Overijssel
Overijssel exhibits secondary succession after industrial collapse: Twente's textile industry (44,000→6,000 workers) transformed via University of Twente into a circular textile innovation hub.
Overijssel's Twente region provides a second case study in Dutch industrial succession, paralleling Limburg's coal transition but with textiles as the collapsed ecosystem. By 1950, 44,000 workers spun cotton in Twente's factories; by 1985, only 6,000 remained. Enschede alone lost 30,000 jobs as the industry disintegrated in the 1960s, and most factory complexes were demolished in the following decades.
The recovery strategy followed the Limburg template: create a university to catalyze transformation. The University of Twente was established specifically to rebuild the regional economy, and its spin-off innovation hub Novel-T (formerly Kennispark Twente) now nurtures technology startups. The strategy emphasizes diversification rather than finding a single replacement industry—adaptive radiation into multiple niches instead of specializing again in one vulnerable sector.
Today Twente positions itself within the Dutch Circular Textile Valley, one of five national hubs aiming to achieve a fully circular textile economy by 2050. The irony is striking: the region that lost its textile industry to global competition now leads efforts to redesign textiles for sustainability. During the 2024 European Week of Regions and Cities, Overijssel's regional minister hosted a session where 11 European textile regions called for mandatory use of recycled materials in clothing. The province's Regio Deal with the national government (2019-2025) funds this transition through technology development, labor market reform, and circular economy initiatives—essentially engineering the conditions for a new economic ecosystem to establish itself.