Page 348 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 4

CPS2259 Florabela Carausu et al.
underutilisation of potential and reducing persistent social exclusion in
specific places through external interventions and multilevel governance. The
strategy proposed by Barca makes accountable the territorial focus.
The territorial cohesion entered in the European context as a consequence
of the limitations of the European regional policy, criticised for placing more
emphasis on the potential (capabilities) of the region, than on financial
redistribution, and also for the lack of coherence between the actions financed.
This understanding has promoted the territorial cohesion, as a territorial
development approach characterised by a focus on the use of endogenous
potentials, promoting the creation of functional and spatial structures such as
functional areas.
If it is commonly agreed that the effectiveness of policy making requires a
lower level of analysis and intervention, the selection of the sub-national level
is key for its efficiency. Traditionally, the region is a sub-national level formed
by the grouping of adjacent administrative units (e.g. municipalities).
Nevertheless, the European context has shown that, the single most important
policy indicator in regional policy, the per capita average value of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is frequently distorted when using administrative
5
units. The reason is that the income generated in one municipality, such as a
city, may be largely consumed by households in other municipalities. And this
may turn into questioning the credibility of (some important) official statistics,
because people in their day-to-day life do not identify with “averages” (i.e.
they don’t feel official statistics capture the correct image).
The limitation of the administrative units approach to region definition
helps arguing that what is needed in the socio-economic policy field is a set
of areas which are equivalent to ‘consumption areas’ (Coombes et all, 2012).
6
Pursing this further, an analogy can be established with the standard set by
Leave no one behind; i.e. averages and generalised progress are not enough
because they do not reveal who is missing. In the context of SDGs Agenda for
2030, the Leave no one behind puts as much emphasis on ‘who’ benefits as
7
on ‘what’ has been delivered . The approach aims for a strategy ensuring that
those staying behind do not get left behind. ‘This requires data and different
benchmarks of progress. Data needs to be disaggregated to show how
different parts of the population are faring. Benchmarks cannot rest on a

5 ESPON (2007) Final Report of the ESPON Project 1.4.4 “Preparatory Study on Feasibility of Flows
Analysis Final Report”
6 Coombes M., Wymer C., Casado J.M., Martinez L., Carausu F. (2012): ‘Study on comparable
Labour Market Areas’ prepared for Eurostat
7 7T. German; J. Randel (2017): ‘Delivering results to Leave no one behind’ – discussion paper
for the Results Community OECD workshop ‘What Results – Who Counts?’
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