This volume offers a fascinating insight into the continuities and discontinuities in the formation of identities in the Low Countries and its neighbouring countries. It is an important contribution to the ongoing debates about national and other identities.

‘Nationalism’ may be a modern phenomenon, but national identities are not. The medieval and early modern Low Countries are a case in point. In this myriad of political and clerical territories, identities proved dynamic. Princes and rebels, soldiers and poets, all played a part in the shaping of new imagined communities. The essays in this volume show how regional and interregional identities developed, old ones survived, and novel ones came into being. They offer a fascinating insight into the continuities and discontinuities in the formation of (national) identities in the Low Countries and its neighbouring countries – and are an important contribution to the ongoing debates about national and other identities.

How regions and cities adapt to a Network Society and a globalized environment, the policies they pursue and how structures of governance are transformed in the pursuit of those policies are major themes in this volume. These issues are addressed with specific reference to the Nordic regions of Europe. Covering the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden plus the Faroe Islands, this volume charts the changes in networking activities and related development initiatives that have taken place over the last ten years. This means analysing regions in their pursuit of new policies, partnerships and styles of representation. Through this process regions are becoming partners and players in European integration and a movement of integrative regionalism is taking shape which is different from inward looking identity regionalism or self-centred competitive regionalism and takes regions beyond lobbying in Brussels.

Title page -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION -- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -- 1. VISION OF A COMPREHENSIVE RHCN -- 2. RHCNs - MAKING IT HAPPEN -- 3. RHCNs - THE FUTURE (1998 - 2002) -- 4. RHCNs - A PERSPECTIVE BY COUNTRY -- Appendix A: Glossary and Abbreviations -- Appendix B: Healthcare Standardisation Organisations -- Appendix C: References -- Appendix D: Description of six EU IVFP projects building RHCNs

How regions and cities adapt to a Network Society and a globalized environment, the policies they pursue and how structures of governance are transformed in the pursuit of those policies are major themes in this volume. These issues are addressed with specific reference to the Nordic regions of Europe. Covering the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden plus the Faroe Islands, this volume charts the changes in networking activities and related development initiatives that have taken place over the last ten years. This means analysing regions in their pursuit of new policies, partnerships and styles of representation. Through this process regions are becoming partners and players in European integration and a movement of integrative regionalism is taking shape which is different from inward looking identity regionalism or self-centred competitive regionalism and takes regions beyond lobbying in Brussels.

This report is written within the framework of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts for the setting up of the Pan-European Ecological Network. It gives an overview of the concept of the ecological network dealing with nature conservation at national and regional levels. In addition, it presents the experiments carried out in 17 European countries and highlights the need to put ecological measures into practice by integrating them into planning policies.

Building on the idea of inclusive learning, which entails a process of shared prosperity across the globe, this work looks at funamental changes at the start of the new milliennium, as innovation is gaining increasing importance for local economic prosperity and the emergence of learning societies.