Gordian Knots and Alexandrian Solutions The perspectives of the XXI Century THE TRIPLE EUROPEAN MEZZOGIORNO Bruno Amoroso Docent Emeritus Universit

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Gordian Knots and Alexandrian Solutions The
perspectives of the XXI CenturyTHE TRIPLE
EUROPEAN MEZZOGIORNO Bruno AmorosoDocent
EmeritusUniversità di RoskildeDanimarca

• Warsaw November 2008

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The Gordian Knots
1970s The warning of the Club of Rome and its
impact on - the scientific community
research agenda (energy, environment,
sustainability, etc.) - the institutions
political agenda (sectoral approach, global
agencies, governance) TOP DOWN
APPROACH
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Outcomes

• Power to global agencies and institutions (OCSE,
  FMI, WB, WTO, etc)
• Weakening of local actors, regions and national
  states
• Promotion of universal (western) values. Human
  rights strategies

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1990s - EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

• PROBLEMS
• EC democratic, social and culture deficit
• Risks of fragmentation
• ANSWERS
• ECs internal cohesion and economic cooperation
  with the Wider Europe
• ALTERNATIVE POLICY CHOICES
• Polycentric model of meso-regions (DATAR, ARL,
  EU-FAST)
• or
• Eurocentric model of centralization around the
  core of the EC (Globalization, marginalization
  and social exclusion)

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IMPLEMENTED EU POLICIESECs Policies
Funds transfer from strong to weaker
regionsImpact on Triple Mezzogiorno- no
results in development- increasing inequality
and dependency- weakening of the local
production systems and markets-institutional and
private corruptionRISE OF GORDIAN
KNOTSFinance, Technology, Governance
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QUALIFYING ASPECTS OF EUs TRIPLE MEZZOGIORNO

• Permanent dualism (culture, social, economy)
• Missing integration in the national market
• Weak links to Western Europe
• Traditional bridge role toward regions outside
  the EU (Eastern Europe and Mediterranean
  countries)
• Failure in industrialization (Cathedral in the
  desert in Italy and Stalinistic
  industrialization in Poland and East Germany)

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ALEXANDRIAN SOLUTION

• Culture-Nature- Production Systems. Integrated
  solutions at community level.
• From finance to real economy
• Polycentrism as permanent basis for development
• Territorial and community based markets and
  production systems BOTTOM UP APPROACH FROM
  LOCAL TO WORLD WIDE
• Regions of Europe institutional and
  partecipation level (contribution by Giovanni
  dOrio)
• Social economies and enterprises (Pierluca
  Ghibelli contribution)