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Download ArticleFor 2022, this Editorial Team has decided and proposed to the regional studies community the overarching theme of Sustainable Regional Futures with the following topics: Issue 12: The transition towards a green economy and deals (online) Issue 13: Pathways to a regional circular economy Issue 14: Smart regions, sustainability-driven regional policies, and the use […]

Download ArticleEditorial Issue 12 By Eduardo Oliveira, Robert Bowen, Stefania Fiorentino The overarching theme for the three issues of Regions in 2022 is Sustainable Regional Futures. We concluded 2021 with the publication of Issue 11 on Regions in Transition III: Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This third and last issue of 2021 (see also Issue […]

Download ArticleBy Calvin Jones (email), Cardiff Business School, Cardiff, Wales, UK “We hope that what Wales is doing today the world will do tomorrow. Action, more than words, is the hope for our current and future generations.” Nikhil Seth, Head of UN Sustainable Development, May 2015 Introduction Blimey! It’s fairly rare that a Welsh economist […]

Download ArticleBy Riccardo Crescenzi, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK,  Fabrizio De Filippis, Department of Economics, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy, Mara Giua, Department of Economics, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy; and Cristina Vaquero-Piñeiro, Department of Economics, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy The Geographical Indication […]

Download ArticleBy Takhmina Akhmedova, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Much of the debate on climate change adaptation has focused on the various aspects of funding for adaptation and mitigation activities. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) recognized the importance of climate […]

Download ArticleBy Jeremy Chapman, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany While world leaders struggle to coordinate an appropriate response to the increasingly severe ramifications of global climate change, sustainable transformation projects are gaining a hold on a grassroots level in small cities and towns (SCTs) […]

Download ArticleBy Raissa Joplo, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Cities and markets transform to conform to shifts in global standards. These regulations seek to be part of a bigger, concerted effort to address resource limitations and climate change. This article will look at how […]

Download ArticleBy Elena Pugach, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Based on the IPCC 2014 report, fossil fuel use and industrial processes make up the largest share (65%) of global greenhouse gas emissions (Edenhofer, 2015). As a result, an important piece of the strategy to […]

Download ArticleBy Yusuke Otake, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany The Farm to Fork Strategy that lies at the heart of the European Green Deal states that “the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of a robust and resilient food system that functions in all […]

Download ArticleBy Henry Watt, Bachelor Student of Geography, Studies in Secondary Education at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany. (references used in this article are embedded in the text as hyperlinks) The anthropogenic climate change has already led to increased frequency and intensity of climate and weather extremes including hot extremes, heavy precipitation events, droughts, and fire […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: General Reflections on the Festival “Regions in Recovery Second Edition 2022: Re-imagining Regions” By Andreea-Loreta Cercleux, Associate Professor PhD Habil., University of Bucharest, Romania Between March 21st – April 1st 2022 I participated at the e-Festival “Regions in Recovery Second Edition: Re-imagining Regions”. The event was […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022 Session: Addressing racial, ethnic, gender and other divides in cities and regions By Yifan Zhang, Renmin University of China, and Ana Gutiérrez Sanchis, Francisco de Vitoria University, Spain. Yifan was thrilled to have joined as an RSA member in 2021. After attending one of their public lectures, she did […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022. Report on the special session “Citizen-led inclusive recovery for the regions. Alternative to the winner-takes-all economic models” By Patrycja Grzyś, PhD student and Research Assistant at the University of Lodz, Poland  COVID-19 has deepened inequalities. This is one of the theses presented in the report UN-Habitat […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022 – Reflections of the Festival on 28th March 2022 By Armelina Lila (Fushekati), Lecturer, Department of Finance, Banking and Accounting, Mediterranean University of Albania As a first-time participant and presenter, the Regions in Recovery Second Edition substantially helped familiarizing with the newest activities of various academics […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: Reimagining Regions By Evans Korang Adjei, PhD, Umeå University, Sweden. The second edition of Regions in Recovery (RinR22) began with a plenary on the topic of The Russian-China Interface: One Border, Two Regions with Franck Billé of the University of California Berkeley, USA, and Caroline Humphrey […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery Second Edition 2022 Global e-Festival By Aliyu Kawu (email), Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning and Centre for Human Settlements and Urban Development, Federal University of Technology, Minna 920003, Nigeria This year would mark my tenth anniversary of been a member of RSA and I am glad that […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022 Thinking over the keyboard: a policy-maker’s view of an online conference on Regions in Recovery By Dimitri Corpakis, Senior Research Fellow, South-East European Research Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece. American traditional conventions used to last for about a week gathering thousands of individuals in face-to-face (F2F) meetings. However […]

Download ArticleReport on Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: NoRSA Special sessions: Regional industrial restructuring and new path development – assets, agency, and policy By Teodora Dogaru, Lecturer in Leibniz University Hanover, Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences This year, on a state-of-the-art e-platform and with innovative socializing e-rooms, RSA Festival successfully celebrated once more the added value regions […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: Special Session 14, March 31st  2022: “Top-down sectoral meets a bottom-up place-based perspective: love at first sight or a marriage of convenience?” By Ninetta Chaniotou, Regional Council of Kainuu, Finland This is a review of the Special Session on “Top-down sectoral meets a bottom-up place-based perspective: […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: Special Session 23. Local Development: Lessons for the future from recent research and practice By Attila Korompai, J. Neumann University, Hungary Special Session 23 Chair: Urszula Budzich-Tabor, President, LDnet Moderator of the discussion: Peter Ramsden, Vice President, LDnet Speakers and presentations: ·       Marianne Doyen, DG EMPL, […]

Download ArticleReport on the Regions in Recovery e-Festival 2022: SS05: The Silver Future: making the silver economy a driver of growth By Dr. Holly Randell-Moon, School of Indigenous Australian Studies, Charles Sturt University This session was focused on the challenges and opportunities related to the projected increase in elderly populations in the decades ahead. The […]

Download ArticleBy Eduardo Medeiros (email), Geography Professor and Integrated Researcher, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET – IUL, Lisboa, Portugal This book ‘Border cities and territorial development’, published within RSA Regions and Cities Book Series (Routledge), is focused on territorial development processes associated with border cities. In this light, the 12 chapters cut across not […]

Download ArticleBy André Torre, Stefano Corsi, Michael Steiner, Frédéric Wallet, Hans Westlund This thought-provoking book Smart Development for Rural Areas questions the framework of the Horizon 2020 strategy and the policies of smart development. Various contributions are presented, with several case studies about different rural and peri-urban areas in Europe. The conclusions drawn from these […]

Download ArticleThis is a summary prepared by Regions ezine Editorial Team based on the Foreword of Regional Studies Policy Impact Books  by Diane Coyle – Volume 3, 2021 – Issue 2: Levelling Up Left Behind Places: The Scale and Nature of the Economic and Policy Challenge Addressing the gap in employment and incomes, in opportunities, between […]

Download ArticleEditorial on Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic By Stefania Fiorentino, Robert Bowen and Eduardo Oliveira The overarching theme for the three issues of Regions in 2021 is Regions in Transition. This third and last issue of 2021, issue 11, concludes the theme of Regions in transition by discussing the future of cities and regions […]

Download ArticleBy Ilaria Mariotti (e-mail), Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Economics, DAStU-Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Chair of the Cost Action CA18214, and Project Coordinator of CORAL ITN Marie Curie for the Politecnico di Milano. This article was adapted and revised from the original “Mariotti I. (2021), Il lavoro a distanza svuota le città? Intervista […]

Download ArticleBy Aysun Aygün Oğur (email), Pamukkale University, Turkey, Ebru Kurt Özman (email) , University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Zeynep Özdemir (email), Amasya University, Turkey This article examines the practices and approaches taken by different countries with a high number of cases and distinctive responses to the Covid-19 outbreak within six World Health Organization […]

Download ArticleBy Beth Cummings, Samantha Burvill, Robert Bowen, and Leonie Themelidis, Swansea University, Wales, UK. Regional development This paper explores well-being as a basis for regional development in the post-Covid recovery. Regional development covers a wide range of issues. Definitions of local and regional development have historically been discussed in relation to economic growth, income […]

Download ArticleBy Enrico Vanino, Department of Economics at the University of Sheffield, UK This article has been funded by Small Grant Scheme on Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry: The Role of Industrial Density in the Health and Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Crisis of the Regional Studies Association (RSA). One of the most striking features […]

Download ArticleBy Will Rifkin, University of Newcastle, Australia in collaboration with Terry Clower, Director, Center for Regional Analysis, Northern Virginia Chair and Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA, Jacob Irving, University of South Australia, and Keith Waters, George Mason University, USA The onset of COVID-19 two years ago made many of us consider […]

Download ArticleBy Katia Adimora, Department of English, History and Creative Writing, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, England Since March 2020 the United States (US) – Estados Unidos Mexicanos (México) border has been closed to all non-essential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there seemed to be a double-standard approach to crossings: while the US citizens […]

Download ArticleBy Felix Nana Kofi Ofori, REACT Humanitarian Network, Oxford, UK The COVID-19 crisis has reinforced pressures for reform, rather than delay them. The stakes are huge—not just in terms of market competitiveness but also in the well-being of individuals and society at large. The interconnectedness of the world creates an intensive global flow of […]

Download ArticleEditorial on redefining urban-rural balance in changing times By Eduardo Oliveira, Stefania Fiorentino and Robert Bowen The overarching theme for the three issues of Regions in 2021 is Regions in Transition. This second Issue of the year meets a world running at different paces. While most of Europe and North America, have eased their […]

Download ArticleBy Gary Bosworth, Jason Whalley, Northumbria University, UK, Polly Chapman, Impact Hub Inverness, UK, Anita Füzi and Ian Merrell, Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University, UK This article draws on research carried out as part of the Digit-funded research project (Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, UK) on The Role of Coworking Spaces in […]

Download ArticleBy Elvira Uyarra, The University of Manchester, UK    The need for a holistic, place-based approach to solving societal challenges has been brought into sharp relief by the Covid pandemic and the climate emergency. The pandemic has promoted fresh discussions about the need to build a more equitable, fair, and sustainable society. It has […]

Download ArticleBy Adriana Mihaela Soaita, Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, UK. The Covid-19 public health emergency has amplified corruption globally not least across the pharmaceutical industry, within governments’ ‘VIP lanes’ for Covid-19 suppliers, and further down to individuals’ access to vaccination, tests and healthcare (Mucchielli 2020; Teremetskyi et al. 2021). To corruption, Romania […]

Download ArticleBy Sarah Diefenbach, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Introduction Up until the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic, the tourism sector and mass tourism have seen constant growth, enabled by rising prosperity in developed economies, advances in transportation technology, availability of oil, and […]

Download ArticleBy Shekh Moinuddin, University of Delhi, Delhi, India Introduction Digital is a new parameter that is added in the last two decades wherein digital gadgets were familiarized across households in India. Digital gadgets are devices that are functional and operational at best when these gadgets accessed the high-speed Internet. However, the digital divide is […]

Download ArticleBy Felix Nana Kofi Ofori, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London Introduction Ghana has a coastal line of around 560 kilometres along which Ada and Keta are partly located. Ada is a community in the south-eastern of Ghana, where the Volta River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Keta is also situated in the south-eastern of Ghana […]

Download ArticleBy Serafin Pazos-Vidal, Head of Brussels Office of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Belgium Introduction Demographic decline or depopulation are issues that have had in recent years wide currency both at national level (“Empty Spain”, “Brain Drain” in Eastern Europe, “Shrinking Cities” in Eastern Germany, the “France oubliée” of the “Gillet Jaunes”) as […]

Download ArticleBy Dafydd Cotterell and Dr Robert Bowen, School of Management, Swansea University The Covid-19 pandemic – and subsequent lockdown policies established across much of the world – created unprecedented change for commercial organisations, with many businesses encouraging staff to work from home, placing staff on furlough and evoking redundancies. Furthermore, social distancing laws and […]

Download ArticleBy Ana Gutiérrez Sanchis, Comillas Pontifical University, Spain Paula Remoaldo, University of Minho, Portugal and Carlos Martínez de Ibarreta Zorita, Comillas Pontifical University, Spain. The present article shows the results concerning marriages in Spain during the first wave  of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated lockdown, that took place in 2020. The Government of […]

Download ArticleBy Matt Finch, University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, UK and Marie Mahon, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland How will Europe’s urban-rural balance shift in years to come? In times of uncertainty, when tomorrow may not look like today, how can researchers and decision-makers best explore future relationships and dynamics between regions? In […]

Download ArticleThe RSA Global E-Festival, Regions in Recovery (#RinR21) was a huge success and the RSA was delighted to welcome over 1250 delegates from a total of 71 countries. During 2.5 weeks, 458 papers were presented in 124 sessions, which included 10 well-being sessions featuring yoga, painting and informal networking sessions. Regions in Recovery Global […]

Download ArticleBy Stephanie Francis Grimbert (email), Deusto Business School, University of Deusto, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain and CIRCLE, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. As a first-time attendant and presenter in a conference, and although the virtual/hybrid formats will undoubtedly become the “new normal”, describing the atmosphere and the “take away message” of an online event does not […]

Download ArticleBy Ana Gutiérrez Sanchis (Twitter; email) Comillas Pontifical University, Spain and Lab2PT at University of Minho, Portugal. I am glad to have become an RSA member last year because it was a determinant of my participation in the RinR21 Conference. I really enjoyed attending several sessions related to, for example, demographic change; left behind […]

Download ArticleRegions in Recovery Festival. Takeaways for Citizenship and Democracy by Dr. Silvia Gugu Democracy in times of pandemics has proved a tough balancing act for politicians and citizens alike. From exposing the vulnerability of those left behind to attacks on free speech, from data privacy and artificial intelligence dangers to the perils of corruption […]

Download ArticleEditorial Issue 9: Sustainability challenges and opportunities in cities and regions By Robert Bowen, Stefania Fiorentino, Eduardo Oliveira The overarching theme for the three issues of Regions ezine in 2021 is Regions in Transition. The coronavirus pandemic has led to new ways of thinking and operating in recent months, whether through the emerging prominence […]

Download ArticleBy Carolin Schack*, Thomas Neise, David Heimann and Martin Franz, Osnabrück University, Germany This article shows possibilities of sustainable transformation of old industrial areas. Based on findings of the research project “Grey goes Green – Transformation of Industrial Areas” with case studies in Germany we showcase that network building helps to overcome major challenges […]

Download ArticleBy Sabine Dörry, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)*, Christian Schulz (University of Luxembourg), Elena Emrick-Schmitz (University of Luxembourg), Nicolas Hercelin (LISER, University of Luxembourg) This research essentially responds to the need of a transition towards new, more sustainable economic and financial solutions to strengthen regions since our societies face numerous human-induced – financial, […]

Download ArticleBy Hendrik Hansmeier* (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, and Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany) and Sebastian Losacker (Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany) The need for eco-innovation policies Although it is undisputed that innovations contribute significantly to the competitiveness, […]

Download ArticleBy Luzie Sam*, Master Student of the Master in Sustainability, Society and the Environment at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Introduction In this article, sustainable agriculture for a transition to a sustainable global food system will be explored and positioned in the Sustainable Development Goals framework.  The prime question is – How realistic is the […]

Download ArticleBy Lakshmi Priya Rajendran* (Anglia Ruskin University, UK), Chris Maidment (University of Reading, UK) and Arindam Biswas (Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee, India)  Introduction In India’s neoliberal economic policies, cities are characterized as engines of growth which could attract national and global business, and investment that could contribute to the country’s economic […]

Download ArticleBy Helene Heinze*, Master Student in Sustainability, Society and the Environment, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Failure of the global food system and a sustainable nutrition In the modern age, social sciences diagnosed an alienation between humans and nature (see e.g. Hinchliffe 2007), which is particularly acute for the global food system. The separation of […]

Download ArticleBy Felix Nana Kofi Ofori, REACT Humanitarian Network, Oxford, UK. Introduction Ghana is one of the fastest urbanising countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The urbanisation level increased by 7 percent points per a period, from 43.8 percent to 50.9 percent in the 2007 onwards (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012). Desiring to improve its infrastructural status […]

Download ArticleBy Yonn Dierwechter, Professor, School of Urban Studies, University of Washington, Tacoma The Research Network on ‘Smart City-Regional Governance for Sustainability’ lasted formally from 2016-2019 but was graciously extended to 2020 after the unexpected death of Tassilo Herrschel (1958-2019).  Dr Herrschel was the network’s most important ‘animator’ and a well-known participant in the Regional Studies […]

Download ArticleBy Khandakar Farid Uddin and Md. Salauddin, PhD research candidates at Western Sydney University, Australia This article was initially published at Open Forum, Australia In the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, PhD research students were anxiously thinking about the transmission of the virus, even though they did not have any symptoms or close […]

Download ArticleEditorial on Issue 8: Housing Issues in Contemporary Urban Regions The period between the publication of Issue 6 and the launch of this Issue 7 has been challenging across all sectors of society. The challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected work-home relationships, have changed the way we travel, communicate and socialize. It […]

Download ArticleBy Darja Reuschke, University of Southampton, UK The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world of work in many ways. One of the most substantial changes to work, redundancy and furlough aside, during the COVID-19 crisis has been the shift of work into the home. As lockdowns have been imposed across the world, we have […]

Download ArticleBy Daniela Carl, Deputy CEO Regional Studies Association RSA Global Webinar Series, the globetrotting events series run by the RSA with and for its international networks, started off with the Australasia programme on 2nd November 2020. It featured fascinating insights into regional tourism, the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry and routes to […]

Download ArticleBy Yehya Serag, RSA Ambassador Egypt and Ain Shams University, Egypt and Abeer Elshater, RSA Ambassador Egypt and Ain Shams University, Egypt Our contribution to the Middle East and North Africa in the RSA Global webinar series focused mainly on the post conflict reconstruction challenges in this volatile region. Since 2011 several countries in […]

Download ArticleBy Lookman Oshodi, RSA Ambassador for Nigeria and Project Director “International Development and Urban Governance” and Oladayo Ramon Ibrahim, RSA Ambassador for Nigeria and Lagos State Polytechnic, Nigeria The RSA Global African Event, in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) and the Lagos State Polytechnic, Nigeria, was convened on November 11, […]

Download ArticleBy Professor Ivan Turok, RSA Ambassador South Africa and South African NRF Research Chair in City-Region Economies at the University of the Free State Ivan Turok talked about the risks and opportunities associated with rapid urbanisation in Africa. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the twin vulnerabilities of mushrooming informal settlements to public health disasters […]

Download ArticleBy José Borello: RSA Ambassador Argentina and National University of General Sarmiento, Argentina Plenary by Michael Storper titled Is Urbanization in the Global South Fundamentally Different? Comparative Global Urban Analysis for the 21st Century The webinar was coordinated and introduced by Sergio Montero, professor at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and former […]

Download ArticleBy Janine Bittner, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Michael Storper’s keynote speech was followed by a panel with three presentations focussing on the local economic development in different parts of Latin America. Alejandra Trejo, who is currently a professor at the Center for Demography, Urban and Environmental Studies, at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City […]

Download ArticleBy Katharina Bürger, Conference and Events Officer Regional Studies Association, UK The final session of the RSA Global Latin America was a panel on Academic Writing and Publishing, presented by Miguel Atienza (RSA Ambassador Chile and Universidad Católica del Norte Antofagasta, Chile) and Alejandra Trejo (RSA Ambassador Mexico, Chair of the RSA Latin America […]

Download ArticleBy Maria Prezioso, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Francesco Dini, University of Florence, Silvia Grandi, University of Bologna, Michele Pigliucci, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Federico Martellozzo, University of Florence, Italy Researching Territorial Impact Assessment for Cohesion Policies The impact analysis and the identification of the most effective policy recommendations in order to set […]

Download ArticleBy Simone Vegliò, PhD (Department of Geography, University College London, UK) The book “The Urban Enigma: Time, Autonomy, and Postcolonial Transformations in Latin America” (Vegliò, 2020) is a historical work which, as the title aims to highlight, explores episodes of urban transformation across the Latin American region. I wrote this book having a question […]

Download ArticleBy Khandakar Farid Uddin and Awais Piracha, Western Sydney University, Australia. Introduction Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world. More than 86% of people in Australia live in a large metropolitan area along its coast (statista.com, 2020). Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales (NSW), is the largest Australian […]

Download ArticleBy Bob Bennett (University of Cambridge, UK) A new resource has been launched that gives new insights into the development of entrepreneurship up to the start of the 20th century. It enables Regional Studies researchers, students and schools to look at the geography of entrepreneurs recorded in the censuses of England, Wales and Scotland […]

Download ArticleEditorial on the Financialisation of the Urban and Regional Domains The period between the publication of Issue 6 and the launch of this Issue 7 has been challenging across all sectors of society. The challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected work-home relationships, have changed the way we travel, communicate and socialize. It […]

Download ArticleBy Constance Carr (email), Markus Hesse (email), Department of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Luxembourg This article was adapted, revised and updated from the original, “Sidewalk Labs is closing down – Lessons from Toronto’s realpolitik” published at Urbanization Unbound, the blogspot of urban geographers at the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning of […]

Download ArticleBy Silvia Grandi, Department of Statistical Sciences ‘Paolo Fortunati’, University of Bologna, Italy, and Christian Sellar, Department of Public Policy Leadership, University of Mississippi, US. The relationship between governmental economic policies, the international strategies of banks, and firms’ internationalization is an intriguing phenomenon which is not yet fully investigated by financial geographers. Our paper […]

Download ArticleBy Felix Nana Kofi Ofori, Brunel University London, UK and David Sarpong, Brunel University London, UK Free Zones, also known as commercial free zones, are small fenced-in, duty-free areas, offering warehousing, storage, and distributions facilities for trade transhipment, and re-export operations located in most ports of entry around the world. Recently, Free Zones have […]

Download ArticleBy António Alves and Hugo Leandro Two students of University of Minho, Eduardo Miranda and Pedro Quesado, in a highly praised academic cyber-journalism work, whose title inspires our article title, summarizes the Portuguese railway panorama in a gleaming sentence: “In some parts of Portugal, the train disappeared. In others, it slowed down. This is […]

Download ArticleBy Simone Tulumello, University of Lisbon, Myrto Dagkouli-Kyriakoglou, Malmo University and Alessandro Colombo, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon Critical geography and political economy have long assumed that the financialization of housing is a process especially typical of global cities of the North. More recently, increasing attention has been dedicated to financialization in the Global South as well […]

Download ArticleBy Sjoerdje van Heerden, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Unit B3 Territorial Development, Seville, Spain. email, Ricardo Barranco, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Unit B3 Territorial Development, Ispra, Italy. email and Carlo Lavalle, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Unit B3 Territorial Development, Ispra, Italy. email There are indications that over the […]

Download ArticleBy Zhuoya Kang (email) Financialisation is currently being rethought beyond the economics and finance fields. In urban planning discipline, financialisation is more often defined as a process which engages increasing dominant roles of financial actors, financial markets and financial practices that lead to a structural transformation of economic entities (Aalbers, 2019). From the 1980s, […]

Download ArticleBy Felix Nana Kofi Ofori, Legal Adviser and Trustee to the REACT Humanitarian Network, Oxford, UK. This article examines the ramifications of Covid-19 on the continents of Africa and Europe. No part of the world is immune from the fangs of the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). The majority of human endeavours, especially in the spheres […]

Download ArticleBy Stefania Fiorentino, Nicola Livingstone, and Michael Short In global cities, densification processes have frequently emerged as a rapid response to housing provision and longer-term urban sustainability. This Spotlight article discusses the wider implications of financialisation through densification processes, and specifically considers developments providing student accommodation, as an under-researched element of the UK’s housing market. […]

Download ArticleBy Naomi Hazarika, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India This article throws light on the dynamics of urban redevelopment involving the opening up of state lands for private investment where informal settlements are located in the city of Delhi, India, using the conceptual tool of a ‘real estate frontier’ (Gillespie, […]

Download ArticleIt is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Paul Benneworth on Tuesday 12th May 2020. Paul was a long-time friend of the Regional Studies Association, a great contributor to our journals, including Regions eZine, and our governance and he will be greatly missed. Paul passed away in his sleep and […]

Download ArticleWe are delighted to welcome Stefania Fiorentino and Robert Bowen who will be joining Eduardo Oliveira as editors of Regions, our online magazine. Stefania is a multidisciplinary researcher and teaching fellow in planning and economic development, with working experience in international consultancies. She currently lectures modules in spatial planning and urban regeneration both at University […]

Download ArticleThe Regional Studies Association Team is pleased to invite you to RSA Global, a new online webinar series free and open to all. RSA Global will run between 02.11. – 16.11.2020 and will virtually travel the globe by presenting territory specific stops en route in which the Regional Studies Association’s (RSA) international networks showcase research and developments in […]

Download ArticleBy Eduardo Oliveira (University of Louvain, Belgium), Michael Taster (University of Sheffield, UK) and Julie Tian Miao (University of Melborne, Australia) Cities and urban regions are now regularly recognized within international processes on issues such as social inequality, economic marginalization, and climate change. Urbanisation and regional development processes can have negative effects on the environment, such as the urban heat […]

Download Article By Luís Carvalho, School of Economics and Management & Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Porto, Portugal Engaging startups in urban sustainability challenges is becoming a popular policy ambition in many cities worldwide. Yet little is known about whether and how does it deliver. Can startups contribute to systemic urban […]

Download Article By Pedro Henrique Campello Torres, Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil Introduction The incidence of severe climatic events (rains, droughts, floods, and hurricanes) has increased in recent years, and it tends to increase with the worsening of the climate emergency. It is not a new idea that cities […]

Download ArticleBy Elisa Giuliani, Full Professor at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Pisa where she directs the Responsible Management Research Center In the economic geography and regional studies fields, we tend to see regions as potential loci for innovation, knowledge creation, cooperation and economic growth. In the absence of these […]

Download ArticleBy Joanie Willett, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus), Environment and Sustainability Institute Even before Covid-19, it was not news to say that many peripheral and rural regions have been struggling economically.  This is exacerbated by what Peter De Souza observes in his 2017 book The Rural and Peripheral in Regional […]

Download ArticleBy James T. Murphy, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. Jim Murphy presents some emerging results of his Regional Studies Association sponsored research to examine the prospects for greenfield city investments to help spur economic development throughout Africa.  Focusing on the case of Kenya’s Konza Technopolis, the findings highlight the challenges of […]

Download ArticleBy Sebastien Bourdin, EM Normandy Business School (France) Metis Lab, Department of Regional Economics and Sustainable Development, France National, European and international institutions now consider energy transition as unavoidable (UNO, 2018). The European Commission’s latest report on economic, social and territorial cohesion (2017) underlines the need to fight climate change and bring about an […]

Download ArticleBy Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Over the last decades, the European Union has emerged as an international climate leader (Wurzel et al., 2010). The action foreseen by the EU institutions to comply with international agreements has been transposed to policy frameworks implemented at the country level.  The EU directives have […]

Download ArticleBy Raúl Sánchez Francés, Silvia Gómez Valle and Nuria García Rueda, URBAN GreenUP project  Climate emergency and its effects on cities is one of the most important threats for citizens in this Century. Floods, heat island effect, biodiversity lost, drought, illnesses related to the air – water quality, etc. are the main hazards and […]

Download ArticleBy Ilke Borowski-Maaser, CEO of Interessen Im Fluss, Peter Nailon, Wear Rivers Trust and Jesper Bjergsted Pedersen, Aarhus University Although climate disruption is almost certain, local effects of climate change – storms, floods and droughts – are hard to predict. Underground aquifers holding immense amounts of groundwater play a hidden but crucial part in […]

Download ArticleCENCYL network: inter-municipal cooperation as a key to climate adaptation By Fernando J. Rodríguez Alonso, 3º Tte. de Alcalde Ayuntamiento de Salamanca, José María Álvarez Perla. Coordinador de la Red de Ciudades CENCYL and Isabel Román Martínez. Anthesis Lavola. Thanks to the economic assistance from FEDER funds, and backed by the INTERREG Spain-Portugal program, […]

Download ArticleBy Angelica Kaus, Province of Groningen, The Netherlands Due to climate change and risk of sea level rise, agriculture in coastal areas is under pressure. Soil salinisation has already led to the degradation of millions of hectares of farmland worldwide, a potential threat to food security. Farmers in the North Sea Region also experience […]

Download ArticleBy Gerard McGovern, University of Oldenburg Funded by the Interreg North Sea Region Programme, the COBEN project promotes a new process model and business models designed to underpin civic energy systems. The project has built a network of 3,000 organisations with significant impact on regional energy structures. The need to address climate challenges by […]

Download ArticleBy Harry Mach, project manager at the UK Broads Authority. The CANAPE project stands for Creating A New Approach to Peatland Ecosystems. In this article we explore why this is important, and what would a new approach look like. The autumn sunlight breaks through bleak grey clouds. A lonely group of people walk through […]

Download ArticleBy Joshua Barrett, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and the RSA Blog Editor It’s 2017. I recently graduated from my Master’s degree and entered the workforce. Despite my previous academic achievements, my current situation prevented me from pursuing traditional models of getting my scholarly work out to the world. My job did allow me […]

Download ArticleA lived experience by The Student Delegation at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador (USFQ) Attending the RSA 2019 Latin America Division Conference in Bogotá, Colombia was a valuable experience that helped us grow both individually and as a team. At the conference, we were able to get valuable feedback regarding our research. […]

Download ArticleThis is a report of the event ‘Building Administrative Capacities for Cohesion Policy’ at TU Delft, 21-22 November 2019 organised by Marcin Dabrowski (local organiser), Ekaterina Domorenok and Laura Polverari (Scientific Convenors). Co-organisers included Nicola Dotti (VUB, BE), Piotr Idczak & Ida Musiałkowska (Poznań University of Economics & Business, PL), Jiannis Kaucic (University of […]

Download ArticleBy Gary Bosworth, RSA East Midlands Brach Chair. Probably the last time the East Midlands branch of the RSA met, climate change was still called “global warming” and in our region we were talking fondly about warmer summers, vineyards and certainly not ugly windfarms all over the countryside. But times have changed, and this […]

Download ArticleEditorial on The Brexit Issue By Eduardo, Michael and Julie After four successful eZine Issues we have landed on the Brexit Issue; landed but certainly not settled in the discussions. This Issue raises further questions while providing critical – yet sober and mature -responses to the impacts of the scheduled withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) […]

Download ArticleBy Alex de Ruyter, Centre for Brexit Studies, UK and Guest Editor of this Issue’s Regional Insigths section As the process of Brexit – that is, the United Kingdom’s attempt to leave the European Union (EU) – grinds on, this special issue of ‘Regions’ takes a look at various socio-spatial dimensions of this tortured […]

Download ArticleBy Sally Tomlinson and Danny Dorling ‘Imperial nostalgia is not only a feeling but a catalyst. It takes social discontent and transforms it into a dangerous form of political tribalism’ (1) ‘Nescire autem quid ante quam natus sis acciderit id est semper esse puerum’ (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born […]

Download ArticleBy Arantza Gomez Arana, Birmingham City University, UK. Introduction Gibraltar provided the first outcome of the Brexit referendum with 96% voting against it in June 2016. This outcome, together with the impact of the exit of the UK from the European Union, recently brought the attention of the British media to this part of […]

Download ArticleBy Salvatore Perri, University of Magna Graecia, Catanzaro, Italy. One of the most important arguments used by the Leave Campaign during the electoral campaign for Brexit was related to a negative vision of migration in the UK. A total closure of borders to Europeans and extra EU workers will have quantitative and qualitative effects […]

Download ArticleBy Christopher Huggins, University of Suffolk Introduction In June 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU) by a slight 52 per cent majority. This result, together with the ongoing negotiations on nature of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU since, have brought significant uncertainty to many aspects of UK […]

Download ArticleBy David Hearne and Alex de Ruyter, Centre for Brexit Studies, UK Leaving the European Union (EU) has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in British agricultural policy and food standards and this will have repercussions for the rest of the EU. As those who attended this year’s annual conference in Santiago de […]

Download ArticleBy Marlen Komorowski, Cardiff University, UK. The UK referendum in June 2016 surprised many and the main concern since then has been the uncertain outcomes of the Brexit negotiations. After three years, not much has changed about these uncertainties on a political level, but businesses and Europe’s cities have taken action, and much has […]

Download ArticleBy David Bailey, Birmingham Business School, UK. Introduction Despite Parliament legislating to avoid a No Deal Brexit, Prime Minister Johnson has said he would rather ‘die in a ditch’ than write a letter asking for another extension to Article 50. Unsurprisingly, at the time of writing, there remains considerable uncertainty about when and how […]

Download ArticleBy Jason Deegan, University of Stavanger, Norway. Introduction There has been much talk of the impact of a no-deal Brexit on one of Britain’s largest trading partners, and the one who is most likely to suffer the disastrous consequences of a no-deal Brexit. However, whilst a no-deal Brexit presents particular challenges to a number […]

Download ArticleBy Crispian Fuller, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK. Introduction In June 2016, 52% of the British population voted to exit from the European Union.  Importantly, they did not vote for a particular exit agreement, but a rather a simple decision on whether to leave or not.  The consequence of this and […]

Download ArticleBy Jen Nelles, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, Hunter College, City University of New York (USA) and Visiting Researcher, Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development, Sheffield University Management School, Michael Glass, Urban Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh (USA) and Jean-Paul Addie, Urban Studies Institute, Georgia State University (USA) Introduction Montréal, the site of […]

Download ArticleBy John Harrison and  Michael Hoyler (in collaboration with the other research network organizers, Xingjian Liu, Evert Meijers and Ben Derudder). The RSA Research Network on Polycentric Urban Regions in nutshell ‘Polycentric urban regions’ (PURs) have become a key concept in regional studies and described extensively in our previous article published in Issue 4.  In that issue, we reported on our […]

Download ArticleBy Mariachiara Barzotto, Newcastle University, UK, Carlo Corradini, University of Birmingham, UK, Sandrine Labory, University of Ferrara, Italy, Felicia Fai, University of Bath, UK and   Phil Tomlinson, University of Bath. The last decade has been particularly challenging for the European Union (EU). The aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) has seen stagnant […]

Download ArticleBy Olga Levytska, Dolishniy Institute of Regional Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine) This year I have gained valuable experience by participating in the Regional Studies Association (RSA) Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Conference ‘Metropolises and Peripheries of CEE Countries: New Challenges for EU, National and Regional Policies’. The Conference […]

Download ArticleBy Dr. Jason C Wong, LSE Fellow in Environmental Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK This year’s RSA Summer College took place in the beautiful Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. As an early career researcher, I was foremost glad to meet other motivated scholars from around the world and from different disciplinary […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. How did this book – Geopolitics of the Knowledge-Based Economy come to be? Sami Moisio: The basic idea started to grow 5-6 years ago when I recognized gap in geopolitical literature on knowledge intensive capitalism. I recognized that this form […]

Download ArticleBy Eduardo Oliveira (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Michael Taster (University of Sheffield, UK) and Julie Tian Miao (University of Melborne, Australia) Around mid-May, the European Union Commission (EC) presented to the Council its proposals for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2021 to 2027 (EU budget), and ministers had a first […]

Download ArticleBy Ricardo Ferreira, Nathalie Verschelde and Valeria Cenacchi (European Commission, DG REGIO – Cross-Border Cooperation Unit) Why support cross-border interactions? For the readers of Regions eZine it is certainly not necessary to argue the importance of regional economics and how the development of regions is the basis for the development of a country. But […]

Download ArticleBy Magdalena Sapała (European Parliamentary Research Service) This article is partly based on Magdalena Sapala (2019) Cohesion funds, values and economic and monetary union in the 2021-2027 MFF, European Parliament, EPRS. Each year, the size of the EU budget is negotiated within the limits set out in the seven-year financial plan, giving a vision […]

Download ArticleBy the Territorial Thinkers team composed of Peter Mehlbye, Kai Böhme, Derek Martin and Peter Schön. Increasing divisions, diversity and disparities between different types of territories pose a major and complex challenge to Europe and its cities and regions. Moreover, development is increasingly dependent on external economic, social and environmental factors, such as trade […]

Download ArticleBy Sebastien Bourdin (Associate Professor at the Normandy Business School). Introduction: Not doing more but better European Union’s Cohesion Policy has been in existence for about twenty years. The implementation of this policy acknowledges that the market forces are not necessarily sufficient to significantly reduce regional disparities. The EU therefore created this tool of […]

Download ArticleBy Manuel Laranja (ISEG-UL – School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon), John Edwards (Research and Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre) and Hugo Pinto (CES – Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra) Smart specialisation: A New Perspective in Policy Making? Those readers with an interest in EU regional […]

Download ArticleBy Xabier Gainza (Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Economics I, University of the Basque Country) Xabier Gainza, as part of his Regional Studies Association Membership Research Grant, debates the electoral bias in the distribution of investment in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia, and its implications for territorial cohesion. The aim is to […]

Download ArticleBy Igor Calzada (Urban Transformations/Future of Cities, COMPAS, University of Oxford, UK) In this frontline article, blending techno-political and city-regional assemblages, Igor Calzada discusses how the algorithmic, AI (Artificial Intelligence)-driven, and post-GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) European realm affects citizenship. Drawing on evidence from previous publications, and particularly stemming from his case study of […]

Download ArticleBy Arnault Morisson (Thematic Expert in Research and Innovation for the Policy Learning Platform and Consultant at Inno TSD) Introduction In 2013, Mariana Mazzucato published her seminal book The Entrepreneurial State in which she shows the importance of state intervention in the economy to foster radical technological innovations (Mazzucato, 2013). The state, she says, […]

Download ArticleBy Yasmine Willi and Marco Pütz (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL) Regional development is a mainstay of Swiss domestic policy, as evidenced by the federal government’s New Regional Policy, regional nature parks, and more. But how do regional development processes really work? And how could they be more effectively […]

Download ArticleBy Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (Assistant Professor, Public Administration Division, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE) Writing is one of the very core activities of scholarly research that is common to absolutely every single researcher. It doesn’t matter if you run experiments, if you calculate heat maps, if you deploy qualitative data from your […]

Download ArticleBy Rhiannon Pugh (Early Career Section Editor Regional Studies, Regional Science) In this Research Hacks contribution, Rhiannon Pugh highlights the special support offered by the Regional Studies Association through its open access journal Regional Studies, Regional Science, in particular its early career section. We’ve all heard the mantra “publish or perish”, and we all, no […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Joan Fitzgerald (JF): Your subtitle of the book Strategic Approaches to Regional Development is Smart Experimentation in Less-Favoured Regions (Edited by Iryna Kristensen, Alexandre Dubois, Jukka Teräs). You didn’t say “declining” regions—it seems to suggest that policy has deliberately left […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Ulrich Hilpert is Professor and Chair of Comparative Government in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.  He is the editor of Diversities of Innovation, which was published this April in the RSA-Routledge Regions & […]

Download ArticleBy Evert Meijers and Ben Derudder (in collaboration with the other research network organizers, i.e. Xingjian Liu, John Harrison and Michael Hoyler) ‘Polycentric urban regions’ (PURs) have become a key concept in regional studies, both as an analytical framework to capture empirical realities as well as part of normative visions and goals in regional […]

Download ArticleEngage Your Audience with Live Polling App: Experiences of an Interactive Session at the European Week of Regions and Cities By Mariachiara Barzotto (Newcastle University Business School), and Phil Tomlinson (Deputy Director, Centre for Governance, Regulation & Industrial Strategy, University of Bath)                                                      The Regional Studies Association at the European Week of Regions and […]

Download ArticleBy Jennifer Day (University of Melbourne). The aim of this research network, formerly addressed as ‘Academic-Practitioner Collaboration for Urban Shelter’, is linking academic and practitioner knowledge applied to the disaster-management cycle in the South Pacific. This reports the key findings of the Port Vila workshop that took place on the 23rd of October 2018, […]

Download ArticleBy Hulya Arik (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) The Regional Studies Research Network, Politics of Displacement, Identity and Urban Citizenship in Migratory Contexts (2017-2020), organized two special sessions at the RSA Annual conference “Pushing Regions Beyond its Borders” in Santiago de Compostela between 5-7 June, 2019. The special sessions addressed issues related to transnational methodologies, global […]

Download ArticleBy Eduardo Oliveira (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Michael Taster (University of Sheffield, UK) and Julie Tian Miao (University of Melborne, Australia) 2018 was a good year for Regions eZine, a fact that was kindly reported in RSA Chairman Mark Tewdwr Jones’ annual message to the membership. Over the first year of its existence, Regions eZine has […]

Download ArticleBy Katerina Ciampi Stancova, PhD, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Seville, Spain This insights article explores the European Commission’s Thematic Smart Specialisation Platform on Agri-food. First discussing the background to the initiative, Katerina Ciampi Stancova goes onto outline the criteria for successful submissions to the initiative and the potential benefits the scheme can bring […]

Download ArticleBy Elvira Uyarra, The University of Manchester, UK. Smart specialisation is now over a decade old. In this insights article, Elvira Uyarra, reflects on lessons learnt and identifies three areas in which the policy could be improved; internationalisation, implementation and greater attention to the demand side. She concludes that a normative and transformative agenda […]

Download ArticleBy John Edwards, Research and Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and Maria Palladino, Seconded National Expert at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture In this insights article, John Edwards and Maria Palladino explore the challenges faced by the European Commission in implementing smart specialisation policies with […]

Download ArticleBy  Anastasiia Konstantynova (Steinbeis 2i GmbH), Kristin Dallinger (Steinbeis 2i GmbH) and Heike Fischer (Steinbeis 2i GmbH) Introduction Have you ever felt like reinventing the wheel? Or would you rather use the wheels you already have more effectively? We suspect the latter… This line of thought, is worth bearing in mind when developing new […]

Download ArticleBy Bernard Musyck, School of Economic Sciences and Administration, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus. In this Insights, Bernard Musyck, looks at the possible allocation of EU Structural Funds and the subsequent implementation of a Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3), as part of the EU’s regional development policy after a possible reunification of Cyprus territory. Introduction Smart Specialisation […]

Download ArticleBy Alex de Ruyter, David Hearne and Vangelis Tsiligiris, Centre for Brexit Studies, Birmingham City University, UK. Drawing on findings from an international survey of RSA member’s attitudes towards Brexit, this insights articles explores what RSA members consider to be the likely impacts of Brexit on the economy and higher education sectors of the […]

Download ArticleBy Judit Kalman Ph.D., Center for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary In this Regional Insights article, Judit Kalman, as part of her Regional Studies Association Membership Research Grant Scheme (MeRSA), investigates what determines gender differences in subjective wellbeing across old and new EU member states and also across different welfare […]

Download ArticleBy Max Woodworth, The Ohio State University, USA In this Frontline article, Max Woodworth discusses China’s massive urbanisation project. Drawing on the examples of similar development patterns that took place during the 20th century in Japan, he suggests the idea of the ‘construction state’ is valuable to understanding how the state, construction industry and […]

Download ArticleBy Mia M. Bennett, The University of Hong Kong In this article, Mia Bennett explores the emerging socio-economic, cultural and political geography of the ‘Polar Silk road through the lens of the Norwegian town of Kirkenes. This article was first published on Mia’s own blog – Cryopolitics Sitting on the rocky coastline of the slate gray Barents […]

Download ArticleBy Stefania Fiorentino, The Bartlett School of Planning, London’s Global University, UK Drawing on evidence from a wider study of innovation dynamics in contemporary urban ecosystems, Stefania Fiorentino examines how the growing number of Co-Working Spaces (CWSs) in Rome reflect new patterns of local economic activity and development. Changes in the nature of work and the […]

Download ArticleBy Staci M. Zavattaro, Associate Professor, University of Central Florida, USA Staci Zavattaro, reflects on rejection in academia and gives 6 tips on how to manage the inevitable rejections that are part of academic life. I just graduated from my doctoral program and was attending my discipline’s annual conference. That week, I had gotten […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I am delighted to interview Philip McCann. Philip McCann is Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Sheffield and is an Honorary Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.  He is also […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I am delighted to interview Rob Kitchin again. Recall that he edited Data and the City in 2018, and Code and the City in 2016—both very successful books in the Routledge Regions & Cities series. He is Professor and […]

Download ArticleBy Karen Cain (Chief Executive Officer, Latrobe Valley Authority, Department of Premier and Cabinet, the State of Victoria, Australia) The importance of cross global collaboration was highly evident at the ‘2018 SMARTER Conference on Smart Specialisation and Territorial Development’ recently held in Seville, Spain.  As one of the many international participants, and in particular one that […]

Download ArticleBy Franziska Sielker (University of Cambridge, UK) and Camilla Chlebna (University of Oldenburg, Germany) A group of circa 20 Early and Mid-Career female scholars met on 24th October in Brighton at the premises of RSA headquarters for the inaugural Networking Workshop for Women in Regional Studies and Regional Science. The aim of this RSA member-led […]

Download ArticleBy Patrick Heidkamp (Southern Connecticut State University, CT, USA), John Morrissey (Mary Immaculate College, Ireland and Liverpool John Moores University, UK) and Catherine Chambers (University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland) About the RSA research network on Sustainability Transitions in the Coastal Zone Coastal areas, despite only occupying a relatively small percentage of the Earth’s land-surface, provide more […]

Download ArticleBy Chris Dimos (University of Bath, UK) and Samira Barzin (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) From October 8th to 11th 2018, the 6th Masterclass on EU Cohesion Policy was held as part of the 16th European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels. The Masterclass was a joint event led by the European Commission’s […]

Download ArticleBy Dane Anderton (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) The overall aim of this event was to bring people together and detailing the limits and variety of leadership of place. The workshop took place between 23rd and 24th of October 2018. This was two-day event scheduled into thematic areas within place leadership. Day one was split […]

Download ArticleBy David Bassens (Geography Department of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) The overall aim of this network is an open and   interdisciplinary network of academics, practitioners and experts interested in research on the spatiality of money and finance and its implications for the economy, society, and nature. The seminar was attended by approximately 70 people with […]

Download ArticleBy Arno van der Zwet (University of the West of Scotland, Scotland, UK), Sara Svensson (Central European University, Hungary) and Marijn Molema (Fryske Akademy Leeuwarden/Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Netherlands) This fifth and final workshop of the network took place at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, Scotland between […]

Download ArticleBy Leonid Limonov (ICSER “Leontief Centre”, St. Petersburg, Russia and Irina Turgel, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia) The conference ‘Urban and Regional Resilience: Strategies for Success’ was organized by the Russian Division of Regional Studies Association in cooperation with International Centre for Social and Economic Research “Leontief Centre” on the 22-23th of October, 2018 in […]

Download ArticleIf you are looking for an opportunity to present your research in a stimulating and friendly environment, we are sure you will find something that fits the bill below: Conferences Annual Conference: Pushing Regions Beyond their Borders 5th-7th June 2019, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Abstract submission deadline: 28th February 2019 RSA Europe’s Socio-Spatial Dynamics Summer College 3rd-6th […]

Download ArticleIn our 3rd issue, dedicated to Smart Specialisation, we have asked editors from the five RSA journals to highlight one paper of significance and relevance. The selection criteria vary but like our previous issues, we have challenged our RSA journals’ Editors about why the selected paper is particularly interesting; the theoretical and empirical linkage with other […]

Download ArticleEngaging, Exchanging and Impacting: Regional Research for All The launch in June of Regions eZine Issue 1, the first edition of Regions to be fully online and open access, has been a major success. Launched consecutively at the Regional Studies Association’s (RSA) annual conference in Lugano and the global conference in Beijing, the new […]

Download ArticleBy Liliana Fonseca, PhD fellow in Public Policy at University of Aveiro, Portugal. Liliana Fonseca argues that universities are increasingly called upon to engage with local and regional government, but do they possess the needed mechanisms to incentivise academics to do so? In this article Liliana explores the barriers that prohibit the effective linking […]

Download ArticleBy Hugo Pinto, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Hugo Pinto develops the concept of the ‘resilience of innovation’, which links ideas about innovation dynamics and resilience to anticipate how regions might respond to external shocks or systemic failures in the economy and environment. :Introduction: Complex problems, difficult answers The world is […]

Download ArticleBy Carolyn Cartier, University of Technology Sydney and Hu De, East China Normal University Carolyn Cartier and Hu De, discuss China’s plan for national urbanization. Focusing on Chongqing, they reveal a pattern small city urbanization that is closely tied to local market economies. :Introduction: A new city in a new China Among the many […]

Download ArticleBy Moritz Breul and Thomas Neise, Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany. Moritz Breul and Thomas Neise share some reflections on the 2018 meeting of the Young Economic Geographers Network (YEGN) workshop and set an exciting agenda for future events to be held by the network. :Introduction: The Young Economic Geographers Network (YEGN) […]

Download ArticleBy Martin Quinn, University of Leicester, UK. Regional Studies Association early career grant holder, Martin Quinn employs classical social contract theory to interpret the success of efforts made by local government and governance institutions in Leicestershire to engage with local business and the wider community to deliver economic growth. :Introduction: The UK economy is […]

Download ArticleBy Leslie Mabon, Reader in Environment and Society, Robert Gordon University, UK. Leslie Mabon presents research from his RSA early career grant funded research on low carbon transitions in carbon intensive regions. Drawing on evidence from a case study of Tomakomai city, Japan, he suggests effective transitions benefit from positive narratives focused on low […]

Download ArticleBy Xiangming Chen, Trinity College and Fudan University, Julie Tian Miao, University of Melbourne and Xue Li, Fudan University. Xiangming, Julie and Xue present a framework for understanding the risks involved in China’s  multi-national trans-regional Belt and Road Initiative. As part of research contributing to a Regional Studies Association Policy Expo they suggest how outcomes […]

Download ArticleBy John Harrison, Loughborough University, UK. Why think big? Here is the big paradox of academic research. Everything you read or hear as an early career researcher tells you that your research must involve ‘thinking big’. If you don’t believe me, read any journal website of your choice. The language will tell you something akin to […]

Download ArticleBy Lisa De Propris, Professor of Regional Economic Development, Birmingham Business School. Applying for research funding is now firmly part of contemporary academic life. One is asked about it when applying for jobs, when attempting to be promoted and it is part of many performance metrics at the department, school or other aggregate level. In […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. John Rennie Short, is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, US. He is an expert on urban issues, environmental concerns, globalization, political geography and the history of cartography. He has studied cities around the world, and lectured around […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Hans Westlund  is Professor in Urban and Regional Studies and Head of Department of Urban Planning and Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and Professor in Entrepreneurship at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden. He is also affiliated […]

Download ArticleReport on the RSA Research Network on Sustainability Transitions in The Coastal Zone   By  John Morrissey, Catherine Chambers, and Patrick Heidkamp The aim of this research network is to interrogate sustainability challenges in the coastal zone from the perspective of the emerging field of socio-technical transitions (STT) research. Socio-technical transitions are defined as major technological […]

Download ArticleReport on the RSA Workshop on ‘EU Cohesion Policy in Eastern and Southern Europe: Taking Stock and Drawing Lessons for the Future’ By Marcin Dabrowski, Delft University of Technology, Ida Musialkowska, Poznan University of Economics, Piotr Idczak, Poznan University of Economics and Oto Potluka, University of Basel This 10th workshop of the RSA Research Network […]

Download ArticleThe Editors’ Pick: from the editors’ desk The editors pick section is the part of Regions eZine that highlights the most interesting and innovative work being published across the Regional Studies Association’s five journals. In each issue, we ask the editors of Regional Studies, Regional Studies Regional Science, Territory, Politics, Governance, Spatial Economic Analysis and […]

Download ArticleReport on the symposium of the RSA Research Network on Migration, Inter-Connectivity and Regional Development (MICaRD) – “Beyond economic contribution: Migrant Identities, Working Lives and Social Embeddedness”  By Agnieszka Rydzik, Lincoln International Business School & Gary Bosworth, Lincoln School of Geography.  The University of Lincoln hosted the final symposium of the RSA funded MICaRD […]

Download ArticleReport on the RSA Annual Conference 2018 – A World of Flows: Labour Mobility, Capital and Knowledge in an Age of Global Reversal and Regional Revival By Javier Diaz Bay, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina The RSA Annual Conference 2018 – A World of Flows: Labour Mobility, Capital and Knowledge in an Age of Global […]

Download ArticleReport on the inaugural workshop of RSA Research Network on the Politics of Displacement, Identity and Urban Citizenship in Migratory Contexts  By Secil Dagtas, Dr. Hülya Arik, Johanna Reynolds and Dr. Kristen Biehl The ongoing war in Syria and displacement of millions worldwide has shaken citizens around the world, compelling many to offer assistance, […]

Download ArticleIn memoriam of Ray Thomas, an economist, statistician, pioneer of the Open University, and member of the team that produced ‘The Containment of Urban England’.  By David Webster and Simon Briscoe :Ray Thomas 10 December 1930 – 22 April 2018, was an economist who made major contributions as an expert on New Towns, as a […]

Download ArticleWelcome to Regions e-Zine It is often remarked that human development is a lifelong process, so is the development of an expert publication such as Regions. Changes in the editorship are a good moment to step back and reflect on the past trajectory of this publication and an also opportunity to look forward and […]

Download ArticleI am delighted to write this editorial for Regions having had the honour of becoming Chair of the Regional Studies Association last November. I am sometimes asked by people, outside higher education “What exactly are regions, and why do you study them?” My answer is intended to encourage people to focus on the issues. […]

Download ArticleThe RSA Russia Division in collaboration with the Ural Federal University Graduate School of Economics and Management successfully conducted an international workshop associated with  the XII  annual conference “Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes” on 16-18 November 2017. This annual conference is one of the biggest international discussion forums in Russia covering issues […]

Download ArticleCharting a Career Path: Sharing the Learning and Lessons, 2nd – 3rd November 2017, Newcastle, UK By Jakob Sparn, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Minas Gerais, Brazil The RSA Early Career Conference 2017 started as a conference on regional dimensions should, by embedding the participants a little bit in the region, or rather the […]

Download ArticleSmart City-Regional Governance for Sustainability – Spatial Smartness 21st and 22nd of September 2017, Gdańsk, Poland By Gerd Lintz, Iwona Sagan and Tassilo Herrschel The increasingly popular adjective ‘smart’ seems to be mostly associated with the term ‘smart city’ and the opportunities and risks associated with the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) […]

Download ArticleRegional Polarisation and Unequal Development in CEE: Challenges for Innovative Place-based Policies 10th – 13th September 2017 at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania By Júlia A. Nagy The increasing territorial inequalities, reflected through growing regional disparities, leave a strong imprint especially on the Central and Eastern European countries and call for […]

Download ArticleCamilla Chlebna, a postdoctoral researcher in the REENEA project on  Regional Energy Transitions at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany, has been appointed the Early Career representative to the RSA Board. Her research interests are the geography of innovation, agency based perspectives on sustainability transitions and the conceptualisation of power and politics in […]

Download ArticleHello everyone I’m pleased to have the opportunity to introduce myself and outline some of my thoughts in my new role as the Student Representative on the RSA Board.  After many years of business experience in senior roles with large organizations, and several years as the founder/CEO of my own start-up enterprise, I have […]

Download ArticleMia Bennett is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the development of transportation infrastructure in places often thought of as frontiers, namely the Arctic and areas under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. She integrates fieldwork […]

Download ArticleOladayo Ramon Ibrahim is a lecturer of Urban and Regional Planning at Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria. He holds two masters in Geography and Planning, and Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Lagos and he is currently working on his PhD, also in Urban and Regional planning, at the University of […]

Download ArticleElizabeth Mack is an Assistant Professor in the department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Before working at Michigan State she held a number of posts at Arizona State University, as well as a Ph.D. from Indiana University, an MA from the University of Cincinnati and a BA and BS […]

Download ArticleNick Gray is a doctoral Researcher, part-time Research Associate and occasional tutor at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. Prior to joining Northumbria, he spent several years working in public policy, principally as a Policy Advisor at Newcastle City Council but also in the NHS and charity sector. Outside of public policy he worked in […]

Download ArticleBy Rory Horner Global Development Institute, School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester.  Rory Horner discusses the transition from an International to a Global Development paradigm and the need for an approach to development that recognises the increasing importance of inequality across sub-national regions. :Introduction: A fundamental shift in the global map […]

Download ArticleBy Marte C W Solheim University of Stavanger Business School. Marte C W Solheim investigates how diversity within the workplace effects the capacity for firms to innovate and the relationship between firm location and the risk of being locked into a “wolfpack” mindset. Highlights: This piece discusses how different forms of diversity affect different […]

Download ArticleBy Rhiannon Pugh, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden and Elisa Thomas, Center for Innovation Research, Business School, University of Stavanger, Norway.  Rhiannon Pugh and Elisa Thomas reflect on their experiences of mobility as early career researchers and discuss the pros and cons of developing their research careers in new countries. :Introduction: […]

Download ArticleBy David Gibbs, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, United Kingdom.  Professor David Gibbs presents case studies of two regions (Styria and the East of England) and adopts a multi-level perspective to investigate how these regions have attempted to transition to more sustainable green economies. :Introduction: There has been growing interest by policy […]

Download ArticleBy Bernard Musyck and Dariia Robota School of Economic Sciences and Administration, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus. Bernard Musyck and Dariia Robota, present research on the Cypriot entrepreneurial ecosystem for startups and highlight the need to create a system that inspires collaboration and re-investment from successful entrepreneurs, rather than the search for startup heroes. :Introduction: […]

Download ArticleBy Susanne A. Frick London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.  Susanne Frick re-examines ideas about the link between urban agglomeration and economic development and suggests new policy thinking is needed to stimulate economic growth in developed and developing countries. :Introduction: How do urbanization and cities impact economic development? This question has […]

Download ArticleBy Paul Benneworth and Lisa Nieth Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, the Netherlands.  Paul Benneworth and Lisa Nieth consider how conceptualisations of universities as agents of regional development have evolved over the past four decades and suggest that to truly realise this ambition a more contextualised approach to university-region […]

Download ArticleBy Francisco Rowe Geographic Data Science Lab, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.  Francisco Rowe analyses trends in internal migration patterns across 27 European countries, revealing an as yet unappreciated variety of migration levels across European regions that poses a significant challenges to regional policymaking. :Introduction: Internal migration is […]

Download ArticleThe Regional Studies Association Europe’s Socio-Spatial Dynamics Summer College will create a fertile environment to tackle these challenges, training students and young researchers to collaborate and work across disciplines. The RSA Europe’s Summer College has been established to focus on how ideas, theories, methods and data can be leveraged across disciplines for the purpose of scientific advancement. […]

Download ArticleAs part of the 16th European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) 2018, the 6th Master Class on EU Cohesion Policy will be held for PhD students and early-career researchers between the 7th-11th October 2018 in Brussels. Applications to attend the 2018 University Master Class are being sought from PhD students and ECRs undertaking […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, Regions and Cities Book Series Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I am excited about my new role as editor-in-chief of the Regions and Cities Book Series with Routledge and humbled to be following in the footsteps of my friend, the late Susan Christopherson. With this premier issue of the RSA Regions E-zine, […]

Download ArticleInterview by Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Philip McCann is Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Sheffield and is an Honorary Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.  He is also the Tagliaferri Visiting Fellow in the Department of Land Economy at the University […]

Download ArticleThis book series brings together incisive and critically engaged international and interdisciplinary research on this resurgence of regions and cities, and should be of interest to geographers, economists, sociologists, political scientists and cultural scholars, as well as to policy-makers involved in regional and urban development. The series editors are Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University, USA, Ron Martin, University of Cambridge, UK, Maryann […]

Download ArticleThe Editors’ Pick section is a new innovation for Regions e-Zine In this section we aim to feature one paper published in the five RSA journals papers. The selection criteria will vary according to the central theme of each issue. It is our aim, however, to question the RSA journals’ Editors about why the […]