Territorial cohesion and the European model of society

Bachtler, John and Polverari, Laura; Faludi, A, ed. (2007) Territorial cohesion and the European model of society. In: Delivering Territorial Cohesion: European Cohesion Policy and the European Model of Society. Lincoln Institute Books, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Ms (US).

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Abstract

The title indicates that fundamental ideas about Europe, with its distinct “model of society,” lie behind the concept of territorial cohesion, which can be understood as a goal of spatial equity that tends to favor development-in-place over selective migration to locations of greater opportunity. This approach contrasts with an American social model that views the equity principle behind territorial cohesion to be diametrically opposed to the efficiency principle based on free mobility of labor. The European model is a strategy based on “need” rather than “potential,” as one conference participant noted. A willingness to make this trade-off between potentially higher productivity and a particularly rooted conception of place is indicative of the difference between the two models of society.