Innovation and cooperation to create more employment? : on the discussion of more recent approaches to employment promotion in regions, taking as an example the Territorial Employment Pacts and the InnoRegio Programme

Abstract

"This paper discusses more recent approaches in regional employment policy which are intended to promote innovation and cooperation. The point of departure for the paper is the insufficient growth in the Federal Republic of Germany, which is attributed among other things to a lack of innovation. First of all the question is asked as to what economic theory says, in particular neo-classicism and the regional theory on the origin of dynamicinnovative environments. It is brought out that state interventions in market processes are justified if they are limited as regards time, become established after a certain time and start out from the flow of information between the players. A creative regional environment is characterised by measures that are responsible for a positive innovation climate. Policy can support innovative regional environments by participating in a network itself or by creating the communication structure for such a network. On the basis of the Territorial Employment Pacts (Territoriale Beschäftigungspakte) and the InnoRegio Project the paper examines how the state can build up such regional cooperation structures and what different forms of cooperation and networks can develop. Practice shows that quite different partners covering a large range of subjects work together in regional development partnerships; the projects that a regional network produces are accordingly diverse. The key requirements for the success of regional alliances are a cooperative climate in the region and a common basic attitude to solving the employment problems together. A critical appreciation of these new ways of promoting employment rounds off the paper." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Gerlach, F. & Ziegler, A. (2002): Mit Innovation und Kooperation zu mehr Beschäftigung? Zur Diskussion neuerer Beschäftigungsförderungsansätze in Regionen am Beispiel der Territorialen Beschäftigungspakte und des InnoRegio-Programms. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 35, No. 3, p. 429-439.