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Technology Parks and Regional Development in the Southern European Periphery

The Andalucia Case

University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK

Ian Stone

University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK

Marisol Esteban

University of Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain

Technology parks have been widely embraced as a mechanism for creating local high-technology com plexes in the context of regional development policy. Such policies are constructed on the basis that the creation of an appropriate infrastructure can induce cumulative development of technologically-related activities. In theory it is expected that the growth process will be characterized by a high degree of innovation, the application of locally-generated knowledge, flexible forms of organization and inter dependence between enterprises. Previous research has shown that there is considerable variability in the forms of development which occur on technology parks, and a debate has developed concerning the potential for the decentralization of high technology industry to peripheral locations. While many tech nology parks may not attain the ideal in terms of technological synergies, they can nonetheless produce significant regional development outcomes. This is demonstrated through a case study of the Andalucia Technology Park situated on the outskirts of the City of Milaga in the south of Spain. In this case, the high technology label has plainly acted as a magnet for public sector funding, which has been used to create the kind of modern customized infra structure demanded by inward investors. The initial 'cost-per-job' has undoubtedly been high, but the availability of financial support from the public sector suggests that expansions of existing projects and further inward investment are likely to occur. This interpretation of technology parks has important implications for our understanding of regional policy in the 1990s. Many technology parks, in reality, are used to produce what can be regarded as less ambitious but significant regional policy outcomes (i.e. job-creation through relocation and inward investment) and are perhaps more appropriately judged in those terms.

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