STRONG SOCIAL TIES IN EUROPEAN COAL REGIONS AND THE CHALLENGES OF INNOVATION IN PLANNING

Abstract

Since 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement promotes energy transition in the European Union. It has been  decided  to  close  coal mines and electric plants until 2038. The European Commission estimates loss of 160 thousand direct jobs  in  41  micro-regions, a potential economic disaster. European regional development  funds  are   fostering   innovation   projects   in   the   productive planning of coal regions. This work synthesizes the first data of ongoing research that aims to map the  reactions  of  the  actors affected by the decision-making processes until now mainly conducted  at   the   national  and  supranational  levels.  It   uses   a framework proposed by the geographer Gernot Grabher, who identified the relevance of strong social ties in the  formation   of the Ruhr Valley regional economy, to interpret the traditional low capacity for innovation in  the   coal   regions.   Based   on   the growing specialized bibliography, this work briefly describes three cases of  European  coal  regions  in  which  strong  ties   that permeate workers' representations and local political alliances exemplify the challenge for subnational   institutions   to   renew territorial planning. Carbon regions maintain a tradition of unionizing workers, experience in  collective   protests   and   violent demonstrations in the struggle with security forces. The strong ties  between l ocal  actors  make  the  planned  transition,  until 2038, a more than complex problem, what can be described as  an  archipelago  of  laboratories   for   innovation   in   territorial planning.