A vision of a more sustainable Slovakia in the light of participatory processes

sustainable development in Slovakia as an increasingly urgent topic
resonating across scientific disciplines. Specifically, it deals with the
participation processes, which were realized in 2022-2023 under the
auspices of the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and
Informatization of the Slovak Republic (MIRRI), and the second part
of which was implemented at the Institute of Management of the
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava using its expert and
organizational capacities. The mentioned activities follow the
strategic document entitled Vision and Development Strategy of
Slovakia 2030 and are related to the preparation of the document
Vision and Development Strategy of the Slovak Republic until 2050
– Slovakia 2050.
In the light of the outputs from the participation processes, the paper
deals, among other things, with the necessity of accelerating the
transformation of regional economies from the industrial towards the
post-industrial society, including sustainable innovation-oriented
circular economy less dependent on raw materials and energy, with
the simultaneous optimization of the system of decision-making and
effective management, based on partnership and division of
responsibilities between different levels and various actors of
sustainable development. It also points out that discussions about this
vision have the potential to significantly frame the creation of
concepts of integrated territorial innovation-oriented clusters, the
urgency of which - in parallel with the frustration of the
ineffectiveness of fragmented development processes and activities -
is felt at different levels by practically all participating subjects of the
professional discourse analyzed in this paper. The results of the
participation process fully confirm that Slovakia is not adequately
prepared to respond to the challenges associated with all the
necessary transformation processes.