Agents of Change in Old-industrial Regions in Europe

The ambition of the international joint research project Agents of change in old-industrial regions (ACORE) is to explore how old industrial regions of Europe can create new development paths leading to prosperity, strengthening long-term stability and socio-economic cohesion of the EU. The existing theories suggest that less privileged regions can utilise various exogenous and endogenous sources of growth: some may benefit from the existing strengths, while other may discover innovative development paths to achieve economic and social rebounding. It remains less clear, what is the role of actors, policies, strategies, and institutions in the process of socio-economic revival. Who are the actors instrumental for change? Where are they located institutionally and what resources can they deploy? How are they connected? Why do positive changes take place in one place but not in other, despite their structural similarities? Is there a ‘window of opportunity’ to implement changes?

Agents of Change in Old-industrial Regions in Europe (ACORE) is an international joint research project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation through Challanges for Europe funding scheme. The duration of the grant is 36 months (January 2019 – December 2021). The project is coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig, Germany.