The Prospects for Bridging Spatial and Institutional Divides within Regions: Rural-Urban Relationships in a Projectified Governance Context

Abstract

Departing from an ideal interpretation of the collaborative governance approach, the authors analyse the integrative and collaborative capacities of project-based regional development actions in spatially diverse city regions in Finland. Scrutinizing the relevance of collaborative ideals and their institutional prerequisites becomes all the more salient given the strong emphasis on collaborative approaches to regional diversities throughout Europe. The results show that the integrative potentials are related to specific types of areas. They also call the facilitating capacities of politico-administrative institutions into question. The results are interpreted in terms of an institutional duality that strongly corresponds to the public-private divide.

Citation

Sjöblom, S. and Andersson, K. (2016), "The Prospects for Bridging Spatial and Institutional Divides within Regions: Rural-Urban Relationships in a Projectified Governance Context", Metropolitan Ruralities (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 215-240. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1057-192220160000023010