Analytical Studies about the Bioceanic Corridor

The construction of the Bio-Oceanic Road Corridor is an extremely complex task, as it involves many difficulties and multiple actions that need to be implemented in order to integrate Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil, with the Northern Chilean ports, crossing huge land spaces in Paraguay and Argentina. Furthermore, the four countries have no intention to create merely a road or a trade corridor. The main objective is to transform the corridor into an economic and social development platform, capable of attracting additional investments, encouraging firm partnerships as well as strengthening territorial integration. By such a collective effort, the countries envisage bringing benefits not only to the private sector but also to local communities. In this context, it is compelling to understand the strengthens and weaknesses of the corridor, in order to guide policymakers on how to implement future actions, with a view to fully exploring all the advantages deriving from physical integration as well as overcoming foreseeable obstacles. This article will enable readers to identify the characteristics of each one of the regions covered by the corridor and, thereby, understand its advantages and disadvantages, but also to learn how the corridor will change their lives. Bio-Oceanic Road Corridor will deepen regional integration and provide trade operators with better and less costly access to Asian markets, to the US West Coast as well as to Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. Thanks to a modern physical connection, exporters from Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina will be able to send abroad their goods in less time and lower costs, increasing competitiveness and adding value to the exported goods. In the same vein, raw materials and other inputs will be imported at lower costs, encouraging the development of industrial clusters as well as breaking up geographical isolations as well as providing an alternative to a logistics too dependent on the Atlantic Ocean.

Contextualizing four-stage legal transitions in convergent evolution

Summary This article posits that both Roman and early Chinese states underwent four stages in their multiple-step transformations from local states to major empires during the classical period. For both states, at stage 2, one dominant state formed alliance with a group of smaller autonomous polities, and at stage 3 that dominant state deepened its regulation of the smaller polities whose autonomy was curtailed. There existed striking similarities between Rome and China (early Han Empire) at stages 2 and 3 regarding the constitutional rules enforced by the two central governments to control the newly-acquired subordinate territories, which were the Macedonian/Greek states for Rome and the vassal kingdoms in eastern territories for Han Empire. In particular, this article discusses: (i) why Macedonian/Greek states have been chosen for comparative studies; (ii) similar constitutional rules at stage 2 governing the two empires’ relationships with their subordinate polities; (iii) similar legal rules at stage 3 aiming at dividing up the territories of the subordinate polities and restraining their self-rule; (iv) similar stage-3 constitutional rules that preserved some autonomy for the subordinate polities; and (v) similar stage-3 legal rules that regulated certain economic activities of the subordinate polities. After analyzing Roman governance of Macedonia/Greece within the broader context of Roman institutions for territorial integration, the article explores the underlying trends and deeper mechanism that led to such convergent evolution of legal rules.

The Bretons in French Politics: Regional Mobilization within and beyond the Central State

This article revisits the French region of Brittany on the basis of sustained empirical research over a 25-year period. It identifies the twin use of influence and identity as forming a key part of an accepted and largely diffused territorial repertoire, based on affirming distinctiveness for reasons of vertical linkage, as well as horizontal capacity building. This article explores the different facets of this model of territorial influence. The two twin dimensions concern: first, a well-versed mechanism of lobbying central institutions and actors to defend the Breton interest; second, the use of territorial identity markers to forward the regional cause, relying on social movements and a broad capacity for regional mobilization. Within this overarching context, the Breton case demonstrates an intelligent instrumental use of identity and identity markers, but mainstream Breton forces recognize that this only makes sense in the light of the national level of regulation and structure of opportunities. The logic of this position is to integrate the Brittany region into a national model of territorial integration, while playing up identity markers to secure the maximum benefit for the region.

Examining Cross-Border Cultural Tourism as an Indicator of Territorial Integration across the Slovak–Hungarian Border

There are numerous examples of cross-border regions in Europe, which are regions not properly demarcated by national borders. One of the main driving forces of the European Union is to turn the dividing borders into connecting borders by strengthening the cohesion between states and regions, thus, encouraging regions to remedy the existing ethnic and cultural fragmentation by increasing the intensity and number of cross-border contacts. Our research focuses on proving that, in symbolic places, such as the cross-border area of Komárom and Komárno, the cultural values, monuments, and heritage sites are the strongest attraction factors for nationality-based cultural tourism. To support our hypothesis, we conducted an empirical survey within the framework of the H2020 SPOT (Social and Innovative Platform on Cultural Tourism and its potential towards deepening Europeanisation) in the cross-border region of Komárom and Komárno. The evaluation concentrated on four aspects of cultural tourism: the nature of cultural tourism in the area, the resident and visitor perceptions of the cultural tourism offerings, opportunities to increase cross-border collaboration, and options to improve the cultural tourism offerings of the area. Our results show that, although there is a great potential in the cross-border tourist destination of Komárom–Komárno, the integration of the (once united) two towns is advancing very slowly, which can be witnessed in the weaknesses of tourism integration as well.

What kind of global city? Circulating policies for ‘slum’ upgrading in the making of world-class Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, under the city administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, has recently implemented an ambitious social and territorial integration project in Villa 31 and other low-income settlements within the city. The mayor and his team have circulated the project in prestigious universities and urban forums while talking about Buenos Aires as ‘a global city’. When discussing the design of this integration initiative, the mayor referred to London’s Borough Market, New York’s High Line and Medellín’s Parque Biblioteca. This paper examines the role of policy circulation on the change in discourse and practice towards low-income settlements in Buenos Aires, as well as its relation to the making of a world-class city. I argue that: (a) policy change has been the result of a complex assemblage of artifacts and individuals that mobilise successes, a process that is increasingly South-South; (b) the city government drew its inspiration from urban policies adopted by other cities, not only for the urbanisation project itself, but for approaches to internationalise the initiative; (c) Buenos Aires is using this project as an opportunity to world itself as an integrated city. By doing so, this research adds value to the policy mobility scholarship, since Latin American cities are not only worlding themselves through mega urban developments but also through the circulation of singular ‘world-class’ imaginaries.

Adaptive Reuse of a Historic Building by Introducing New Functions: A Scenario Evaluation Based on Participatory MCA Applied to a Former Carthusian Monastery in Tuscany, Italy

The lack of financial resources and the constraints about interventions are threatening the survival of built heritage and the multiple benefits it can provide. In time, the role of building conservation has changed from preservation to being part of a sustainable strategy where adaptive reuse may allow to protect built heritage, while promoting it as a resource. This paper presents the results of a multicriteria analysis applied to the case study of Certosa di Pisa in Calci (Tuscany), a former Carthusian Monastery currently run as a publicly owned museum center. Based on information gathered from literature and the involvement of the two main stakeholders, a SWOT analysis was performed to identify three scenarios in which new functions were introduced with the aim to cover restoration and maintenance costs. Scenarios were compared by using a participatory MCA, taking into account not only economic performances but also cultural, territorial integration and restoration co-impacts. Results show that it is possible to reach economic sustainability while conserving heritage values, but several criticalities may hinder the process. Conclusions discuss the suitability of the method in identifying sustainable reuse solutions and highlight the role of governance bodies and the problems related to their public and/or private composition.

Uždaros gyvenvietės Lietuvoje: teritorinės integracijos problema

Gated communities in Lithuania: the problem of territorial integration

From State-Building to European Integration: The Role of the Railway Network in the Territorial Integration of Europe, 1850–2020

This collection of articles combines a set of works that study the contribution of transport infrastructure to the process of state building in different countries in Western and Central Europe. The focus and the themes treated vary, but have two common denominators: firstly, they are based on either completely original, or previously little-used, primary sources; and secondly, each work reveals new ways of interpreting how transport networks have shaped the territories into which they were introduced. Each article is an example of the wealth of potential approaches available and also helps us to interpret the processes involved in state building, which are a necessary precedent to European Integration (EI). To put the seven works that make up this special issue into context, I shall start this introduction by examining three aspects that complement them. I shall firstly clarify what we mean by EI. Secondly, I shall examine whether EI processes existed prior to the creation of the institutions that were set up after World War II to promote integration. Then, thirdly, and finally, based on the previous analyses, I shall look at the emergence of a railway network in Europe and the role that the European states played in this process. The fourth section will present the articles.

TERRITORIAL INTEGRATION OF ENTREPRENEURIAL STRUCTURES

The article on the example of the shipbuilding industry revealed the main patterns of economic relations of business structures, which consist in the gradual implementation of economic relations through specialization and industrial cooperation. It has been established that by implementing economic relations, business structures interact with the external environment, which directly and indirectly can influence the regularity of the development of economic relations of business structures. As a result of the results of the studies, it is determined that cluster interaction is one of the promising forms of territorial integration of entrepreneurial structures, allows to optimize the mechanism of industry and inter-industry integration. This form creates favorable conditions for entrepreneurial structures, to gain additional benefits through the growth of internal specialization and standardization, minimizing transaction costs, reducing the cost of development and innovation. In addition, it allows to attract highly skilled personnel from related sectors of the economy to the shipbuilding industry, which contributes to the additional economic and social effect.