Universities and regional development policies

The debate about what development means, especially in developing countries, included in the post-development theoretical discussion is important (see for instance Escobar, 1995 or McEwen, 2009 among others). The discussion about the pertinence and the applicability of the concept in different contexts is imperative to be included here (Pike et al., 2006;

Hudson, 2007), in particular some critical points about the pertinence of the concept in a developing countries context.

The role that public universities and higher education institutions in general can play in the review and redefinition of regional policies is relevant. Christopherson and Clark (2007) pointed out that the recent demand of universities actuation at the regional level, creates a space for work because in the absence of local and regional institutional capacities, universities have become economic engines in charge of the regional development process.

Christopherson and Clark (2007) added that universities can be part of the regional innovation process, but they cannot be in charge of the solution of regional problems. For example, lack of infrastructure such as transportation or telecommunications, difficulties connecting the region to the global market or inherited deficiencies of public education.

On the other hand, Christopherson and Clark (2007) connect the topic of regional policies with that of the labour force and labour market, explaining that economies such as Germany have been more effective in terms of production and distribution because of their attention to middle skill workers. This attention positively influences the regional economy as a whole.

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Chapter 5 in this thesis compiles information about the specific problem of few qualified jobs demanded by the new economy, while the big masses of occupations are available for workers with only high school education. On this point, the percentage of the population deprived of access to high school mentioned in the subsection above, is part of the problems to be solved by developing countries in the near future. There are not only teaching resources but also research and social action initiatives to solve the diversity of roles that universities can play at the regional level.

In summary, the role of universities in regional policies can be diverse. This research assumes that universities are not political organizations nor the regional institutions.

However, universities have to be part of “scientific knowledge responsibility”

(Hinkelammert, 2003:365).

According to this author, in contrast to the irresponsible use of science in globalization (such as all applied systems against the natural environment and human life preservation), the role of universities is the promotion of a “new culture of responsibility” (Idem: 374).

2.6 Summary

This chapter explained the theoretical foundations of this research. The strengths and weaknesses of the KBE model were explored. Some questions posed were: 1) what kind of economy is a KBE; 2) what is its interpretation of regional development models; 3) what is higher education participation in KBE; and 4) what are the requirements of this model in a developing country context. The next diagram depicts a synthesis of important concerns of this review. (Source for Diagram 2.3: Own elaboration)

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Diagram 2.3.Higher education, Knowledge-based Economy and regions

The KBE model has been related to the production and transference of knowledge as a commodity as part of the new economic model. Leydesdorff (2009) considers KBE as an umbrella concept; a metaphor which has been also politically successful. This success is related to an intensive promotion of this model, conducted by international organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank.

There is also an important emphasis on the relevance of high-qualified “human capital”

(Aubert, 2006) and the important role specified for education institutions.

The institutional dimension related to the rise of regional policies to promote regional networks is also relevant.

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Tödtling and Trippl (2005) explained that regional innovation policies do not have an ideal model to promote innovation. However many models have been proposed from different approaches in order to promote territorial innovation (Moulaert and Nussbaumer, 2005b).

In the KBE, a learning region model has been encouraged to promote regional development. This model recommends promoting development in regions via innovation networks that can be cross-border (Rutten et al, 2003; Maskell and Törnqvist, 1999).

However, the learning region -along with other territorial innovation models- assumes economic growth as equivalent to development. This equivalence considers non-economic variables such as social networks, while paradoxically the social dimension of development is not included. An important characteristic of this model is its market approach (Moulaert and Nussbaumer, 2005b).

There is also pressure on higher education to be part of the regional institutional structure to promote development in the KBE context. Two roles for higher education were evaluated.

First, under the triple helix university-government-industry model as an example of a generative role, and second, an engagement and regional associative governance model as an example of a developmental role (Gunasekara, 2006).

In terms of a generative role, Etzkowitz (2011) pointed out the third academic revolution when he explains the third mission of universities as entrepreneurs. He also described how university and industry links have to be evolving, from individual initiatives such as research groups, to organizational structures, such as incubator projects.

Gunasekara (2006) pointed out the weaknesses of the triple helix model because of the unbalanced participation of universities-governments-industries in the development process.

At the same time, the developmental role was correlated to the kind of region, university and institutional framework.

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Gunasekara also mentioned important examples to explain how the core regions and core universities are not usually related to the regional or even the national context development, because research funding is progressively more connected to global firms than to national projects. Conversely, new small universities are not invited to participate in community organizations, because small communities’ organizations are based on trust and universities’ staff members are not part of local communities.

Both critics of the triple helix model and the engagement and associative governance model are very important as part of recent debate about universities’ role in the new economy and in regional development as well. Simultaneously, the promotion of both roles confronts universities with challenges. Entrepreneurial universities contain market approach values, while associative governance roles are pressuring universities to play regional institutional roles.

Finally, section 2.5 made use of the social region model, which is a community based perspective, in order to explore options to address uneven regional development. This review pointed out the necessity for new conceptualization of social networks, differentiated territories and competitiveness in developing countries context; in order to include community based ontology.

Competitiveness has to be redefined in order to be specific about resources such as the natural environment. For example, in peripheral areas pressure for urbanization is destroying the natural environment, which is not considered a resource for competitiveness in the new economy.

Opposite to the dichotomy between rural and urban, there is a proposal to redefine the conflict as core and peripheries areas. Core and peripheries can be described as differentiated territories (Coraggio, 2003).

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This category is useful for future analyses because it proposes how core-peripheries are a cross-border phenomenon and it also proposes the study of peripheries, as a differentiated territory is a crosscutting notion, given that peripheries have similar characteristics everywhere. Peripheries are territories relegated in the new economy because their historical vocation, and the fact that their population is not adequately qualified to adjust into a new economy activity.

Finally, the role of the universities is controversial because they are not monolithic institutions, and hence it is not possible to define a single specific role for them. However it is proposed here their critical responsibility in terms of scientific knowledge preservation.

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Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The present research takes the uniqueness of a distance learning university in a developing country, (UNED of Costa Rica) and explores it by conducting a case study. It is explored from a critical perspective on the KBE model.

The main goal is to illustrate a specific experience of a developing country in the context of the KBE along with the role of higher education institutions. It is of particular interest to study the role that public universities could play in the future to redefine an alternative model for knowledge management as a base for development.

To accomplish the proposed methodological approach, countrywide statistical data such as regional indexes, types of economic activities and employment rates at the canton level were firstly collected to explore labour market characteristics. Secondly, discourses from different key actors about KBE have been explored through in-depth interviews. The goal of the interviews was to explore the KBE dynamic in Costa Rica and the participation of different social actors in different networks such as universities, institutions, enterprises and community organizations. The mixed method approach, starting with secondary quantitative data to define the territorial context and then focusing the analyses on qualitative information, guides this research to a more interpretative version of the institutional dimension of the KBE.

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3.2 Justification

This research contains personal and professional motivations. The engagement that public higher education institutions in Costa Rica have with communities in general and poor communities also inspired some of these motivations in particular. As a social psychologist in my early professional jobs and later as an urban designer, working since the late 1980s in the private sector, local government and NGO community projects and teaching at universities, I gained a pertinent background to conduct this research. Simultaneously, universities encountered a new scenario, incorporating internal and external transformations related to the prominence of the market approach discourse.

In the early 2000s attending an enrolment process of UNED, I applied for a job in the Planning Vice-rectory. The institutional tasks in relation to territories and the declared social role of this higher education institution gave me the opportunity to integrate professional experiences with institutional tasks.

In this case study, I would like to present a distance learning university studying itself not only from the context of national demands, but at the same time, from the different roles of higher education institutions determined by global trends. The study of universities as subjects themselves (Goddard and Chatterton, 1999) or the comparative studies of the universities specificities is also imperative to understand the complex context of universities transformation (Margison, 2006; Ibarra, 2003). This research will be a contribution in a new debate related to public universities’ role in terms of regional development in a small country.

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