Date and time
The conference photos can now be viewed by clicking here. To access the info graphic for this conference, please click here.We were pleased to welcome delegates from 16 different countries to Bogotá. To download the Conference Infographic, please click here. To hear first-hand from the conference experience of the student delegation of the Universidad de San Francisco, Ecuador, you can read their conference report here.
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As a result of the fruitful discussions at the RSA Latin America Division Conference, we have established a Jiscmail list: LATIN-AMERICA-FORUM@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
This list provides a platform to discuss and share latest developments in regional research, policy and practice in Latin America. The list is open to RSA members and non-members. Posts are moderated and can be made in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
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Much of our understanding of local economic development is based on large urban agglomerations as nodes of innovation and competitive advantage that connect territories to global value chains. This framework not only over-represents the urban and regional dynamics of cities of the global North, it also fails to address the challenges of smaller cities and peripheral regions in both the North and the South. These cities and regions can be following different development trajectories and modes of insertion to the global economy while still subject to the forces of globalisation, financialisation and planetary urbanisation that affect large urban agglomerations. This can be seen not only as a worrying gap in the literature, but also as a problem for practitioners in small and intermediate cities. Theories and policies that seek to support the ascent of global city-regions, such as export zones, high-tech clusters, and business and talent attraction strategies do not transfer well to the economic development reality of smaller cities and peripheral regions. This is where planners are striving to diversify their economic base in the face of youth migration to large urban centres, to improve public-private synergies in the context of low levels of trust or to manage the environmental consequences of extractive industries.
The 2019 RSA Latin American Division Conference in Bogotá will focus on understanding the formal and informal institutional processes through which local economic development occurs. It will have a particular emphasis on peripheral regions and small and medium-sized cities, both in the global North and the South, as well as on how the relationship between areas with large agglomerations, both domestic and globally, affect their opportunities for development. Despite decades of local and regional development policies and planning, uneven development and inter-regional differences continue to persist between large urban agglomerations and peripheral regions. We seek papers that explore new and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches in regional studies to better capture the potential of institutions in local economic development, particularly when institutions are from the peripheries of local economic development debates. In this context, it is also crucial to understand how extractive economies, racial and patriarchal logics, infrastructure development or the increasing financialisation of the economy are affecting the local economic development possibilities of peripheral regions and cities around the globe.
Conference themes:
- Institutions and Local Economic Development
- Universities and Regional Development
- Uneven Development Dynamics in Peripheral Regions
- Extractivism, Biodiversity and Local Economic Development
- Rural-urban Linkages
- Place-leadership and Territorial Development
- Urban and Regional Politics and Governance
- Infrastructure and Regional Development
- Innovation and Cluster Policies in Peripheral Regions
- Global Value Chains and Global Production Networks
- Creative Districts and Displacement
- Post-Development and Post-Colonial Approaches to Local Economic Development
- Decentralisation and Urban and Regional Planning
- Class, Race, Gender and Local Economic Development
- Place-based and Place-sensitive Policies
Academic organisers:
Sergio Montero (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)
Miguel Atienza (Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile)