ESPON 1.4.2 / Social

Preparatory Study on Social Aspects ofEU Territorial DevelopmentStatus: Interim Report

Erich Dallhammer (ÖIR)

Content of the Presentation

Preparatory Study on Social Aspects of EU Territorial Development

Interim Report

• Background

• Overview Methodology

• Interim Results

• Outlook

The political background:Social issues in European strategic documents

• Lisbon/Gothenburg Agenda:

– “become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”

– “sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”

• Council of Europe:

– social cohesion should be seen as “one of the foremost needs of the wider Europe … and essential complement to the promotion of human rights and dignity”

• key priorities of Strategy for Social Cohesion:

– “A better provision and access to social services, employment, housing, education and training”

Framework for ESPON 1.4.2 according to Terms of Reference

• 1.4.2 is a preparatory study for a ESPON applied research project to be financed in the next programming period

• To explore the main elements of social aspects of territorial dynamics displaying trends and disparities on NUTS 3 level

• To provide scientific information and guidance, to implement a sound spatial analysis of social patterns, trends, impacts and dynamics

• Taking into account– key challenges / problems– existing research works and policies– concepts, indicators

• To make proposals for indicators on territorial contexts

Research Background of ESPON 1.4.2

Two-way relationship: ”the social” and ”the territorial”

Two approaches reflecting the two-way relationship:

Territorial development

Social processes

• understanding of the territorial impacts of social policies

• discussing the impact of social issues on the territorial development

Interim report

Methodology: Project structure

Work Packages

WP 1: Identifying the Issues – The Social Dimension of Space

Str

uct

uri

ng

WP 2: Access to

Social Services,

SGEIs; Public

Transfer

WP 3: Employ-

ment and Income Distri-bution

WP 4: Housing

and Terri-torial

Develop-ment

WP 5: Educa-

tion and Training

Them

ati

c Surv

eys

WP 6: Towards an Agenda for Integrating Social Aspects into Territorial Development

Concl

usi

ons

The ESPON 1.4.2 team

ÖIR, Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning (Austria) - WP 3: Employment and Income Distribution

Nordregio, Nordic Centre for Spatial Development (Sweden) WP 2: Access to Social Services, Public Transfer

MRI, Metropolitan Research Institute (Hungary) WP 4: Housing and Territorial Development

CEG, Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Alameda da Universidade (Portugal) WP 5: Education and Training

Methodology: Tasks & Tools

Tasks of thematic surveys

• Task 1: policy review

• Task 2: scientific literature review

• Task 3: overview on existing datasets including proposal of relevant indicators

• Task 4: “foundation” for future research possibilities

Tools

• Tool 1: Grid for the collection of data and indicators

• Tool 2: Analysis grid for the policy review

• Tool 3: Guidelines for the literature review and bibliography

• Tool 4: Grid for the selection of relevant indicator sets

• Tool 5: Reporting Format for the thematic conclusions

Collection of existing data and indicators describing social issues

Tool 1

indicator “not usable”no

usa

bili

ty

standard

s Usability check: Is

the indicator usable?

yes

List of usable indicators (in existing sources)

ad hoc typology

Policy review

Tool 3Tool 2

Literature review

Tool 4

Relevance assessmen

t complete picture?

further description of core indicators

yes

Set of relevant existing indicators

demands on content

rele

vance

st

andard

s

no

Proposal of additional indicators

Set of social territorial indicators existing and new

Tool 5FINAL REPORT Tool 5

Mapsand interpretation

Interim report

Collection of Data and Indicators on social aspects

Data quality required

• harmonised regional data

• available from EU sources

• preferably at NUTS 3 level

• Covering EU25+2+2Sources Investigated

• Existing ESPON - database (www.espon.lu)

• Eurostat database (europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/)

• Urban audit (http://www.urbanaudit.org/index.aspx)

• Study programme on European spatial planning(http://www.nordregio.se/spespn/welcome.htm)

• OECD (www.oecd.org)

• European housing statistics

• Several relevant UN-sources

Collection of existing data and indicators describing social issues

Tool 1

indicator “not usable”no

indicator “not usable”no

Usability check: I s

the indicator usable?

Usability check: I s

the indicator usable?

yes

List of usable indicators (in existing sources)

yes

List of usable indicators (in existing sources)

Interim Results: Data and Indicatorsdescribing territoral social issues

A huge number (216) of potential indicators found

But:

• about 80% of the social indicators just exist on national level- e.g. all OECD data, lots of UN-data

• Data from Urban Audit are just available for selected cities -> not usable for analysing the EU-territory

-> About 30 usable indicators describing regional social issues

• Many data on regional level are just available at NUTS2 - just about 1/6 of the usable indicators are available at NUTS3

• best database with usable data: ESPON database

-> “The regional level is often missing.”

-> further research needed

Analysis Grid for the Policy Review

Analysis of the main policy orientation at EU level• current EU policies and strategies (sector policies) • based on existing overviews and comparisons• possibly available in English

Two parts (see annex of interim report):• overall view of most important information (table)• short description of main contents and structure of each single policy

Policy review

Tool 2

Interim Results: Policy Review about social issues

overview about 35 relevant policy papers

• Social aspects are considered within many policy papers on very different levels - social aspects are important

But:

• Social policies are strongly determined by national interest - difficulty to get a comprehensive picture throughout Europe (employment, social transfers, housing, education, ...)

• Some definitions are rather unspecific (e.g. “poverty”)

• Interrelationships between the themes analysed exist (e.g. housing - social cohesion)

• Due to the organisation of social issues policies on lower (local) level might conflict policies on higher (National /European) levels (e.g. housing)

-> further research needed

Outlook: Next steps in ESPON 142

• ESPON 142-Project Meeting on March 15th in Salzburg- problem of missing data on regional level- revealing inter-relationships between the thematic issues- agreement on useful set of potential indicators- definition of further research needed

• Production of European maps displaying territorial trends

• Preparation of final report, taking into account:- today’s discussion- additional remarks

including - final results of the scientific literature review - final results of the policy review- final list of requested indicators and related data- summary of the proposal for future applied research

Outlook: Timetable – Proceedings - Deliverables

Kic

k O

ffV

ienn

a

Coord

.m

eeti

ng

Salz

bu

rg

2005-02-15 Interim Report

2005-05-31 Final

Report

Thank you for your attention