ESPON / Social Preparatory Study on Social Aspects of EU Territorial Development Status: 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 according to Terms of Reference 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 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 Structuring 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 Thematic Surveys WP 6: Towards an Agenda for Integrating Social Aspects into Territorial Development Conclusions

The ESPON 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 usability standards 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 assessment complete picture? further description of core indicators yes Set of relevant existing indicators demands on content relevance standards no Proposal of additional indicators Set of social territorial indicators existing and new Tool 5 FINAL REPORT Tool 5 Maps and 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 EU Sources Investigated Existing ESPON - database ( Eurostat database (europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/) Urban audit ( Study programme on European spatial planning ( OECD ( European housing statistics Several relevant UN-sources

Interim Results: Data and Indicators describing 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 Kick Off Vienna Coord. meeting Salzburg Interim Report Final Report

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