Regional Innovation and the Consolidation of Local Public Spheres

Abstract

The starting point of the paper is that the local public spheres in Hungary became more important as a consequence of the building up of the local institution systems of democracy, and especially of the emergence of civil society, as well as of the support of regional development by the state and the EU. The growing interest for the local topics is indicated by the consolidation of local newspapers, internet forums and broadcasting corporations at the expense of the national newspapers, forums and broadcasting corporations. The civil organizations established in order to foster the development of settlements and regions have integrated into the local political life at the expense of national political parties, and they could make their representatives elected in local municipal elections. The evolvement and strengthening of the local public sphere, appearing in these forms, ensure the dialogues, debates, conflictsolving and cooperation of the economic and social actors of the smaller and bigger regions, which want to shape the future of their regions. This considerable strengthening of local public spheres establishes the future development of settlements and regions on the basis of decisions of local population, as well as the evolution and implementation of the regional innovation, including the specification of the local economic and social identity. In the context of regional innovation, the paper analyzes the effects of the geographical and social mobility of young people who search for jobs and take part in the higher education, with special regard to the emergence of development centres and their innovative role in different regions. The strengthening of local public spheres and the establishment of development and innovation centres are accompanied by the flow and accumulation of explicit and tacit knowledge, fostered also by the geographical and social mobility.