This paper deals with one particular representation of the increasing interest in regional issues in contemporary Europe: the proliferation of academic studies and consultancy reports aiming to assess the attractiveness and competitiveness of cities and regions. At the heart of the paper is a review of a number of such studies. Some of them set out to identify the 'hottest' regions for investors, often presenting their results in various forms of rankings or league tables. Others try to identify systemic transformation in the overall patterns of urban and regional change in Europe. Most studies, however, regardless of whether they see regional development as primarily driven by endogenous or exogenous processes, focus on the regions' set of factor endowments : the more richly endowed a region is, the greater is its chance to prosper in a situation where regions are seen to be engaged in a European - or even global - competition over development opportunities. In the latter part of the paper, we challenge this view. With reference to current research on industrial dynamics, we argue that sustainable regional strength is built on a continuously upgraded knowledge base, rather than on general factor endowments. Furthermore, we question the validity of the metaphor according to which regions compete with each other to develop.
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