COVID-19 as a systemic shock: curb or catalyst for proactive policies towards territorial cohesion?

Sébastien Bourdin (), John Moodie, Nora Sánchez Gassen, David Evers, Fulvio Adobati, Mounir Amdaoud, Giuseppe Arcuri (), Emanuela Casti, Victoire Cottereau (), Mihail Eva, Hajnalka Lőcsei, Corneliu Iaţu, Bogdan-Constantin Ibănescu, Philippe Jean-Pierre (), Francois Hermet, Nadine Levratto (), Linnea Löfving, Eva Coll-Martínez, Yannis Psycharis, Viktor Salenius and Zsuzsa Remete
Additional contact information
Sébastien Bourdin: Métis Lab EM Normandie - EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School
Giuseppe Arcuri: PRISM Sorbonne - Pôle de recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences du management - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Victoire Cottereau: UMR 228 Espace-Dev, Espace pour le développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - AU - Avignon Université - UR - Université de La Réunion - UNC - Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie - UG - Université de Guyane - UA - Université des Antilles - UM - Université de Montpellier, Migrinter [Poitiers] - Migrations internationales, espaces et sociétés [UMR 7301] - UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Hajnalka Lőcsei: HETFA - HÉTFA Research Institute - Hétfa Kutatóintézet Kft.
Corneliu Iaţu: Université de Iasi - Université Ioan Cuza de Iasi - Université Ioan Cuza de Iasi - Université de Iasi
Bogdan-Constantin Ibănescu: UAIC - Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași = Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iași = Alexandru Ioan Cuza University [Iași] = Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iași
Philippe Jean-Pierre: CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion
Nadine Levratto: EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, originating as a health crisis but quickly expanding to other social spheres, had significant and asymmetric impacts across Europe, which potentially undermine territorial cohesion. Much has been written about the overall impact of the pandemic on the underlying thematic and budgetary focus of European Union-level policies with respect to territorial cohesion. However, it remains unclear to what extent policies implemented at regional and local levels in response to the crisis also contribute to territorial cohesion. To address this, we investigated the extent to which the pandemic constituted a ‘window of opportunity' for developing innovative policies furthering territorial cohesion policy goals and objectives within member states, and assessed whether the crisis led to more collaborative, integrative and holistic policymaking. To this end, the research examined policy responses across 14 European regions by means of a mixed-method case study approach, including the analysis of relevant policy documents and over 100 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. We show that the pandemic led to the introduction of new short-term social policies to reduce socio-economic disparities produced by COVID-19 and accelerated the implementation of green and smart policies. Additionally, the crisis fostered greater collaboration between public authorities and key stakeholders, and between regional and municipal public authorities, although the long-term impact is uncertain. These findings could have policy implications for other crisis situations. Moreover, they suggest that territorial cohesion policies should be tailored to empower regions and local governments to use systemic shocks to draft and implement proactive social, economic and environmental policies.

Keywords: Window of opportunity; Cohesion policy; Place-based policies; Proactive policies; Covid-19; Territorial cohesion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Published in Regional Studies, 2024, 58 (8), pp.1543-1556. ⟨10.1080/00343404.2023.2242387⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04214029

DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2023.2242387

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