Fiscal Austerity and Innovation in Local Governance in Europe

In 2007, when the consequences of the financial breakdown where barely visible, no one could foresee the consequences of those economic turmoils for the European Union (EU). Even today the full effects of the crisis remain unclear and comprehensive analysis are hardly feasible. Specific empirical research on a smaller scale such as regional studies are hence extremely important. The political scientists Carlos Nunes Silva and Jan Bucek have edited the volume Fiscal Austerity and innovation in local Governance in Europe in order to provide such an empiric compilation. This article provides a review of the edited volume. After sketching the foundations of European regional politics and discussing the central aspects of Europe's regional agenda, the book's content is critically revised and discussed. The disciplinary array of the volume's articles ranges from urban studies, policy analysis and regional studies to jurisprudential articles. While a critical revision is at the core of the review, the content of each chapter is only briefly presented. The value of the reviewed volume lies in its rich, topical and informing content, but the lack of analytic sharpness of the framing chapters made a critical discussion of the volume necessary. While the editors of the volume suggest that the crisis has deeply impacted European politics and somehow transformed its core values, they are not concerned enough about the quality of this transformation. The emergence of anti-libertarian, socially regressive and politically narrowing policy agendas remain notes in the margin. While those weaknesses may create a wrong impression about the effects of the European crisis, a critical revision of the volume fosters new insights on the subject matter and elucidates new starting-points for further research. From this perspective the volume provides a rich content of diverse articles, which enable further examination of the subject. This article provides the reader with several approaches towards regional policies in the EU.