The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a huge shock for tourism regions across Europe. National borders were closed, effectively reducing international tourism to zero, and in many countries national or regional lock downs closed tourism and hospitality businesses for long periods of time. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a great deal of discussion among […]
Julia, a Polish national, joined UNU-MERIT in 2022 as a PhD Student Affairs Officer. She has worked as an Education & Research Officer at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) of Maastricht University. Julia holds her MA degree in European Public Affairs (2021) and BA degree in European Studies (2020). Her research interests include European […]
The countries of the Western Balkan region – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*[1], North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – share a common aspiration for a future within the European Union, despite their diversity and idiosyncrasies[2]. That said, the territorial and political complexities of this region of nearly 20 million inhabitants, render the translation of EU […]
Whether we call it cohesion, levelling up, lagging regions, or place-based policy; regional inequality has been a long-term persistent problem. I started to become really interested in how places adapt, and what we would find if we begin from the starting point of adaptation – particularly using the Deleuzian Assemblage and the complex adaptive […]
One of the most striking features of the COVID-19 pandemic is the marked spatial difference in the spread of the virus. Initially, urban areas were hit hardest by Covid-19, followed by smaller cities, rural towns and small hamlets. Differences in population density and occupational concentration have been proposed as key factors explaining the urban-rural difference […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted our daily lives and lead to the disruption of global value chains and cross-border mobility. International higher education has also been profoundly affected by these shifts, as international students have been unable to travel to their overseas campus locations and university campuses in many countries have shifted to online […]
The aim of smart specialization is to support regions in building on their existing strengths to develop competitiveness in related, but more complex, new activities. So why do regions often target other types of activities in their smart specialization strategies? The full paper on which this blog is based on is available here. Since […]
Spatial Foresight is a private consultancy and independent think tank in the area of European territorial policies and research. Most importantly, it is a multi-national and interdisciplinary team. It has its main office in Heisdorf (Luxembourg) and branch offices in Berlin (Germany) and Paris (France). The fields of activity bring together territorial development and policy […]
Corfu is the birthplace of great poets, writers and people of art and culture. Its historical background is linked to the acceptance of the principles of French and English town planning and Italian architecture in historic buildings. The appearance of capitalism in the regions were associated with the development of a new urban environment. First […]
Sanja Kmezić is a lecturer at the University of Graz, where she teaches Economic Analysis of Law, Socio-economic Development in South East Europe, and Transition Policy and Regional Development in South East Europe. Sanja has worked as an international consultant for the World Bank, European Commission, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and USAID on […]
We are delighted that RSA members, Jon Mikel Zabala Iturriagagoitia and Stephanie Grimbert have been awarded the Babbage Industrial Innovation Policy Award 2021 by the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy department at the University of Cambridge, for their contribution, with Ville Valovirta, on “Implementing innovation-related public procurement: ordinary, dynamic and functional capabilities”.
International Centre for Social and Economic Research “Leontief Centre” was established in 1991 as an independent research and consulting organization at the time of historical transformations of society, economy, and the State. The new research Centre was mainly focused on coordinating all-Russian and regional research on the transition economy to attract investment. Subsequently, the topics […]
The approval of the UN Urban Agenda and the European Urban Agenda in 2016 reveal the growing importance of cities all around the world. Moreover, at the international level, cities are speaking up for themselves and by themselves. It is clear in the different COPs and even more inside the European institutions. © A “quintessential […]
“What do you do here?” is a common question we get asked as islanders from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Visitors from cities may regard remote, rural, and island places as backward – at times seeking such places out as empty ‘wilderness’ that is devoid of people. But we ask to what extent does such […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Cohesion Policy is the EU’s largest investment policy aimed at reducing economic, social and territorial disparities across Member States and regions. The financial resources allocated to Cohesion Policy […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Population loss in regions has gained attention internationally. This phenomenon is referred to as regional shrinkage in academic literature. A European Parliament report defined shrinking regions as regions […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures – Little did I know what influence the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic would have on my plans of conducting a case study to […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Studying the farming history in the UK I realised there had been inflexion points where farming’s fortunes have changed dramatically. For example, the 1920’s agricultural crisis (for the […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Exiting the intense stages of pandemic restrictions will be seen as a welcome sight around Europe. Societies, individuals, and economies are positioned to benefit as we envision a […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Iceland’s remote communities are experiencing the combined impact of declining fisheries, de-population and socio-economic instability. Having spent twenty years working on industrial heritage conservation in a professional capacity I […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. In line with global trends, Ireland has seen greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase with economic growth. As of 2016, road transport accounted for 95% of all transport related […]
The official 2021 RSA Response to the USS Consultation. RSA Response to USS Consultation
From tech clusters to the creative class, innovation is often associated with urban agglomeration. Rural innovation receives less attention. Sometimes, stereotypes and nostalgia locate rural places in the past and forget that rural people need futures. Sometimes, policies situate cities as ‘engines’ of growth and simply assume rural places will be pulled along … eventually. […]