Természetes régió, hálózat és versenyképesség

Absztrakt

Paralel to the extension of globalisation the past two decades experience three research directions at the same time: regional studies and the importance of spatial relations, competitiveness research and network theory. By now these topics all enjoy wide literature, while they overlap at many fields. The paper is a report on a work-in-progress research on defining and measuring competitiveness of regional networks. The basis of the concept is the links among regionalism, competitiveness and the new results of social network theory, by which we define region as the system and condensed space of different social networks. The aim of the research is to discuss and compare the ecological, state administration, technological-infrastructural, economic-monetary and cultural-ethnographical social networks of an area. As a hypothesis by natural region we define those areas where the different social networks overlap the most as well as they operate in harmony. The second hypothesis of the research is that these natural (organic) networks offer a more effective base for strategic development and improving competitiveness.