Policy Mobilities in the Rural Baltic Sea Region

Under the term Policy Mobilities, economic geography research deals with the diffusion of political practices. This is not the copying of an innovative policy initiative, but the transfer of ideas that originated in one specific regional context and are now transferred to another regional context with characteristic social and political conditions. This process requires careful attention to the multiple and overlapping scales of policymaking and involves a complex network of actors. However, to date, most research on the geography of political knowledge is on urban policies.

There is general agreement among scholars and practitioners that targeted policies are critical to the development of regions. Especially for rural and peripheral regions, however, fundamental problems arise due to the relatively thin endowment of infrastructural and institutional factors as well as the specific requirements for the supply of the population. Particularly with regard to the promotion of innovations, the negative effect of unreflected copying of models from successful regions has become apparent. The transfer of political knowledge of regional economic development from and to rural areas thus represents a specific challenge and can be a starting point for profound transformation processes.

The Baltic Sea Region provides a specific context for the study of policy mobilities. Regional cooperation has existed between cities and countries in the Baltic Sea region since the times of the Hanseatic League. Nowadays, there are about 40 pan-Baltic organizations serving different levels of government and policy fields, as well as cooperations supported by the EU. Moreover, in 2009, the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) was endorsed by the European Commission, which specifically addresses challenges and opportunities of the macro-region. Accordingly, the Baltic Sea Region is an area composed of heterogeneous countries, and at the same time has diverse governance mechanisms that can enable the mobility of political knowledge. Closely linked to the other sub-projects, this project will look in depth at policy exchanges on financing systems, innovative initiatives in health care, and approaches to support entrepreneurship in rural areas when examining the mobility of policy knowledge.

The aim of these work packages is to examine policy mobilities in the context of the Baltic Sea Region, highlighting in particular their transformative importance for the development of rural regions. The transfer of policy knowledge in rural areas will be analyzed using case studies from the fields of financing systems, health care and entrepreneurship, looking at both barriers and facilitating factors for the development and diffusion of regional policy innovations as well as the role of actors in the Baltic Sea Region. The work package contributes to the further conceptualization of policy mobilities in the rural context and the informed design of regional development policy work.