European Integration and New Forms of Uneven Development: But Not the End of Territorially Distinctive Capitalisms in Europe

Abstract

Historically, capitalism developed territorially specific forms in Europe. The project of the European Union can be seen as one that seeks to erode this specificity. There is evidence of a tendency towards regulatory convergence but also of counter-tendencies, partly a product of the contradictory character of EU expansion and deepening economic integration. The end product has been a multiscalar system of governance and regulation, conjoining the EU, national and sub-national scales. There is also some evidence of convergence in national economic structures and performance. However, there is no evidence of convergence in economic performance and structures at sub-national levels. The legacies of past uneven development, allied to the effects of intensified market competition as companies seek to exploit differences between places, have produced new forms of uneven development.