Peripheries, Mobilities and e-Technologies: The Rise of Regional Social Network

The mobility of highly qualified people is a major issue for regional development and represents a matter of particular concern for peripheral regions, which tend to be characterized by the out migration of their graduates (brain drain). While regional policies have traditionally focused on the labor market and framework conditions in order to foster territorial development, a new kind of instrument is emerging: the regional social network. This approach to policymaking no longer considers highly qualified people leaving their home region as a loss, but sees them as potential resources to be mobilized and capitalized at a distance. Based on six case studies, this paper elaborates a typology of regional social networks and analyzes their governance and management. It situates this new approach in a more general debate on regional innovation policies with regard to the specific needs of peripheral regions in a time of growing spatial mobility
and the ubiquitous use of e-technologies.