Regional Diversity and Local Development in the New Member States

In economies once dominated by centralised planning and large-scale enterprise, models of local development can play a crucial role in restructuring and revitalising the economy. This book contributes to the topical debate concerning the economics of European integration, by focusing on the EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe, and their convergence to a Western-European form of advanced capitalist economy. It recognises the significant role of local development and SME development to socio-economic transformations in the post-communist societies. However, it is increasingly acknowledged that the reality of transformation involves divergence as well as convergence, and the reproduction of deep-rooted historical disparities as well as innovation and creativity. The book includes a wide comparative and in-depth analysis, through a substantial number of new case-studies, it provides a critical reading of the regionally and locally existing socio-economic disparities, which constrain and facilitate local development within the EU enlargement. This volume includes contributions from a wide range of experts on transition economics, entrepreneurship and local development, and will be of great interest to scholars and policy-makers in these crucial areas.