Territorial competition in integrating Europe. P.C. Cheshire & I. R. Gordon (eds.).

Avebury, Aldershot, 1995. XV, 317 s., ill., 23 cm. GBP 40,-.

Territorial competition between cities and regions is of growing importance especially within the European Union. Territorial competition is defined as locally based efforts to promote the development of a locality in competition with other localities. The efforts may take many forms, place marketing, assisting local businesses, constructing infrastructure, providing of informationand networking. The book presents different perspectiveson the issue; the extent to which the growing interest is an outcome of the integration process itself; what favored the different developments in different places; did policies actual influence local change; how integration contributed to spatial patterns in itself; and what are the further implications of this territorial competition. One clear hypothesis was that the advancedor metropolitan regional economies would be the most relevant to study since the advanced regions of Europe seemed to have most to gain or lose from integration. A selection of leading economic regions of Europe is being studied from different angles presenting various aspects of the supply and the demand side. On the demand side one notes that the traditional European urban pattern is rapidly being broken up in favor of a new pattern, and at the same time this traditional pattern is still very much present. New locational factors of importance are identified, such as environmental quality, amenities and business services, but the role of traditional factors, such as accessibility, labor skills and transport costs are being reinforced in locational choice. The place in itself is of major importance for locational choices and operational success, Findings on the supply side were more heterogeneous partly because local policy is subject to a wide range of institutional and cultural differences. - The reviewer notes new contributions to the discussion of European hot spots. A presentation by Forslund and Johansson identifies fast changing leaders characterized by a relatively large share of rapid growth sectors. This are cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. Slow changing leaders are for example Lyon, Dublin, Madrid, Helsinki, Paris, Marseille and Lisbon. Followers are cities like Lille, Barcelona. Glasgow and Budapest. Bremm looks upon Germany and find Frankfurt and Düsseldorf to be the dynamic urban centers followed by cities

like Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Achen and Ulm. Other areas for example Hamburg and Saar are in trouble due to old industrial structures which gives a negative image and makes modernizationdifficult and costly. Bramezza, Berg and Borg characterizes the Randstad region as a leading European center where competitivenessof the region is under pressure from new locational potentials in other regions and because of the changing needs of the companies within the region. There is a high level of awarenessof the risks and a very active policy which aims to improve the locational potentials. - The following 11 papers further addresses the factors that stimulate and constrain competitive actions; the scope and aspirations of competitive policies; the factors underlying actual locational decisions and differential growth performance; and appropriate policies for the pursuit of competitive advantages. Empirical material is drawn from many data sources and as it is common in such studies the editors complaints about the lack of comparative data. - This is indeed a contemporary state of the art book. A fine selection of problems,authors and urban regions gives perspectives to the evolvingdiscipline of metropolitan or regional competition. The book is an important discussion document and should be utilized by urban managers, researchers and students of the phenomenon. It is also a very useful book about urban system change in the end of the 20th century.