Place Marketing in a Regional Context

In this study, the focus is on regional level place marketing in the context of Finland, which emerged as a prominent practice after Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and adapted project-based regional

development policies (Sotarauta, 2010; Äikäs, 2004; Zimmerbauer, 2008b;

Niemivuo, 2013). The increase in regional place marketing activities in Finland can be associated with the broader aim of the European Union to promote the development of regions through promotional tools, which has been conveyed through policies such as the “Europe of Regions”, Lisbon Strategy, EU 2020 (Bristow, 2005), and recently the “Smart Specialisation” strategy (McCann and Ortega-Argilés, 2013; McCann, 2015). A central message in these strategies is that regions need to find

ways to differentiate themselves through their economic, cultural or geographical assets (Paasi, 2002; Barca, 2009). These high level strategies are transmitted to national level policies and strategies, illustrated for example by a report “Definition of regional strengths 2011” by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (2011) which warns that if regions do not find ways to specialize, they risk the loss of competitiveness, resulting in negative consequences for the economic development of the region.

In context of Finland, EU strategies regarding regional competitiveness and differentiation are put into action through Regional Councils, which are joint municipal regional development authorities. Regional councils were created in 1995 when Finland joined the European Union with a duty of regional development and planning. Their duties are legislated by the Law on Regional Development (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, 2014). The central funding instrument which is distributed and governed by Regional Councils is European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).

ERDF aims to promote the cohesion between European regions relating to economic and social differences between regions within the European Union. In practice, this is carried out through a project-based approach which has brought along an abundance of projects aimed to develop the coherent development of EU regions (Niemivuo, 2013). This can be considered as a significant transformation from central governance models towards regional models, where regional authorities are granted more autonomy in their regional development.

The theoretical undercurrent that has paved the way for this

development in Finnish and European regional development can be more generally traced to the assumptions of the theory of a ‘new regionalism’, which have had a strong footing in policy-related regional development studies (Bristow, 2005). Firstly, new regionalism has accentuated the region as a central carrier for economic development and wealth creation in the context of global economy (Paasi, 2009, 2011; Zimmerbauer, 2011). As a result, the competitiveness of the regions has been lifted as a matter of prime importance, echoing the core ideas Porter (1990) described earlier.

This has had a significant impact on the discourse around regions, and as Bristow (2010) has pointed out, competitiveness has been raised as a

key metric for regional development and performance. Indeed, as Moisio and Paasi (2013) have observed, the influence of the theories of Porter (1990) and Florida (2003) have had significant presence in Finnish regional development, and have brought concepts such as competitiveness,

clusters and creativity to the center of regional development vocabularies.

Secondly, new regionalism holds marked differences to old regionalism (see broader discussion on these differences in Paasi 2009), in the sense that in addition to economic integration, it puts more emphasis on social, political and cultural dimensions. This has manifested especially by accentuating the role of regional identity as a key instrument for the economic competitiveness of the region. This has had a strong influence on the EU’s regional policy, where regional identities had been highlighted as an important aspect of regional development (Paasi, 2009, 2011). The perception of regional identity as a driver for economic development can be considered as a significant precursor for the shift to image-based regional marketing. As Zimmerbauer (2008b, 2011) has observed, this has led to a sea change in regional development. where focus has shifted from an emphasis on strong regional identity and institutionalization, towards one of attractiveness and regional image, which can include elements like knowledge capital, creativity and the innovativeness of the region.

Thirdly, another departure from the old regionalism that was more restricted to inter-state regional organizations and institutions, is that the new regionalism emphasizes the involvement of an array of state and non-state actors which work jointly towards set goals through multi-organizational collaborations (Söderbaum 2003). This idea is manifested in the proliferation of ‘partnerships’, which have increased incrementally especially in 1980s and 1990s (Colman, 1989; Walzer and Jacobs, 1998) and have indeed come to be considered as a global standard institutional framework for local and regional development (Geddes, 2008).

Partnerships are utilized to respond to social and public issues in regions such as diminishing populations and the revitalization of local economic development (Fischler, 2000; Carroll and Steane, 2005). Furthermore, they are considered to be beneficial in pooling resources and reducing uncertainty (Hardy and Phillips, 1999; Selsky, 2005). Partnerships have

been considered as a lateral form of collaboration between public, private and third sector actors, where there are no assumptions of command by any partner (Geddes, 2008). The partnership model of inter-organizational working is especially relevant in the context of the EU, as it is considered as requirement for gaining entry to the resource flows (McQuaid, 2005;

Geddes, 2008). Indeed, the regional level place marketing in the context of Finnish regional development is carried out as partnerships between public and private actors.