Introduction: border crossings: local and regional economic development on the US/Canadian border.

• Author: Reese, Laura A.

Abstract

Even in the absence of formal plans or political union, governance strategies that extend beyond individual communities and, in some cases, across borders are emerging in North America. Recognizing the significance of these multi-level governance strategies will be the cornerstone to understanding local economic development issues in the next decade (Clarke, this volume).

This symposium is based on the premise that local economic development is increasingly a regional phenomena and that regional ties are just as likely to cross national as local borders. Here, the focus is on US/Canadian cross-border patterns and relationships although one paper extends this analysis to Europe. Susan Clarke highlights the importance of cross-border relationships, to local economic development in an age of fiber optic communication, mobile capital, and an increasingly internationalized market place. Thus, given that local economies are increasingly interconnected, to each other and to international systems and forces, that localities now interact with global actors directly, and that international agreements are designed to facilitate multi-nation regional economies, a broader investigation of impacts on local economies is necessary.

While much academic attention has been focused on the "regionalization" effects of the European Union, far less focus has been placed on cross-border regionalism in North America. The four papers in this symposium are designed to rectify this lack of attention by addressing several specific questions:

* To what extent do regional cross-border relations exist among localities in the US and Canada?

* How do these relationships compare to those within the European Union?

* Are there regional patterns in the use of local economic development policies?

* Is there local economic development policy transmission across the US/Canadian border?

* To what extent do cities in the same region cooperate in economic development?

* Which "borders" are most important in the context of local economic development: regional, state/provincial, or national?

* What types of trans-national cooperative efforts are taking place in local development or growth management?

Susan Clarke's paper provides the theoretical framework for the discussion. Using the Cascadia region as her focus, she identifies five "necessary conditions" for the development of regional governance regimes. These conditions lead to the "causal stories and policy paradigms,"...