Flanders Ahead, Wallonia Behind (But Catching Up): Reconstructing Communities Through Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Making

摘要

Drawing on a documentary analysis of two socioeconomic policy programs, one Flemish (“Vlaanderen in Actie”), the otherWalloon (“Marshall Plans”), and a discourse analysis of how these programs are received in one Flemish and one Francophonequality newspaper, this article illustrates how Flanders and Wallonia both seek to become top-performing knowledge-basedeconomies (KBEs). The article discerns a number of discursive repertoires, such as “Catching up,” which policy actorsdraw on to legitimize or question the transformation of Flanders and Wallonia into KBEs. The “Catching up” repertoireplaces Flanders resolutely ahead of Wallonia in the global race toward knowledge, excellence, and growth, but suggests thatWallonia may, in due course, overtake Flanders as a top competitive region. Given the expectations and fears that “Catchingup” evokes among Flemish and Walloon policy actors, the repertoire serves these actors as a flexible discursive resource tomake sense of, and shape, their collective futures and their regional identities. The article’s findings underline the simultaneityof, and the interplay between, globalizing forces and particularizing tendencies, as Flanders and Wallonia develop with a globalKBE in region-specific ways.