ABSTRACT
Even though the debate on regional development is no longer characterised by the simple dichotomy of new and highly innovative regions emerging with new technologies versus old and traditional industrial regions faced with industrial and socio-economic crisis, there is still a widely held idea of those regions that have participated in industrial history for decades, often more than a century, as regions that have to wrestle with industrial restructuring. Undoubtedly, these regions have to manage the problems associated with sectors such as mining, steel or ship building. The European Union has a long tradition in launching particular programmes, such as RESIDER, NAVAL or RETEX, to help regions with such restructuring and to develop a more prosperous economy. The US has also had to manage such problems (Ahlbrandt et al. 1996), and its steel industry’s continuing difficulties have meant that the US government has returned to traditional protectionist policies (Metzger et al. 1996).
