The innovative power of regional policy networks: A comparison of two approaches to political modernization in North Rhine‐Westphalia

Abstract

The paper compares two recent approaches of North Rhine‐Westphalia to promote the restructuring of old industrialized areas: the concept of IBA Emscher Park, a combination of expert networks and a regional development agency, and the concept of ‘Regional Conferences’, a regional round table device with the aim of defining regional development paths. The comparison focuses on the impact of the two approaches on regional policy‐making structures. Although both concepts adopt a network approach, regional conferences are comparatively weak devices focusing on common development schemes instead of projects, lacking strong power promoters, having weaker innovation incentives, being subject to counterproductive regimes and suffering from a discrepancy between conflicts to be resolved and conflict resolution capacity.