Abstract
Studying Southern Europe is not only about analysing and testing regional development models or putting into question the regional policy of the European Union; it also allows us to question the theoretical proposals for addressing the condition of the intermediate and peripheral regions. This introductory chapter presents a tentative interpretation of the current map of Southern Europe and the regional disparities of the four selected countries with a special focus on the link between human capital, space and economy. It is a presentation of Southern Europe, in a broad and comprehensive characterisation, with large-scale data and the most up-to-date information and attempts to bring an additional building block to the understanding of the persistence of peripheralism. Why are there regions with no capacity for flourishing? Is there really an inability to upgrade? Is there inescapable path dependence for Southern Europe or do we need new policies and measures? This is a descriptive and analytical text, seeking to highlight the characteristics and profiles of the regions of the four countries in Southern Europe. The chapter brings an attempt to a new insight into the concept of regional upgrading, in the context of the economic geography, exploring the concept of Social Filter proposed by others, before. A principal component analysis was carried out with the development of indicators on educational stock, economic growth, population, development, cohesion and regional convergence.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The metaphors of RegioTopia, RegioCopia and RegioNova, used in a little story of Harald Bathelt and Johannes Glueckler (2002, p. 14) are particularly expressive.
- 3.
The concept of human capital first appeared in the works developed by Adam Smith (1723–1790) and Marshall (1842–1924). However, this concept was misunderstood because there was no sense in qualifying “labor as a type of capital” (Teixeira 2007). By the late sixties of the twentieth century, the research on human capital took off. T. W. Schultz, Jacob Mincer and Gary S. Becker developed the main contributions on human capital theory and its different approaches. Human capital has been understood differently in other contexts and scientific areas. We will focus on economic geography approaches and uses of the concept of human capital.
- 4.
The datasets used in this chapter were all taken from Eurostat and are available in the corresponding website or delivered the author, by request.
- 5.
The list of those 31 variables is at the Annex 2.2.
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Annex
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The four countries in Southern Europe
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Fonseca, M. (2017). Southern Europe at a Glance: Regional Disparities and Human Capital. In: Fonseca, M., Fratesi, U. (eds) Regional Upgrading in Southern Europe. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49818-8_2
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