paul Krugman, defining the concept of competitiveness, are wrong and misleading, and cannot be accepted in a territorial—regional and urban-context.

Regional Innovation Patterns and the EU Regional Policy Reform: Toward Smart Innovation Policies

The present debate on regional policy design to fit the Europe 2020 Agenda calls for additional reflections on the way sectoral policies, like innovation policies, can be translated appropriately into a regional setting. The paper enters the debate on smart specialization strategies by stressing the need to overcome the simplistic dichotomy between core and periphery in the Union, between an advanced ‘research area’ (the core) and a ‘co-application area’ of general purpose technologies to local technological specificities (the periphery). The geography of innovation is much more complex than a simple core-periphery model, and the logical pathway towards innovation is much more complex than the linear model of R&D-invention-innovation direct link: the innovation patterns are differentiated among regions, according to their regional context conditions. The identification of specific ‘innovation patterns’ is necessary to design ‘smart innovation’ policies. The paper presents a critic to the smart specialization debate, suggests a new taxonomy of European innovative regions based on their innovation patterns, and proposes innovation policies for each regional mode of innovation.

Regional Competitiveness: Towards a Concept of Territorial Capital

As shown in the previous chapter, we may argue that, in the long term, theoretical supply-oriented approaches have outperformed strictly demand-oriented ones, of a Keynesian nature, in the interpretation of regional development processes. In fact, on the one hand, regional internal demand is not relevant, even in the short run, to drive regional growth, given the huge interregional integration and ever-increasing international division of labour. On the other hand, national demand growth is certainly more relevant to internal regional performances, but it is so on a ‘on-average’ basis: single regions may outperform (or under-perform) the national average at the expense (in favour of) other regions,2 either because of a more appropriate (poorer) sectoral mix or because of a favourable (unfavourable) competitive differential.

Milieux Innovateurs and Collective Learning: From Concepts to Measurement

Since the middle eighties a new theoretical approach to the study of local innovative behaviour has been developed, centred upon the concept of the innovative milieu;2 in this approach, economic space is defined as a “relational space”, the field of social interactions, interpersonal synergies and social collective actions that determine the innovative capability and the economic success of specific local areas.

Technological Change, Uncertainty and Innovation Networks: Towards a Dynamic Theory of Economic Space

The theoretical and empirical literature on the relationships between space and technological change is literally immense, and scattered along different directions that may be listed tentatively in the following: the theory of innovation diffusion the spatial geography of R&D the spatial preconditions for (and obstacles to) innovation: presence of human capital, availability of producer services, ’urban’ environment, industrial structure the characteristics of innovative environments: valleys, corridors, routes, parks; the ’Third Italy’ phenomenon; the ’milieux innovateurs’ of the new Gremi approach (see below) the regional differentials in productivity growth the effects of technological change on regional development the effects of technological change on urban development the spatial effects of specific technologies: industrial automation, information technologies, telecommunications,…

The Rise of Second-Rank Cities: What Role for Agglomeration Economies?

Abstract In the last 15 years, empirical evidence has emerged about the fact that European first-rank cities have not always led national economic performance, and when they did, the difference between first- and second-rank cities in explaining national growth has not been significant. A recent work [Dijkstra, L., Garcilazo, E. & McCann, P. (2013) The economic performance of European cities and city regions: Myths and realities, European Planning Studies, 21(3), pp. 334–354] claims that second-rank cities have in fact outperformed first-rank cities, becoming the main driving forces in national economic performance. In the debate that emphasizes the role of second-rank cities in national growth, a simplified view of the role of agglomeration economies is provided; they are taken for granted in small- and medium-sized cities and only in large cities will the problem of a downturn in urban returns to scale emerge. In this paper, a more complex view is assumed, claiming that the oversimplified interpretation that urban economic performance simply depends on the exploitation of agglomeration economies and that these agglomeration economies merely depend on urban size alone should be abandoned. Some already existing theoretical frameworks in urban economics can help in recalling the role of possible bifurcations in the development path of cities, linked to the capability to attract or develop new and higher-order functions, increase internal efficiency and reach scale economies through cooperation networks with other cities (the city-network theory). All these elements work as conditions for fully exploiting agglomeration economies and ways to overcome urban decreasing returns.

Sustainable urban development: definition and reasons for a research programme

The concept of sustainable development is steadily approaching recognition, if not full disciplinary autonomy, becoming the focus of new theoretical and normative reflection. However, the same cannot be said of a more specific field of application of that same concept—the urban environment. In our opinion, this has been hindered until recently by some unresolved problems—of definition, methodology and epistemology—intrinsic in the more general concept, and also by some specificities of the urban case which have not been sufficiently borne in mind.

Uncertainty, Social Capital and Community Governance: The City as a Milieu

Abstract In a condition of dynamic uncertainty, the adoption of a cognitive approach in regional science, considering the procedures through which decisions are taken at the micro-individual level, would greatly help throwing new light on territorial processes and phenomena of a macro character. Proximity space and above all the territory of local relations may be interpreted as powerful operators for reducing uncertainty and, through this, as tools for reducing the use costs of the market and the risks associated to future-oriented decision making. In this chapter, this approach is followed in order to give an economic interpretation, and not only a geographical one, to the most important archetype of territorial organisation, namely the city, intended at the same time as a production system and a governance system. Two concepts are utilised: the concept of “innovative milieu”, developed by the GREMI group and the concept of relational capital, similar to the social capital concept developed recently in political science. The thesis of this chapter is that, within the vast category of agglomeration economies which justify the existence of cities, the most interesting elements refer not only to indivisibilities or pecuniary externalities, but to “technological externalities” of a dynamic character and to elements such as synergies, interpersonal and inter-institutional relationships, collective action and shared development visions. All these externalities help actors in coping with an uncertain and globalising context.

Modelling Regional Scenarios for the Enlarged Europe European Competitiveness and Global Strategies

From Forecasts to Quantitative Foresights: Territorial Scenarios for an Enlarged Europe.- From Forecasts to Quantitative Foresights: Territorial Scenarios for an Enlarged Europe.- Theoretical and Empirical Underpinnings.- Space and Theoretical Approaches to Regional Growth.- Regional Competitiveness: Towards a Concept of Territorial Capital.- Space and Empirical Approaches to Regional Growth.- National and Regional Econometric Models.- Conceptual and Methodological Specifications.- The MASST Model: A Generative Forecasting Model of Regional Growth.- The Estimation Procedure: Data and Results.- The Simulation Procedure: The Algorithm, the Target Variables and the Stability of the Model.- Scenarios for the Enlarged Europe: Regional Quantitative Foresights.- Driving Forces of Change: The Baseline Scenario.- Global Challenges and European Strategies: Alternative Scenarios.- Territorial Images of the Future: The Quantitative Foresights Results.- Towards a Conclusion: Regional and Territorial Policy Recommendations.