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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IMAJINE (Integrative Mechanisms for Addressing Spatial Justice and Territorial Inequalities in Europe)

Teaser

Summary

IMAJINE aims to formulate new integrative policy mechanisms to enable European, national and regional government agencies to more effectively address territorial inequalities within the European Union.

It responds to evidence that spatial inequalities within the EU are increasing, contrary to the principle of territorial cohesion embedded as a third dimension of the European Social Model in the Treaty of Lisbon. IMAJINE uniquely proposes to address the problem of territorial inequalities through an inter-disciplinary and multi-scalar approach that combines quantitative analysis of economic indicators at a range of scales with regionally-focused qualitative empirical case study research in 11 EU member states. As such the research builds on the conceptual and methodological state of the art in several disciplines and advances conceptual understanding and the empirical knowledge base by producing new primary data, applying new analytical tests to secondary data and integrating the results along with insights from relational geographical theory and the concept of spatial justice. In particular, the centrality of spatial justice emphasizes the political as well as economic dimensions of territorial inequalities, and IMAJINE will move beyond existing knowledge by considering relationships between measured and perceived inequalities, models of multilevel policy-making and public service delivery, and support for territorial autonomy movements. IMAJINE will further translate these scientific insights into policy applications through participatory scenario building exercises with governance and civil society stakeholders.

The core objectives of IMAJINE are to enhance understanding of territorial inequalities and the concept of â€˜spatial justiceâ€™, through the development of theoretical perspectives and the collection and analysis of new empirical evidence; to evaluate the impact of the post-2008 economic crisis and related austerity measures on real and perceived regional inequalities; to interrogate the relationships between structures of territorial governance, economic development and public service delivery; to investigate how perceptions of inequality and spatial injustice influence territorial autonomy movements and their levels of support; to help identify appropriate scales and points for policy interventions to address territorial inequalities; to appraise the effectiveness of current EU territorial cohesion policies; to develop scenarios for future regional development and cohesion policies, with input from government and civil society stakeholders; to make policy recommendations; and to promote public debate and understanding of questions of territorial inequalities and spatial justice.

Work performed

The second period of the IMAJINE project, from July 2018 to June 2019, has involved work across a range of work packages examining different aspects of territorial inequalities and spatial justice in Europe. An initial review of the concepts of territorial inequalities, cohesion and spatial justice and their use in European, national and regional policies and programmes, has been completed and has found that these concepts have developed independently with little interaction and can be employed with different meanings and emphasises from different political standpoints, leading to a degree of ambiguity around their use in European policy discourse. A second work package has also been completed on mapping and analysing current patterns of territorial inequalities in Europe, including at sub-regional local scales. Most publicly available statistics on poverty and inequalities in Europe are only available at a regional scale (technically known as NUTS3 regions) and may therefore not provide an accurate picture of territorial inequalities as actually experienced. Using various spatial econometric techniques, work in IMAJINE has disaggregated available regional data to produce local area estimates of indicators including household income and populations at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The mapping and analysis of these local level data revealed a number of key findings showing differing concentrations in high and low average household incomes and in populations at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and patterns of intra-regional differences, especially between rural and urban districts. The analysis of economic data continues in a further ongoing work package that started in July 2018 analysing links between economic growth and territorial inequalities and the impacts of economic development interventions, using a range of econometric techniques. Three further ongoing work packages have also commenced that explore relations between territorial inequalities and other socio-economic processes as well as potential mechanisms for promoting spatial justice, focusing on migration and territorial inequalities; the significance of inequalities and spatial (in)justice to territorial autonomy movements; and questions of how governments use policy mechanisms to address inequalities and how to facilitate policy learning between governments. Findings from these three last work packages are still emerging as research and analysis is ongoing.

Final results

Work in IMAJINE is progressing beyond the state of the art in a number of fields, reflecting the interdisciplinary character of the project. During the first half of the project, advances beyond the state of the art have in particular been made in relation to regional economics, through the innovative application of statistical methods including Entropy Methods and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Poverty Measures to general and model data on territorial inequalities at the local scale in Europe for the first time, producing a new dataset. Analysis of the data generated through these methods has produced new insights into the spatial dynamics and drivers of territorial inequalities extending the relevant literature. Advances beyond the state of the art have also been made in relation to the literature on regional policy by providing new insights into the development and application of key concepts including territorial cohesion, territorial inequalities and spatial justice in EU regional policy. Ongoing research in IMAJINE is anticipated to contribute to advances in the state of the art across a number of other fields.

Results from IMAJINE research completed to date point to a number of emerging key lessons for EU cohesion policy, including: (1) GDP per capita is not sufficient as a sole indicator of territorial inequalities in directing cohesion policy and programmes; (2) the measurement of territorial inequalities at the scale of NUTS3 regions in EU cohesion policy does not give an accurate picture of complexity of local spatial inequalities; and (3) EU cohesion policy should incorporate models and measures of relational inequalities, reflecting the inter-connection of regions and spill-over effects of regional policy interventions. These emerging lessons will be further tested, refined and discussed through the ongoing IMAJINE research and supplemented by additional conclusions and lessons. As such, it is anticipated that at the end of the project, IMAJINE will make recommendations with the potential to have significant impacts on the future form of EU (and national) regional policy, and on reducing territorial inequalities in Europe.