The crisis of our economic environment has global as well as local components. Determining the extend to which local components have a negative impact on our current situation will also likely place geographical areas in a better position to be ahead of those others without such ability.
Historically speaking, large cities have become attraction poles of economic growth, social activity, political decisions and overall governance. The unstoppable trend towards full globalization changes these traditional patterns on behalf of new geographical areas that obtain their power from their capability of becoming economically influential at the global sphere.
Some other more intangible, but also, necessary concepts related to quality of life, accessibility of services, flexibility of environments and selection of atmospheres, educational models, reconciliation of equal professional opportunities and a more profound family experience ….. and others, seem to recommend an important shift from large to medium size cities.
Catalonia’s miracle of the XIX century was based on the human factor capital of utilizing scarce resources and financial resources on behalf of personal prosperity. Lack of public intervention allowed the necessary flexibility to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the industrial sector.
Nowadays, the “mega regions” concept, described by economists such as Ramon Tremosa and Richard Florida put together the new emerging models of sustainable cities, with the necessity of free competition of significantly large geographical areas, somehow specialized on what they can do best. These “mega regions” appear as the cornerstone explaining competitiveness, sustainability and developmental growth for our current century.
Logistics, transformation activities and value added know-how in the design of industrial products and services; medical and pharmaceutical research, and a highly developed tourism sector, seem to be the key competitive areas of the Catalonia “mega region” (Valencia/Alacant, Tarragona, Barcelona-Lleida; Girona, Perpignan, Marselle, amd some other south french cities).
Historically speaking, large cities have become attraction poles of economic growth, social activity, political decisions and overall governance. The unstoppable trend towards full globalization changes these traditional patterns on behalf of new geographical areas that obtain their power from their capability of becoming economically influential at the global sphere.
Some other more intangible, but also, necessary concepts related to quality of life, accessibility of services, flexibility of environments and selection of atmospheres, educational models, reconciliation of equal professional opportunities and a more profound family experience ….. and others, seem to recommend an important shift from large to medium size cities.
Catalonia’s miracle of the XIX century was based on the human factor capital of utilizing scarce resources and financial resources on behalf of personal prosperity. Lack of public intervention allowed the necessary flexibility to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the industrial sector.
Nowadays, the “mega regions” concept, described by economists such as Ramon Tremosa and Richard Florida put together the new emerging models of sustainable cities, with the necessity of free competition of significantly large geographical areas, somehow specialized on what they can do best. These “mega regions” appear as the cornerstone explaining competitiveness, sustainability and developmental growth for our current century.
Logistics, transformation activities and value added know-how in the design of industrial products and services; medical and pharmaceutical research, and a highly developed tourism sector, seem to be the key competitive areas of the Catalonia “mega region” (Valencia/Alacant, Tarragona, Barcelona-Lleida; Girona, Perpignan, Marselle, amd some other south french cities).
