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Chair of Comparative Government

Research

 

Major areas of research are comparative European-American studies focusing on the role of government policies in techno-industrial innovation, economic and social restructuring, environmental technologies, globalisation, regional and metropolitan development. He has directed 8 international research networks, as follows:

 

·                    Archipelago Europe I: Islands of Innovation, A transatlantic comparison of the regionalisation of innovation, funded by the Commission of the European Communities

·                    Archipelago Europe II: The Role of Europe's Innovative Centre for Community Cohesion, funded by the Commission of the European Communities

·                    Fighting Deindustrialisation: the Opportunities and Problems of Innovation based Restructuring, funded by the Commission of the European Communities

·                    Regional Identity and Economic Development: The Role of Culture for Socio-economic Change, Foundation Europe of the Cultures

·                    International Locations in Biotechnology: A transatlantic comparison of 20 Islands of Innovation in Europe and the US, funded by the German Federal Minister of research and Development, the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, the Ministry of Research of the Land Thuringia

·                    Continentalisation of Innovation: Divergent Processes of Regionalisation in Europe and the US, funded by the Foundation of German Entrepreneurs to Foster Scientific Research, international programme

 

·                    Sub-national collaboration for regional development: the role of networking among regions (together with Nicola Bellini, Florence), funded by the Regional Studies Association

·                    Virtualisation of Space (together with Nicola Bellini, Florence) , funded by the Regional Studies Association (ongoing)

 

 

He has directed more than twenty research projects on national or comparative issues valued at more than $ 3.3M.

 

Research Areas

Innovation and Technology Policy

Globalisation and regionalisation

Intergovernmental differentiation

Cultural determinants of socio-economic change

 

Current Research Projects

Transatlantic Comparison of Continental Innovation Models: A Differentiation of regionalised processes of innovation in Europe and the US

The regional factor in processes of innovation is usually discussed in the framework of competitiveness of industrial clusters and locational conditions. On the basis of early theoretical works on competitive advantages built on regional clusters innovation theory has focused on the impact of new technologies for regional economic growth. (Porter 1990) At the same time pioneering interpretations of the geography of innovation suggested that a stable set of islands of innovation makes up the trans-Atlantic landscape of innovation. (Hilpert 1992 and 1995) The underlying structure of regions and locations has shown to be stable over time, yet variations emerge with regard to individual technologies and their sub-sectors. At the same time innovation systems were studied in order to explain political differences in technology development with regard to the advanced industrialised countries of the OECD-world, which have primarily focused on national perspectives that have recently been complemented by regional and global approaches to innovation systems. (Nelson 1993, Edquist & McKelvey 2000)

The very nature of innovations than necessarily falls by the wayside and differences as between science-based and technology-based innovations remain discrete. In the case of science-based innovations new techno-industrial opportunities directly result from new development trends within the science-system usually politically promoted by public funding programmes (as in the case of life sciences and the new biotechnologies). In contrast, technology-based innovation processes profit from applications of new technological options in established industries (as in the case of micro-electronics in engineering).

The global division of labour is characterised by a clear cut line of differentiation: while the advanced industrialised countries in North America and Western Europe assume a leadership position in science and technology, hitherto peripheral economies in Asia profit from

Innovation and Employment - New Industries as a Challenge to Political Interest Representation: An International Comparison of Current Developments within the Context of Biotechnology

Due to the development of new technologies, scientific breakthroughs and new scopes of application, established high-tech industries are undergoing changes and are adjusting themselves with their transformed internal firm organisation and new co-operation forms towards novel locational factors. However, as a result not only new firms and new conditions for their development have evolved, but also areas of work and professional skill requirements have fundamentally changed. The structural change towards new industries, locations and a greater scientific orientation of production is marked by new strata of employees. This development is presently exceedingly reflected through the various technological and industrial contexts of biotechnology.

Governments and the various governance levels are confronted with new challenges stemming from new types of firms defined by a selective choice of locations, a high degree of co-operation, an explicit scientific orientation and specific functions within the innovative context of this technology as well as new forms of internal organisation and employee interests. The traditional forms of locational and establishment support policies are rendered increasingly inappropriate to meet the interests and problems of these new types of firms. In this context, the vicinity to cutting edge scientific research institutions and to correspondingly educated and qualified scientific personnel are essential. Innovation policy as well as the various other policy fields relevant to the development of locational factors (e.g. education and university policies) are taking on a central role for these newly established and explicitly regionalised firm and innovation frameworks.

Concerning these new developments, it is of fundamental relevance to fully apprehend the innovation process and to recognise the transformations at an early stage. In terms of these predispositions, industries, locations and technologies vary to a high degree. Fields of specialisation, effects on and relations to the reference industries, locational frameworks, qualification requirements and the possibilities for political influence on these developments differ explicitly and in systematic contexts.

The conditions and the framework for firm development play an important within this context. In the area of biotechnology, small start-ups contribute to new processes of technological and industrial innovation due to their research intensiveness. Simultaneously, they reflect new forms of internal organisation and the emergence of new strata of employees. The aim of these firms is to achieve research results, which are relevant for large companies (e.g. the relevance of genetics for the pharmaceutical industry). In these terms, these companies link themselves into the innovation chain and from their location in the chain they contribute essentially to the innovation process. Simultaneously, as well as in certain application fields, there is an orientation of these firms towards specialised in small series production (e.g. bio-instruments). Their position within the innovation and economic processes, the demand for their research results and their products as well as the presently underdeveloped competitive situation apparently allows these firms to put forward their interests outside the spheres of a mutual representation of interests.

Concurrently, an explicit and at times extreme escalation of workforce qualifications and corresponding changes within staff structures can be noted. The recurrent feature of workforce shareholding points to a different organisational context within these firms and to the evolution of new employee strata. However, the representation of labour interests as well as the relationship to these new workforce strata is also important in these new business sectors (New Economy). The living situation of the employees is subject to change due to the increasing age of the workforce and the continuous ripening of technology leads to modifications in the present labour market situation for these employees. Tendencies towards increasing qualifications and rising employee skill requirements remain a present decisive feature and will remain so for the future. The political formation of this business sector is therefore due to its mounting significance of up most importance. The representative framework of the trade unions expands thereby beyond the sphere of the firm and, thereby, explicitly involves industrial, innovation and qualification policy areas.

Political action in this area requires the discussion with all participants and affected persons from labour and business spheres. A decreasing representation ratio of the social partners would complicate the traditional patterns of policy finding, formulation and implementation on a long term basis. Within this context it is becoming increasingly apparent that such a discussion is more and more dependent from the participants' expertise and, furthermore, these are the basis for deciding on the involvement in the decision-making process. A qualified representation of interests and the possibility of influencing the political formation in these areas presuppose a profound knowledge of the problems at large.

 

Scientific-technological progress and locational development: A comparative study on the conditions of regionalisation, technological-industrial innovation and their effects on the economy and employment

Political efforts in Jena, Thuringia, to profit from the research findings and applications of modern biotechnologies, can draw upon focuses earlier established by the Freistaat (Free State of Thuringia) in this area; since 1990 Thuringia has received more financial support for such research by the Federal government than both its adjacent Federal States, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, put together. Given this significant figure, the conditions for economically interesting applications of research results become potentially very important. It is, however, striking, that Thuringia - in contrast to Federal States such as Hessen or North-Rhine-Westphalia - does not posses of competitive pharmaceutical or chemical industries.

Furthermore, evidence from other regions such as Bavaria with the area around Munich, the Research Triangle Park (Raleigh, North Carolina) or Edinburgh (Scotland) shows that international market leading developments, following the implantation of big enterprises, are possible even outside the traditional centres of industrial production. However, these developments were realised over a period of up to three decades and established in the general framework of a newly developing technology. Further examples, such as the Pittsburgh Conurbation, however, demonstrate that research competence does not necessarily imply positive effects for a given regions economy and employment. Here, technological competence in the area of artificial intelligence has, rather, led to an application of innovative developments outside the region.

The Jena Project aims at a comparative analysis of the relations between the progress of science and technology and technology-based industrial innovation. On the grounds of developments and experiences made in other locations, the Jena Project evaluates prospects and conditions for similar developments (in Thuringia). In comparative case studies particular attention will be paid to potential effects on employment respective to the requirements for regional labour markets. Thus, the contribution, which processes of innovation may make to the solution of unemployment, can be demonstrated.

Based on empirically acquired insights into the systematics underlying processes of innovation and their tendencies towards regionalisation, a better understanding of the context of state policies and advanced socio-economic developments is expected.