Abstract

VAZ, Domingos  and  NOFRE, Jordi. Urban innovation in peripheral territories: a critical balance of the region of Beira Interior. Finisterra [online]. 2019, n.111, pp.5-19. ISSN 0430-5027.  https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis17102.

Since the adhesion of the country to the EEC in 1986, local and regional development policies in Portugal have enabled the improvement of transport infrastructures and the modernization of the productive system across the whole country. Yet interestingly, the National Program of Spatial Planning Policy (2018) aims to consolidate regional polycentrism towards territorial reequilibrium . Therefore, the promotion of new economic, cultural and demographic dynamics appears as fundamental for the sustainable future of low-density territories in the interior of the country. This article explores how the negative economic and demographic regression that have characterized Beira Interior over these past decades is currently being challenged by the promotion of the knowledge and innovation economy in this low density territory in central Portugal. As an example of this, the paper presents some insights in regards to the recent development of the Living Lab Cova da Beira. The article concludes by underlining the need to take advantage of the current context of participatory and collaborative spatial planning and management at a local, regional, national and European level in order to strengthen cooperation between urban centres and the knowledge and innovation activities of the region, in the current socio-economic context of Europe.

Keywords : Low-density territories; urban innovation; Living lab; Cova da Beira; Beira Interior.

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