ABSTRACT
Henrik Halkier Introduction* Intensive public efforts to promote economic development has made regional policy an integrated part of the governance of ‘problem regions’ in Western Europe by redistributing roles and resources between social actors within the region and affecting its position vis-à-vis central government and other regions. While in some cases regional policy has remained a largely ‘technocratic’ exercise which rarely played a major role in political debates – something which in itself is an interesting phenomenon – other regions have experienced decades of intense debates about the ways and means of regional economic development.
