OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

1. USING A TERRITORY’S CULTURE TO PROMOTE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
preferred to convert its old factories to house its new activities, rather than
demolish them); development of mutual support networks; introduction of
institutions that associated education closely with technological culture, as at
Chivasso; greater attention to workers with a degree of seniority who could take
on new activities; revival of knowledge and know-how, for example, in the
moviemaking and audiovisual fields.
The second has to do with fairly diversified industrial settings. While there may
be a dominant technology or activity, there is a capacity to adapt, so that new products
and services can be steadily created. The entrepreneurial culture here is one of
adaptation and responding to challenges associated with the necessary shift to new
activities or technologies (as in Liège, Nottingham or St. Etienne).
The North Rhine-Westphalia region, long a byword for European industrialisation,
provides a good illustration of this culture and the way it has changed to the benefit
of local development. The region is no longer on the list of the big European
steelmaking, chemistry, mining and pharmaceutical concerns, and workers
themselves no longer see their job security as dependent on a single big company.
Whereas there were some 600,000 SMEs in the region 20 years ago, there are now
2.4 million.
The entrepreneurial culture is not tied to a single industry, and it strives to adapt
to new technological and financial conditions, while also stressing the importance
of business services. Local discussion forums, such as the one at Oberhausen (Forum
for the Future of SMEs), are giving expression to needs and putting forth proposals
that take quality as a basic objective. Development corporations combine the
activities of the former municipal business services and the interests of private
enterprises to offer new services and to foster entrepreneurship. “One-stop
shops” have been created for new entrepreneurs. Networks that offer themselves
as alternatives but that can in fact provide an entree to the mainstream have been
organised (such as the Netz für Selbstverwaltung, “Network for Self-management “).
They enlist alternative enterprises, organised most frequently as cooperatives -
retail stores handling ecological products, bicycle repair shops, equitable insurance
offices, messaging services, environmental consulting firms, retail stores - in
cooperation to promote sustainable development.
Beyond these variations, there is a cultural vision that embraces a few fundamental
principles: associating workers with the decision-making process, ensuring a
sustainable environment regardless of the business activity, or providing on-thejob
worker training.
The third variety of entrepreneurial culture is to be found in rural areas, which
will differ from each other depending on whether they are home to industrial
34 CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005