Two Roads to the Global Village: A Comparison of How a Coastal and a Mountain Region of Norway Have Found Strategies to Cope with Globalization

This paper will outline two different socio-economic regional strategies to meet with the challenges that have arisen from market and political forces over the last 20-30 years. The rise of globalization as a concept and process in development policies goes hand in hand with the economic liberalization and deregulation policies of the 1980s and 1990s. As stated by Philip McMichael (1996, p.9) the 'development debate cannot be adequately understood or resolved without a global perspective'.