2024 RSA Winter Conference Special Sessions

Session Organisers:
Martina Pardy, London School of Economics, UK
Eduardo Hernández Rodríguez, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Benjamin Cornejo Costas, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Dima Yankova, Corvinus University, Hungary

Session Details:
In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and significant global challenges, the role of place-based regional innovation policies in addressing inequality has become increasingly pivotal. This special session delves into the compelling intersection of innovation, sustainability, and equity. The core themes of this session include: (1) Innovation for All: Strategies to ensure that technological advancements are widely shared. (2) Equitable Growth: Policies that promote inclusive economic development and reduce regional disparities. (3) Resilient Regions: Building regional resilience against economic, social, and environmental shocks.

Session Participants:
Iván Tartaruga,University of Porto, Portugal
Abstract title: “Inclusive eco-innovations in hierarchical regional innovation systems: Insights on place-based regional innovation policies”

Rune Dahl Fitjar, University of Stavanger, Norway
Abstract title: “Innovation Policy and Spatial Inequality: A Force for Divergence or Cohesion?”

Dongmiao Zhang, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract title: “The creative destruction of AI on occupations: evidence from MSAs in the US”

Martina Pardy, London School of Economics, United Kingdom
Abstract title: “Multinationals and intra-regional Innovation Concentration”

Pedro Llanos, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Abstract title: “A Tale of Two Subsidies: Industrial Policy and Firm Growth in Germany”

This special session is from the RSA funded Research Network on Smart Policies for Regional Innovation, Sustainability and Transitions (SPRINT)

Session Organisers:
Lucas Barning, University of Vienna, Austria
Astrid Krisch, University of Oxford, UK
Sarah Ware, WU Vienna, Austria

Session Description:
While regional social-ecological transformations aim to enhance environmental and societal well-being, they often have unintended consequences, amplifying existing injustices (e.g. regarding left behind places/regions) or creating new eco-social risks (Bohnenberger 2023). Such adverse effects often remain underexplored due to a narrow analytical focus, either constrained to nation states or specific
regions without considering inter-regional and place-based impacts – especially between the global North and South. Transition research has also often been limited to particular thematic areas (e.g. energy), while neglecting multi-system interactions (Andersen & Geels 2023). Although the discussion on aspects of justice and wellbeing in regional transformation has evolved considerably in recent years (e.g., through the concept of Energy Justice, see Jenkins 2016, or broader Just Transitions, see McCauley & Heffron 2018), much of the theorisation is still strongly bound to disciplinary and thematic silos. To develop holistic approaches that capture the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of wellbeing, this session brings different approaches to just regional eco-social transformation into conversation, including conceptual and empirical considerations of eco-social change. The track is also intended to stimulate network building of scholars around research on eco-social transformations. We therefore provide adequate space for interactive and engaging discussions that integrate multiple perspectives on geographical and thematic dimensions of (in)justice as well as different approaches for understanding and addressing this through social innovation and eco-social policy.

Session Participants:
Lucas Barning, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract title: Centring justice in eco-social policy and practice

Margaret Haderer, TU Wien, Austria
Abstract title: Which socio-ecological transformation, by and for whom? On the necessity and limits of state intervention

Dominik Gager, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Abstract title: Perceptions of the state’s role in a just socio-ecological transformation

Richard Bärnthaler, University of Leeds, UK
Abstract title: Reimagining Environmental as Eco-Social Politics and Policy: Towards Eco-Social Alliances from Below

Richard Crisp, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Anne Green, University of Birmingham, UK
David Waite, University of Glasgow, UK
Abstract title: Alternative approaches toward eco-social change

This special session is from the RSA funded Research Network on Eco-Social Policy and PRactice for Innovation and Transformation (ESPPRIT)

Session Organisers:
Charlotte Hoole, University of Birmingham, UK
Andy Pike, Newcastle University, UK
Anne Green, University of Birmingham, UK

Session Details:
This special session examines the pressing issue of entrenched geographical inequalities and contributes to ongoing debates on devolution, public funding and local and regional development across the UK. Key areas of interest include the efficient
allocation of limited public resources in a strained economic environment and the importance of strong local and regional institutions in delivering local and regional development and reducing geographical inequalities. The session aims to foster dialogue among academics and practitioners on the current challenges of the system and ways to promote more effective public funding allocations and governance structures throughout the UK for reducing geographical inequalities.

Session Participants:
Andy Pike, Newcastle University, UK
Anne Green, University Birmingham, UK
Abstract title: Better understanding public funding allocation for reducing geographical inequalities

Jack Newman, University of Bristol, UK
Charlotte Hoole, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract title: The intersection of productivity and governance capacity in spatial inequality: the case of England’s devolution periphery

Joyce Liddle, Newcastle Business School, UK
Abstract title: Are current local and regional institutions sufficiently robust to deliver local and regional development and reduce geographical inequalities? Identifying some governance, systemic and other challenges confronting the Labour Government in implementing Devolution for growth

Max Herbertson, London School of Economics, UK
Abstract title: Comparing place-based economic policies: lessons for the UK from the US and Europe

Chair:
Sarah Ayres, University of Bristol, UK

Session Organisers:
Jen Nelles, Oxford Brookes University, UK
J P Addie, University of Georgia, USA
Michael Glass, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Session Details:
This session aims to stimulate discussion engaging academics and practitioners around the policy and planning challenges of high-speed rail (e.g., HS2), regional networked mobility (Manchester’s Bee Network), and the differing capacities of epistemic communities to ‘see’ regional space through such projects. The session will officially launch the second phase of NOIR and is designed to provide both a timely and necessary moment for reflection for network members and seeks to mobilize NOIR conceptual foundations to practical issues and practitioners. This launch event will be aimed primarily at RSA members in attendance at the conference but also leverage our connections with local policy makers and planners and promote dissemination of NOIR’s work to a broad practitioner community.

Session Participants
Thomas Arnold, University of Liverpool, UK
Abstract title: Regional Rail Imaginaries in Northern England: From the Pennines to Powerhouse and Beyond

Chia-Lin Chen, University of Liverpool, UK
Abstract title: Stuck on Infrastructure? Planning for the Transformative Effects of Transport Infrastructure

Dan Durrant, UCL, UK
Abstract title: High speed rail and national imaginaries

David Valler & Jan Nelles, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Abstract title: EWR: Infrastructure and Regional Planning in the Supercluster

Nasima Baron-Yelles, University Gustave Eiffel, France
Abstract title: Transit Thermal Re-infrastructuration don’t Refresh Hubs but Reactivate Node Planning

Noir are also holding two slots for practitioner discussants TBD.

Practitioner 1

Practitioner 2

Session organisers and presenters:
David Marlow – Visiting Professor, Newcastle University (UK)
Michael Glass – Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh (USA)
Carlos Cadena – Associate Professor, EAFIT University (Colombia)
Diana Morales – Postdoctoral researcher, University of Oslo (Norway)
Luke Green – PhD researcher, Newcastle University (UK)

Is Inclusive Innovation as difficult to identify and analyse as is sometimes claimed? And has the i3o programme come up with a credible, practical solution?

Can we trust non-government agents like universities and philanthropists to deliver innovation interventions in ways that optimise inclusion impact and outcomes?

Are there alternatives to models from places like Silicon Valley or Cambridge for cities seeking to become global innovation hotspots?

In this session, which will be interactive and deliberative, we will present and discuss the results of the ‘Improving Inclusive Innovation Outcomes’ (i3o) program. We shall outline the content of a forthcoming RSA Policy Expo book on i3o. The main objective of this session is to discuss the book’s findings and structure and to gather appropriate feedback prior its completion. We particularly welcome policymakers, alongside academics, to engage in this dialogue. This session is also an opportunity to connect with a growing research and policy field.

Governments tend to assume Science, Technology, Research and Innovation (STRI) policies, programmes and investments are a positive way to drive long-term economic performance improvement. But STRI do not always bring even results. These types of strategies can leave some people and communities behind, with certain segments of society missing out on the assumed benefits. ‘Inclusive innovation’ – ensuring that progress is not a privilege enjoyed by the few but shared by all – seeks to address such challenges. However, important concerns and gaps remain – some exemplified by the questions at the top of this abstract.

The book and the Conference session will explore how to secure more inclusion-rich approaches and outcomes from STRI policies and programmes. It will cover four case studies, different places with significant challenges across different geographies: Newcastle (UK), Pittsburgh (USA), cities facing challenges of post-industrial decline, and Medellín (Colombia) and Belfast (Northern Ireland), cities facing challenges of post-conflict and post-industrial recovery. The cases illustrate how to recognise characteristics of inclusive Innovation, how can it address pressing societal and economic challenges, how to support ‘left behind’ communities considering various dimensions of social inclusion, and how to ensure that future innovation efforts prioritise inclusion, especially in regions undergoing significant transitions.

We look forward to your participation and insights on this forthcoming publication.

Session Organisers:
Diana Morales, University of Oslo, Norway.
Emil Evenhuis, PBL Netherland Environmental Assessment Agency,  The Netherlands.
Camilla Chlebna, ZSI – Centre for Social Innovation, Austria.

Session details:
Today we know that planetary boundaries are severely being exceeded as a result of anthropogenic activities. Among the human activities putting pressure on the Earth system, activities broadly considered economic are by far the biggest contributors. Yet, economic prosperity and growth continue to be the prevailing points of reference in regional studies and economic geography, fields long preoccupied with explaining why and how wealth is created and retained in certain regions and not in others. Our call is to propose a research agenda that rethinks regional studies and economic geography in the light of ‘planetary boundaries’ as the point of reference. Planetary boundaries define the overall safe operating space with respect to the planet’s biophysical and biochemical systems and processes, ensuring human welfare and societal development. At the moment, 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries are being exceeded as a consequence of human activity, climate change as a result of increasing concentration of greenhouse gases is one of these.  One part of the proposed agenda is to reconsider the relations between the economy (and society) with the natural environment. Another part is to re-examine what ‘development’ in places and across space could look like if planetary boundaries are indeed prioritised. The aim of this session is to begin a constructive debate on how the dire state of the natural environment can be considered better within the theory and practice of regional studies and economic geography. First the organisers of the panel will introduce a recently published paper in Progress in Economic Geography (Chlebna, Evenhuis & Morales; forthcoming), in which they elaborate a research agenda that takes planetary boundaries as the primary starting point. This introduction will be followed by a series of interventions by the invited members of the panel, in which they reflect on how – and if – they think a concern for planetary boundaries should be integrated into the fields of study. Later, the discussion will be opened to the audience for questions and further comments.

Panellists:
Heike Meyer, professor at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland
Christian Schulz, professor at the department of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Luxembourg.
Sergio Montero, associate professor and director of the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (IIESL), University of Toronto, Canada
Andrea Furnaro, PhD student for research associate at the Department for Sustainable Energy Transition, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany

Abstract & Presenters:
Diana Morales, University of Oslo, Norway.
Emil Evenhuis, PBL Netherland Environmental Assessment Agency,  The Netherlands.

Planetary boundaries set the limits within which human societies can operate and thrive. Given that planetary boundaries are severely being exceeded to anthropogenic activities, while human development is fundamentally dependent on the state of the environment, we argue that the research agenda within economic geography and regional studies needs to be reconsidered with this in mind. Centring the research agenda on how humanity can operate within planetary boundaries, instead of economic prosperity and growth and its unevenness, implies that the normative orientation of the field will have to move to the principles of sustainability, global equity, sufficiency, wellbeing and decoloniality. Considering this, we offer several constructive ways forward

Session Organisers:
Lauren Andres, University College London, UK
Shauna Brail, University of Toronto, Canada

Session Details:
Cities are understood to have evolved and transformed over time in response to numerous crises. In the 21st century, cities are faced with an accumulation of crises involving, among other things, climate, housing affordability, geopolitical tensions, increasing socio-economic vulnerabilities and post pandemic recovery. Scholarship suggests that through innovation and adaptation, cities and regions can transform, regenerate and strengthen their resilience to be able to respond more effectively to future threats. For example, the pandemic has been acknowledged as accelerating urban adaptation in terms of the use of streetscapes and new forms of working. In the proposed Special Session, papers will examine a range of urban adaptations, precipitated by crisis, in a post pandemic period. This includes emphasis on complex questions about the future of cities with respect to issues such as urban governance approaches, remote work and the future of downtowns and high streets, infrastructure investment priorities, and the role of placemaking in transforming public spaces and creating healthier cities. Papers will draw on theoretical and empirical approaches and case study examples that show key learnings and policy implications. The session will aim to set the directions for future scholarly investigation.

Session Participants:
Lauren Andres, University College London, UK
Abstract title: Governing adaptability and resilience in times of crisis: a critical assessment of the pandemic-led adaptations of streets and outdoor spaces in NYC (US) and Toronto (CA) and their legacy.

Ilaria Mariotti, DAStU-Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Abstract title: How twin transition and flexible working arrangements influence the Italian’s inclination to change residence

Stefania Fiorentino, University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract title: Will tourist-led regeneration and the boom of short-term lettings help a post-COVID recovery in British coastal towns?

John R. Bryson, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract title: Remote workers’ adaptations to on-going adjustments to the configuration of urban value chains

Mia Gray, Cambridge University, UK
Betsy Donald, Queen’s University, Canada
Abstract title: Exploring culture and place in the urban platform economy – San Francisco as exemplar of 21st century rentier capitalism and implications for policy

Session Organsiers:
Alison Clarke, Insights North East, Newcastle University, UK
Emily Rainsford. Insights North East, Newcastle University, UK

Session Details and Abstract:
In the past decade, there has been an explosion in the number of UK-based knowledge brokerage organisations (KBOs), particularly with a regional focus and in partnership with universities (Durrant and MacKillop, 2022; MacKillop and Downe, 2022). These KBOs bring together evidence from an interdisciplinary knowledge base to address real-world, policy-led challenges. However, this growth risks creating a ‘mass of rudderless activity’ that is ‘busy rather than effective’ (Oliver et al., 2022). It is important both for the HEI REF/impact agenda and for the sector’s reputation that KBOs themselves draw on the best possible evidence. As many KBOs reach maturity, the question of how best to measure and evaluate their success (or otherwise) becomes key. It remains challenging to demonstrate a direct link between the actions of a KBO and policy outcomes, especially over the short term (Mäkelä and Oliver, 2024; Vallance et al., forthcoming). What options do KBOs have for assessing their impact? This question also raises methodological challenges including outcome variables, different types of impact and the scope of evaluations. Our session brings together the key academic and practitioner voices in this field from across the UK. They will share reflections from six different university-associated KBOs, examine their approach to evaluation, and discuss challenges and successes. This important discussion speaks strongly to the theme of reshaping regions, situating the role of universities in regional policy partnerships with both local and national government. The session will highlight evaluation options for KBO-based practitioners and policymakers that will support them in working together towards stronger regional futures.

Panellists:
Dave Blackbell, Scottish Policy and Research Exchange (SPRE)
Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin, Scottish Policy and Research Exchange (SPRE)
Sarah Chaytor, Director of Strategy & Policy, (UCL)
Kayleigh Renberg-Fawcett, University Policy Engagement Network (UPEN)
Paul Vallance, Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP).

Panel Chairs:
Alison Clarke, Insights North East (INE) , Newcastle University, UK
Emily Rainsford, Insights North East (INE) , Newcastle University, UK

Session Organisers:
Riccardo Crescenzi, LSE, U.K
Carolin Hulke, LSE, U.K
Oliver Harman, University of Oxford/LSE, U.K

Session Details:
This session will continue building upon RSA’s 2023 Annual Conference’s Opening Plenary ‘Green Global Value Chains for Sustainable Regional Development’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRER6fGE9c) and RSA’s 2024 Annual Conference’s Special Session by the same name by bringing together policy-relevant and interdisciplinary academic research on Green Global Value Chains. This RSA 2024 special session will speak to the Winter Conference’s theme of “Driving Regions Forward: Transitioning to Brighter Regional Futures”, specifically how greening global value chains can be utilised to drive sustainable regional development and how to avoid potential pitfalls in this. The Green Transition is one of the key transitions with highly dynamic institutional, political changes that constantly pose new challenges to brighter regional futures. How such new institutional dynamism, for instance in the EU’s Green Deal, the UN’s new framework for carbon trading, new due diligence laws, or carbon taxes, just to name a few, will affect value chains is currently under-explored in academia and policy at the sub-national level. By bringing together an expanding network of scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, this special session will attempt to address this important agenda and create a dialogue among scholars.

Session Participants:
Speakers from various disciplines and universities will address various conceptual building blocks and empirical case studies in the global north and south:
Aarti Krishnan, University of Manchester, UK on environmental crisis and upgrading trajectories;
Dalila Ribaudo, Aston Business School, UK on green foreign direct investment;
Tobias Wuttke, Bard College Berlin, Germany on incumbent advantage and challenges to latecomer catch-up in automotives,
Carolin Hulke, LSE, UK on carbon trading and the greening of value chains
Riccardo Crescenzi, LSE, UK and Oliver Harman, LSE, UK on green global value chains.

Session Organisers:
Alex de Ruyter, Birmingham City University, UK
Andrew Beer, University of South Australia, Australia
David Bailey, University of Birmingham, UK
Sally Weller, University of South Australia, Australia

Session Details:
As cities and regions face up to the challenges posed by climate change, the concept of a Just Transition (Newell and Mulvaney, 2013) has gained increasing traction in academic and policy debates in recent years as a key part of global efforts to attain Net Zero. The ILO (2015) advocate that a Just Transition should enhance environmental and labour objectives at the same time, in the pursuit of “well-managed environmentally sustainable economies and societies, decent work for all, social inclusion and the eradication of poverty”. That is, a Just Transition addresses both climate (environmental) justice and social justice concerns (Snell, 2018) and is an essential element of the shift towards a more Just Society. In this closed session, we seek to explore the preconditions and implications of a Just Transitions on cities and regions. Areas for discussion could include:

• Critically appraising the contested meanings of Just Transitions as it enters mainstream discourse
• Exploring the political dimension of spatial justice and the tensions between different scalar lenses
• Explicating the role of trade unions, in defining and securing just transitions at various scalar levels
• Examining the implications of a Just Transition on particular carbon-intensive industries such as automotive

Session Participants:
More details to follow shortly

Session Organisers
Özge Dilaver, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK
Wenying Fu, Department of Geography, Northumbria University, UK

Session Description:
While the literature on agglomeration is well established and voluminous (Cooke, 2001; Boschma, 2005; Trippl and Tödtling, 2007; Uyarra, 2010; Iammarino and McCann, 2015), rising inequalities and polycrisis that curtail social sustainability, and recent scholarly and policy interest in left-behind places call for revisiting urban agglomeration from different vantage points. The existing literature largely intersects neoliberal modernisation theory at the presumption that innovation-driven, growth-dependent capitalism will provide a political solutions to complex socio-economic problems. As such, it tends to side-line the socially constructed and politically contested aspects of ‘being proximate’.

From this vantage point, innovation activities and their dynamics are often studied within the contexts of corporates, R&D talents, and classical clusters, neglecting the agencies and capacities of marginalized groups (Florida and Mellander, 2009; Fu, 2023; Ormerod, 2023) and low-income & peripheral regions (Dilaver et al, 2015; Dilaver et al 2023). Innovations that are less visible in corporate profitability, including frugal innovation (Vossenberg, 2017; Barnikol and Liefner, 2022; Sheikh et al., 2024), social innovation (Graddy-Reed and Feldman, 2015; Van der Have and Rubalcaba, 2016), and informal innovation (Fu et al., 2013; Qian et al., 2021), are not sufficiently addressed.

In addition to taking stock of what we know and don’t know of urban agglomeration, its mechanisms and accelerators (Storper, 2018; Kemeny and Osman, 2018; Lee, 2019; Kemeny et al, 2022), we will open new conceptual spaces for more nuanced understandings of its inclusions and exclusions. To this aim, we seek papers that revisit agglomeration conceptually, theoretically, empirically and/or computationally. We are particularly interested in opening up the knowledge space on urban agglomeration along axes of tension, which include but are not limited to:

• Urban agglomeration as a naturally-occurring versus a politically-constructed process
• Causes and mechanisms of agglomeration including but not restricted to Marshallian (1920) and Jacobsian (1969) dynamics
• Inclusions and exclusions in discourses and explanations of urban agglomeration
• Impacts of agglomeration on lives and livelihoods covering both contents and discontents of urban agglomeration
• The roles and effects of urban agglomeration in innovation of different types, including not only technological innovation in corporate sectors, but also frugal innovation, social innovation, and informal innovation

Session Participants:
Jacob Salder and John Bryson, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract title: Employment, urban agglomeration and the evolving spaces of work: a comparative study of a primary and secondary centre in the West Midlands

Alexandre Gomes, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Abstract title: Mission-oriented innovation, local industrial agglomeration and experimentation: the case of electric vehicles in China

Fumi Kitagawa, City-REDI, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract title: Urban Agglomeration and Net-Zero Transition – Governance and Innovation of District Heating Infrastructure

Giulia Faggio, City St George’s, University of London, UK
Abstract title: Spatial Wage Disparities within Cities: Sorting and Agglomeration Economies

Lasse Bundgaard, Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
Abstract title: Comparing Turning Points: A tool to assess Urban Transformations

Session Organiser:
Julian Schwabe, University of Marburg, Germany

Session Description:
Amidst digitization and electrification as the current industrial mega-trends, the automotive sector is undergoing a process of fundamental re-structuring. Gradually, battery-based electric engines are being introduced as main propulsion technology, which puts comprehensive industrial value chains for the development and production of combustion engines at risk of becoming redundant. Furthermore, the increasing importance of on-board digital functions, digital integration of vehicles with other devices and autonomous driving also point to new core-competencies (such as development of software and AI as well as cross-sectoral product integration) which have not traditionally been embedded in automotive GPNs.
These trends have profound spatial and organizational implications for the sector: Organizationally, the boundaries of automotive production networks are being re-defined as new firms, including new automotive manufacturers, tier 1 suppliers (in particular battery cell manufacturers) as well as large “tech”-firms and software startups enter the sector. These form complex relationships with incumbent firms, consisting of co-ownership, competition, and technology transfer, challenging previously entrenched power hierarchies between dominant lead firms and “captive” suppliers in globally organized production networks. Geographically, such paradigm shifts have implications on established automotive regions, which face transformative pressure and risk of industrial decline. In contrast, new agglomerations for production and supply of electric vehicles and batteries emerge, as well as spatially dispersed piloting areas for the development and gradual introduction of autonomous vehicles.

The emergence of new industrial structures is accompanied by policy framework-setting, incentives and interventions designed by state actors aiming to localize value creation for digital, electric vehicles. Major global economies and companies are actively piloting and testing various technologies for future autonomous vehicles, aiming to secure first-mover advantages. These developments re-define inter-firm relationships, spatialities of value creation and technological capabilities as well as inter-firm and cross-regional distributions of power. Given the importance of the automotive industry, the ongoing transitions have significant geo-political implications which are, for example, illustrated by import tariffs imposed by the EU on electric vehicles from China.

In the context of these macro-trends, this session focuses on processes of industrial restructuring, market transformations and geopolitical implications within and across China, Europe and India. The presented papers will be part of a special issue focusing on transitions in the automotive sector in Progress in Economic Geography to which interested scholars are cordially invited to submit abstracts until Sept. 27th. Further information on the special issue can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/progress-in-economic-geography/about/call-for-papers#the-new-geographies-of-automotive-production

Session Participants:
Qi Song, University of Sussex, UK
Abstract title: Time to accelerate or slow down: How German automotive firms cope with the entry of Chinese electric vehicles into the European market

Huiwen Gong, University of Stavanger, Norway
Abstract title: Tightrope walk in reconfiguring global production networks in uncertain times? Ambivalences and co-evolution of China and Europe in the EV battery industry

Alen Toplišek, University of Derby, UK
Abstract title: Between a rock and a hard place: the geopolitical implications of the EV trade war between China and the West on the UK automotive industry

Julian Schwabe, University of Marburg, Germany
Abstract title: Inter-firm networks for autonomous driving: The emergence of Robotaxis in China

Alex De Ruyter, Birmingham City University, UK
Abstract title: Towards Net Zero and Digitalisation in Karnataka Province: the twin challenges for firms in the automotive supply chain in the Greater Bengaluru Region