Kyoto 2013 abstracts

Taken from official Kyoto 2013 RC site at: http://oguchaylab.csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IGU2013/html/igu_2013_program1.html

[CS29-1] Rural areas, Development Dynamics, Policy Options and Marginalization (1) (Joint session with the Commission on Sustainability of Rural Systems)

[ Monday 05 August 14:00-15:30 Room663 ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Doo-Chul Kim (Okayama Univ.)

1) Identity and Community Actions in Marginal Rural Area

Hayeong Jeong (Kyoto Univesity), Kakuya Matsushima, Kiyoshi Kobayashi

Identity plays an important role in place-making. It empowers community movements to build up a common space worthwhile to live in with pride as well as attachment to their place. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between identities and neighborhood (or community) based activism by a covariance structure analysis. The analysis is based on a survey of community activities in Nichinan town which is a typical depopulated rural area in Japan. In order to find the answer to the question, how identity motivates community activism, some literature reviews on identity for collective action are presented in section 2. The results of basic analysis on the community activities in Nichinan town are shown in section 3. The validity of the covariance structure analysis on identity and community activities in this study is discussed in section 4. Finally, a policy to motivate identities which could foster marginal area development is proposed.

2) The role of Slovenian traditional handicrafts in present time rural development

Stanko Pelc (University of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities)

In pre-industrial times traditional handicrafts played an important role in Slovenian rural areas. Large part of Slovenia has very moderate conditions for agricultural production therefore people living in these areas had to find additional sources of income if they wanted to survive. They evolved different skills that were transferred from generation to generation and today represent immaterial cultural heritage. In different parts of Slovenia these handicrafts are often seen as developmental opportunity and are often included into developmental plans of (marginal) rural areas. We intend to present the analysis and findings of some cases where traditional handicrafts such as lace-making, pottery, straw plaiting or wooden ware-making are re-introduced or gained new role in local economy. The evaluation of the results of this type of developmental initiatives is an important task and we intend to investigate what if any evaluation methods have been used in the cases under investigation.

3) A natural park as a development tool for a remote rural area? Insights from the Baixa Limia-Serra do Xures protected zone in Southern Galicia

Valeria Paul (University of Santiago de Compostela), Daniel Del Rio Franqueira, Juan-Manuel Trillo-Santamaria

Protected since 1989 and designated as natural park in 1992, the Baixa Limia-Serra do Xures Natural Park has been commonly understood as a tool for development of a marginal and remote area in Southern Galicia of environ 30,000 hectares, bordering with Portugal. This is reported by decision-makers in the area, who have repeatedly declared that such a device has a pro-rural development rationale, beyond the obvious functions related to biodiversity, geodiversity and landscape conservation.

After 20 years, little research has been conducted into the effects of the protected area in terms of development and apparently there is limited criticism on the ground. Indeed, there seems to be a widespread assumption among politicians and public officers that the implemented model is working well. However, economic, social and demographic indicators have worsened along this period, which might reveal an underperformance of the initiative. In this respect, this paper will try to discuss, through qualitative interviewing, the perception by a wide range of actors with regard to the developmental effects of the natural park.

4) An Empirical Analysis of Human Interaction and the Expense

Nozomi Kaminaga (Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd.)

Unlike urban areas where a lot of time is spent on working and traveling to an office and other places, in rural areas is rich in resources of time. Effective use of this property may enable to increase human resources and to activate human interaction. Time is expected to be a valuable resource for the maintenance and revitalization of depopulated areas where suffer from a lack of human resources.

We have formulated a regional economic model that allows a comprehensive analysis of the impact of local government policy and the development of transportation facilities, on the consumption patterns of household consumption behavior and leisure time. However, there is a need to extend in order to quantify the changes in the level of utility through leisure activities, the framework itself to how to spend leisure time affects the utility level.

By performing an analysis of the cost burden for human interaction, in this paper, we try to measure the effect of time on the level of utility.

[CS29-2] Rural areas, Development Dynamics, Policy Options and Marginalization (2) (Joint session with the Commission on Sustainability of Rural Systems)

[ Tuesday 06 August 17:30-19:00 Room663 ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Doo-Chul Kim (Okayama Univ.)

1) Who pays the costs for nation building process? A case study of ethnic minority in Central Vietnam

Trinh Minh Anh Nguyen (Okayama University), Doo-Chul Kim

The Van Kieu, populated at nearly 60,000, is one of 54 ethnic minorities officially recognized by the Vietnamese Government. Roughly 40 years ago, most of Van Kieu people were still living in their own village-size society isolated from general population and entirely depending on traditional shifting cultivation. In Vietnam, the Van Kieu is living mostly in Huong Hoa District of Quang Tri Province, a mountainous area bordering Laos to the west.

From viewpoint of the Central Government, frontiers such as Huong Hoa District are untamed area full of potential untapped resources. This explains an increase in governmental intervention and state-sponsored mass in-migration of lowlanders to Huong Hoa District during the last 40 years. From a remote area, spatially occupied and mostly used by Van Kieu people, the above processes have transformed this highland into a fairly busy international trading hub. In the due course, Van Kieu people from a relatively stateless and independent group have become a marginal and minor component of the entire state’s population.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the changes in social organization and livelihoods of Van Kieu people in Huong Hoa District as a result of such state interventions. Todays, the Van Kieu population have stratified into a small better-off group and a more economically dependent majority. It is argued that the above processes, increasing official intervention and development of the area into a trading hub, are important factors making this ethnic minority marginalized.

2) Who Takes the Initiative and Self-Responsibility in Development?: Findings from Fieldwork of NGOs and Rural Society in Bangladesh

Ai Sugie (Nagoya University)

This presentation seeks to contribute to critical literature on development and neoliberalization in rural Bangladesh, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Tangail district, in 2009 and 2011-2012.

Resulting from the past failure of the development model based on community approach, the target approach which NGOs directly access to the poor and empower them through micro-credit has been major and prevailed in 1990s throughout Bangladesh. NGOs have preceded government to play important roles of providing social services; rural credit, primary education and sanitation. The donors such as international organizations and aid agencies have increasingly invested in NGOs not in government which lacks efficiency and visible achievements. The operation of micro-credit in particular is approved as a poverty reduction program. Thus, NGOs are de facto ‘the second government’ in Bangladesh, as ordinary people as well as researchers call. That can be considered as one of characteristics of global privatization in welfare services.

With the above background, precedent studies have critically argued that the neoliberal tenets are embedded within the idea of micro-credit and NGOs have brought globalization and neoliberalism to the grassroots in rural Bangladesh. This presentation examines in which scale, who took the initiative in grassroots development and welfare activities and how those difference brought contrasting situation in local society, focusing on relations between NGOs and indigenous social units, not only conflicts or the latter’s roles of compensation for privatization of welfare as can be seen from previous work but also complex reciprocal actions in this study area.

3) Forestry revitalization and regional marginality at mountainous areas in Japan

Kenji Tsutsumi (Osaka University)

Regional marginality is very clear, especially in Japanese mountainous areas. Very drastic depopulation and industrial decay have been shown there together with several kinds of atrophy in regional living functions. This country has huge wide areas of forest but domestic forestry has been weakened since after the W.W.II. Recently, however, domestic timber prices are partly growing higher because of rapid development and demands for timbers in China. So here it comes a better opportunity for domestic forestry to revive itself. Forestry redevelopment is an indispensable and essential factor for revitalization of marginalized mountainous areas in Japan. This presentation will show some regional examples of mountainous areas and offer materials to consider sustainability of life and forestry in such areas. Case areas will be selected among the western Japan, where depopulation is relatively severe.

[CS29-3] Rural areas, Development Dynamics, Policy Options and Marginalization (3) (Joint session with the Commission on Sustainability of Rural Systems)

[ Monday 05 August 16:00-17:30 Room663 ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Doo-Chul Kim (Okayama Univ.)

1) The transformation of agriculture in Switzerland. Challenges to a marginalized sector of central importance

Walter Leimgruber (University of Fribourg/CH)

Agriculture is the basis of food, which is a prerequisite for human survival. Since the agricultural revolution in the 18th/19th centuries in Europe, it has changed radically with the arrival of increasingly sophisticated machinery and the use of a multitude of chemical products boosting fertility and killing weeds and pests. At the same time the environment has paid a high price, which is at least partly transferred to humans (pesticide residues in the food). Lower production costs resulted in lower consumer prices, but contrary to employees in industry and services, who experience rising salaries, farmers receive less and less for their work.

Agriculture in Switzerland contributes very little to the Gross Domestic Product. This is understandable because it faces a difficult natural environment and is also under heavy economic and political pressure. The country depends on imports from abroad to ensure its food supply, and the global tendency of trade liberalization is detrimental to an agriculture, which is characterized by holdings with relatively small surfaces, difficult topographical and climatic conditions, and a high salary and price level. Competing against cheap food imports will pose great problems if free trade of agricultural products with the European Union will come about. In this situation, organic farming and niche products may offer the only chance for farmers to ensure their existence.

2) Interaction of certification-supported farming with livelihood diversification: the case of land reform beneficiaries in the Philippines

Rie Makita (Rikkyo University)

Debates about agricultural certification such as Fairtrade and organic have not fully discussed its relationships with structural agrarian changes underway in the rural South. Between promotion of farming through certification, and diversification away from farming, a phenomenon that is increasingly recognized in the global South, there is a possibility for tensions. Given land reform as a context, this paper explores how beneficiary small farmers cope with such tensions, drawing on observations of a sugarcane producer cooperative in the Philippines. The Philippines, known for its high incidence of emigration as well as land reform remaining to be an important agrarian issue, offers a suitable case for observing both directions into and away from farming.

The study cooperative was organized to help former plantation workers obtain farmland in 1994. Members of the cooperative have benefited from collective sugarcane production in their communal land by taking advantage of Fairtrade and organic certifications. Members have also diversified their livelihoods to capture as many income-generating opportunities as possible for the payment of land acquisition fees and in consideration of poor long-term prospects for sugarcane production. Their livelihood diversification is analyzed from three perspectives--for survival, from survival to accumulation and for accumulation.

Members’ strong wishes to be landowners have enabled them to both continue involvement in agricultural production through the collective operation and, in parallel, diversify into some economic activities outside the sector. The certification-supported farming functions as a safety net for survival-type diversification and as a stable financial source for accumulation-type diversification.

3) Rural Labour Markets in Poland - Shrinking Resources or Endless Reserves

Krystian Heffner (University of Economics in Katowice)

Social and economic development as well as life conditions in Poland to a large extent is connected to the situation of labour market - stability of employment, structure and collocation of work resources, adjustment to changing needs of economy and to external conditions - i.e. attractiveness and pull factors of foreign labour markets.

Likewise development of rural areas in territorial meaning therefore in local and regional dimension and closely related to the success or lack of success in close urban centres - is strongly depended on fluctuating rural labour resources as well as on externalities and endogenous conditions of rural labour market.

The paper attempting to assess a development trends of rural areas in Poland taking into account a changing labour resources of countryside (and therefore labour supply) and factors interacting to the selected directions of these changes and also conditions and opportunities of maintenance or increase of labour demand in rural areas (stable jobs in the countryside in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors). It was pointed out that the nature of changes on rural labour market in Poland is complex and complicated, additionally significantly varied in national, regional and even local scale.

4) Restructuring of Japanese forestry and the current condition for the sustainability of more advanced forestry regions

Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu University)

The aim of this research is to outline the current and future figure of the mountainous forestry regions in Japan. Since 1960’s the self-supply rate of timbers by domestic production gradually dropped to less than 20 % and has currently little recovered up to 20 %. The price of standing trees was most expensive in 1980, but it is nearly one-fourth to one-seventh now. The consumption of the timber has also reduced. Therefore, the forestry weakened its position as an industry. This phenomenon has not progressed equally in all places. The author guesses the decline of forestry damaged the more advanced forestry regions worse. As the first point, the long-term transition of the log price and the wage and the cost is examined as follows; whether the leveling of the log price among the forestry regions has been under way or not, whether the gap of the wage and the fixed cost of forestry among the regions has been also smoothed or not. The second point is to examine the longitudinal behavior of the members of the households in forestry regions and to show the schematic picture of their reproduction strategy.

[CS29-4] Different contexts of geographical marginality

[ Tuesday 06 August 08:00-09:30 Room554A ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu Univ.)

1) Marginality's and globalization's reflections in society and space

Stanko Pelc (University of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities)

Marginality and globalization are two terms that were very often used in recent decades not only in geography but in other scientific disciplines as well not to mention their public presence in all kind of modern media. The purpose of our presentation is to analyze different views of these notions and to explain our own viewpoint on how these two notions may be understood and used in geography of marginality and marginalization. Our intention is to compile different ideas and to set various possible definitions for further discussion. As we believe that geography has to respect its spatial tradition and that marginality should be considered as predominantly societal notion we will base our proposals on the different reflections of both notions in society and space (meaning geographical space).

2) Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage to tourists: using traditional knowledge to counter the negative effects of marginalisation and globalisation

Alison M Mccleery (Edinburgh Napier University)

Traditional arts and crafts constitute an important component of Intangible Cultural Heritage which is at risk of dilution or destruction in the face of the homogenization and flattening of global culture. Yet paradoxically the solution to this global challenge may lie precisely in exposing fragile ICH to wider and more cosmopolitan audiences, if it is not to die out as its bearers themselves age and die. In other words, converting ICH from its status as an inward-facing phenomenon - residing predominantly with an older generation and benefitting domestic circles - to a new outward-facing phenomenon - practiced primarily by a younger generation for consumption by paying audiences - can offer a route to safeguarding and sustaining it. This paper will describe a project which the author is leading sponsored by Creative Scotland (the body responsible for promoting the arts in Scotland) and assisted by Visit Scotland (the body responsible for promoting tourism in Scotland). In so doing, it will demonstrate how traditional knowledge and practices can be conserved through the vehicle of tourism to counter the negative effects of marginalization and globalization.

3) The incidence of type 2 diabetes and its relation to socio-economics in an urban-rural setting in North Karelia, Finland

Markku J Tykkylainen (University of Eastern Finland), Tiina K Laatikainen, Maija A Sikio, Timo J Kumpula

Due to dietary, genetic, cultural and socio-economic reasons, several common diseases are overrepresented in sparsely-populated areas in Finland. In this paper, we focus on the spatial variation of type 2 diabetes in a rural, remote setting Eastern Finland. The study is a part of the larger project which aims at developing the quality indicators for follow-up the performance of public health care. The data used in the analyses is based on the electronic patient records of the North Karelian municipalities. All municipalities have used this common recording system since 2010. The database includes all information on patient visits, information on diagnose, prescribed medications, measured risk factors, laboratory analyses, referrals etc. The original patient data contains patients’ addresses and the smallest area units used in the study are postcode areas. We investigate in this paper how the socio-demographic features of the population are linked to the high incidences of type 2 diabetes and what should be taken into account in developing the indicators measuring the quality and productivity of health care by municipal health centres.

4) Responding to Marginality on Zambia's Copperbelt

Etienne Nel (University of Otago), Tony Binns, Jessie Smart

In the 1950s and 1960s social scientists identified Zambia's Copperbelt as one of the fastest urbanizing and developing regions in Africa and one set to lead the country into the 'modern' era with its GDP per capita exceeding that of Brazil and South Korea at the time. Sadly however, from the 1980s the collapse of the copper price, rationalization of the mining industry and the associated effects of structural adjustment and the effective closure of the area's once strong industrial base led to a scenario of mass unemployment and poverty in the 1990s, leading Ferguson (1999) to comment on how development 'had fallen off the tracks' in the area. This paper reflects on the uniqueness of the area, why it occasioned early academic interest and the associated debates which ensued, before moving on to examine the contemporary scenario in the Copperbelt. As a response to marginalization, both in terms of the area's economic position nationally and internationally, but also socially in terms of the marginalization of the majority of the population, a range of local strategies have emerged. These range from the intensification of the remaining formal economic sector activities to a wide range of survival approaches which the urban majority engage in. Some of these approaches enjoy degrees of formal sanction whilst others are less tolerated. The paper critically examines key themes in terms of life and survival in key Copperbelt cities in the face of severe marginalization challenges.

[CS29-5] Marginality and marginalization (1) spatial, social and economic viewpoints

[ Tuesday 06 August 10:00-11:30 Room554A ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu Univ.)

1) In the Middle of Nowhere: Storing Nuclear Waste in Aboriginal Australia

Jill Roberta Kelly (University of Connecticut)

From the British atomic testing at Maralinga to the proposed waste storage at Muckaty, the Australian government has followed an environmentally racist strategy commonplace around the world: pushing radioactive contamination away from the dominant population onto indigenous lands.

Early British explorers declared Australia terra nullius, belonging to no one, ignoring the Aboriginal inhabitants. Courts recognized limited rights to traditional lands in 1992, but Aboriginal people are still marginalized in Australia. Those who have resisted assimilation are mostly remote, disperse, poor, and disenfranchised relative to the non-Aboriginal population.

Aboriginal cultures are deeply connected to the land. To poison the land permanently, as was done at Maralinga and at several uranium mines, is a grave offense to the Aboriginal people; to bar them from ritual duties in contaminated areas further weakens endangered Aboriginal culture. Yet, government officials, in their search for places to dispose of radioactive waste, are drawn to traditional Aboriginal lands, which they perceive as empty, useless, and far from the population that matters.

Ironically, the nuclear-powered nations of the Northern Hemisphere perceive Australia as a distant, sparsely-inhabited wasteland, ideal for storage of the world's waste. Arius, the Association for Regional and International Underground Storage, a European consortium of waste management organizations and industrial companies, advocates siting a global nuclear waste repository in Australia because it is ""stable, arid [and] remote.""

This paper explores these two perceptions of remoteness, the risks to the lands of marginalized people, and the environmental justice implications of nuclear storage on Aboriginal lands.

2) Satellite Settlement as a Base for Animal Husbandry: Case Study of sanam in the Mountains of Northern Laos

Susumu Nakatsuji (Konan University)

Satellite settlement by farmers is one of the key topics in studies of shifting cultivation. For example, many satellite settlements were established in Japanese mountainous areas for shifting cultivation, and these have been extensively studied. These settlements were built for easier access to the fields that were remote from the village settlements. Farmers lived there temporarily during the farming season.

Shifting cultivation of dry rice is still the most important occupation in the mountains of northern Laos. In these areas, many satellite settlements, called sanam in the Laotian language, have been built. These settlements include 1-10 households in the remote areas and can be reached in 1-3 hours by foot from the village settlements, called ban.

According to our research, the functions of sanam are related more to animal husbandry than to shifting cultivation. First, the commonly cited reason for building a sanam is to keep the animals isolated from disease epidemics that cause high mortality, especially in pigs and poultry. Second, a sanam is built as a watch house for animals that roam freely in the forest around it. Third, a sanam is often situated adjacent to fields of maize, the most important feed for pigs.

Animal husbandry is a traditional activity of shifting cultivators in mainland Southeast Asia, and today it has become one of their major income sources. Nevertheless, research on this economic activity is limited. This presentation describes how they are trying to develop this activity in their own ways in today’s context.

3) An alternative agriculture space in a Taiwanese tribe, Kalala

Chiung-Wen Chang (National Dong Hwa University)

An emergence of aboriginal movements in Taiwan has drawn attention to the public since the 1980s with regard to resumption of ethnic identity. It is a political response to multiple repression from the majority, may they be intentionally or unwittingly. Nonetheless, tribal livelihoods remain to suffer from a sustained pressure of overwhelming capitalist dominance. The status of economic exclusion makes the tribal rejuvenation impotent, and even brings some tribes to the brink of social and cultural collapse in modern life. The paper reports on a qualitative study of a tiny tribe, Kalala, where the locals make effort to improve the tribal livelihoods. Kalala, located in East Taiwan, is a typical tribe struggling with stagnancy and serious out-migration resulted by a long-term marginalisation. The locals, with financial and technical assistance of external agents, have initiated a participatory project to trigger the tribal development by organising a co-operative farm since 2009. This farm introduces organic methods of farming to upgrade the quality of produce, and endeavours to label the ‘terroir’ (Barham, 2003) to connect the produce to consumers. But, it does not mean that the farm yields the whole of production to the market. A traditional wisdom of ‘food forest’ is also retained to avoid exposing the tribal smallholders to higher risk of monocultures considering price fluctuation. The paper draws upon the practice of which the tribal locals ‘think and perform the economy otherwise’ (Leyshon and Lee, 2003) to evaluate the possibilities that the tribe is accommodated to modern market economy.

4) Development, areal differentiation and the prospects of the independent bus and share-ride taxi services in Japan

Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu University)

In Japan after the middle of 1990’s local governments began the independent bus service and the share-ride taxi service in order to maintain the public transportation system in depopulated areas as well as to provide the new public transportation system in newly developing urban areas. After 2002 when the Road Transportation Act was revised, the discontinuation of the route buses took place and the local government-driven public bus service substituted for it in many regions. This is caused by the intensified competitiveness among the traffic business through deregulation and the intensified difficulty to maintain the less profitable route buses through depopulation and decrease in users, in other words, by the globalization and the marginalization.

We find that these services are commonly managed for the sake of public welfare, but the purpose, the intended passengers, the way of management, the transportation method and so on are various according to the specific local conditions. Among them the following three will constitute the main methods: the public school bus and the welfare bus services as the substitute in depopulated regions, the community bus service in urban and rural areas under the rather cheap and uniform fee system, and the share-ride taxi demanding service in marginal areas with crucial need though not large in amount.

This research aims firstly to collect and classify all the independent passenger transportation services, and secondly to make clear their areal differentiation, and thirdly to show their prospects and restraints/sustainability in peripheral and marginal regions.

[CS29-6] Marginality and marginalization (2) spatial, social and economic viewpoints

[ Tuesday 06 August 14:00-15:30 Room554A ] Chair(s): Stanko Pelc (Univ. of Primorska/Faculty of Humanities), Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu Univ.)

1) Variability of Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Economic Growth and Stagnation Areas in Poland - Context and Consequences

Pawel Churski (Adam Mickiewicz University)

This study therefore aims at identifying the nature of spatial distribution and changes arising in areas of growth and economic stagnation in Poland, which result in a differentiation of the spatial process in the socio-economic betterment of the country.

The research therefore embraces the following stages:

1. Identification of spatial distribution of economic growth and stagnation areas in Poland in respect to region and sub-region, together with an outline of relevant determining factors.

2. The analysis of spatial distribution changeability of various areas of growth and economic stagnation in Poland in respect to region and sub-region together with an outline of its consequences.

3. Conclusions that are drawn from identified growth trajectories and recommendations for interventionist measures undertaken in the context of cohesion policy.

The analysis relates to two spatial distributions: province (voivodeship), NUTS 2 as well as NUTS 4; its extent determined foremost by accessibility to statistical data. In the research undertaken data has been used made available by the Local Data Bank at the National Statistics Office - period of analysis being 2000-2010.

The results presented constitute the end of the initial research stage realised in the context of the project, Socio-Economic Growth and Emergence Of Growth and Economic Stagnation Areas, financed by the National Centre of Science(N N306 791940). This project (which this author leads) is being undertaken by the Research Group, Regional Analysis Department, Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management UAM in Poznan,.

2) Competitiveness of Central-European Regions, Geographical and Historical Context

Pavol Korec (Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences)

Rising focus on regional competitiveness in Europe has been recently supported by several facts. First, growing impact of the global economic downturn evokes a high interest of scientists in evaluation of regions´ abilities to succeed in global and national competition. Second, cohesion policy of the European Union has been strengthening, which leads to searching for resources within regions in attempts to rise their competitiveness. The influence of institutional theories of regional development emphasizing the role of knowledge economies, innovations, creative economies and other factors of regional development stimulates research of regional competitiveness, too. Last but not least, we should highlight the urgent need for better knowledge and understanding the sources and context of existing regional inequalities within the European Union at both Union and national levels. Frequent studies indicate that stimulation of competitiveness growth in stagnating regions could be one of the tools for tackling with major regional disparities. Our intention is to focus on evalutation of regional competitiveness in four central-European countries, i. e. Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Instantly after the colapse of communist regimes, these countries witnessed a rapid growth of regional differences considered as a serios issue of European Union policy. Regarding a complicated history of this territory and its colourful geographical environment, we will focus on factors of historical development and geography as crucial factors of regional competitivenes in these four countries.

3) Endogenous formation of regional structure by residential sorting mechanism

Kakuya Matsushima (Kyoto University), Kiyoshi Kobayashi

Local municipalities try to attract more people from other regions by introducing policies which may contribute to develop social capital. This paper tries to analyze the residential sorting mechanism behind the relation between migration behavior and people's attribute.

The importance and the complexity of the relationship between land use and travel behavior has been recognized for long years in the field of transportation planning. In conventional transportation mode, transportation system attributes are often treated as exogenous variables in models and the emotional part of utility for travel has been ignored. In reality, each individual has own preference for travel mode and obtains the emotional utility if they choose the mode consistent with their preference. The preferences also affect residential choice behavior of households. The tendency of people to choose locations based on their preferences, referred to residential sorting would be occurred. If residential sorting effects are ignored when estimating mode choice of individuals, the estimation results would be biased because of the endogeneity in the model.

In this paper, the mechanism of residential sorting and its effect on the economy are analyzed by building a theoretical model that explicitly treats emotional part of utility for choosing specific travel mode. We also verify the residential sorting effects by using person trip survey data in Japan. We found implementing soft transport policy measures that affect of individuals' preference for travel mode have to be considered as one of the tools of city planning policy measures.

4) Changes of spatial differentiation of economy and labor market structures in Poland and in Germany in the years 2008-2012: a comparative study

Michal Dolata (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan), Anna Borowczak

The goal of this paper is a comparative study of changes in spatial differentiation of economy structures and labor markets in Poland and Germany covering the period of 2008-2012. The spatial differentiation in both countries is best comparable at the NUTS 3 level according to geocodes referenced within the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics applied by European Statistical Office (being 66 units in Poland and 412 units in Germany). Initial starting point of the analysis rests upon a comprehensive outline of political and socio-economic development contexts, that emerged in both countries since the processes of German reunification and transition of Polish economy had been set in motion in 1990. In the basic part of the paper an attempt is made to determine the spatial differentiation of economy structures quantified in gross value added in three sectors as well as spatial differentiation of labor markets where indictors of unemployment level and structure are scrutinized. In conclusion, the paper identifies the scope of similarities between the spatial differentiation of economy structures and labor markets and changeability of disparities in socio-economic development in Poland and in Germany. The paper presents results of the research project “Socio-economic development and the pattern of growth and stagnation areas”, financed by the National Centre of Science in Poland (ref no.: N N306 791940), which is undertaken by the Regional Analysis Department, Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam-Mickiewicz-University in Poznan.

5) Role of the innovative environment in the shaping of a knowledge-based economy in Poland

Joanna Dominiak (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan)

There is a strong relationship holding in Poland's regional system between the level of development of the innovative environment and that of the KBE. This relationship is studied in terms of how the innovative environment affects the KBE. The following aspects of this influence are examined: (1) the activity of higher education, which leads to an increase in the number of people with this level of education and a greater opportunity for employing highly skilled labour in the economy, (2) research and development activity as a basis for the development of innovativeness, and (3) informative-organisational activity in the field of innovation transfer to the economy. In the light of the results obtained, it can be stated that the greatest role in the shaping of the KBE is played by R&D institutions and the educational activity of higher schools. The science-economy links, however, are still weak in Poland, which follows from the underdevelopment of institutions responsible for the transfer of innovation from the R&D sphere to economic practice.The paper presents results of the research project, Socio-Economic Growth and Emergence Of Growth and Economic Stagnation Areas, financed by the National Centre of Science (N N306 791940)