2025 RSA Annual Conference Special Sessions

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) are bringing their SMARTER sessions to the RSA Annual Conference 2025 in Porto. The overall focus of the SMARTER stream is on challenges and opportunities of place-based transformations towards sustainability and resilience.

They have proposed three JRC SMARTER sessions one in collaboration with the OECD.

1. Innovation and entrepreneurship in rural areas: theory and practice

Session organisers:
Simone Sasso, European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Seville
Michelle Marshalian, OECD, Paris

Session Description:

Understanding and measuring innovation and entrepreneurship in rural areas is challenging, given the distinct nature of innovation in rural contexts compared to urban settings. The difference arises from various factors including the economic structures of rural areas, such as the size and sector composition of businesses, and the occupational makeup of the workforce. In this session, we invite quantitative and qualitative papers that analyse how innovation and entrepreneurship unfold in rural areas, focusing on their patterns, characteristics, and key determinants.

We also welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions that study the configurations of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural areas and their role in unlocking rural development potential. Considering the importance of connectivity in rural areas, we encourage papers that examine how connections and collaborations among internal and external actors are formed or disrupted, and the role of urban-rural linkages in strengthening rural ecosystems.

 

2. Accelerating the achievements of the SDGs through adequate STI finance: Mapping STI financing flows, actors, and types of financing

Session organiser:
Angela Sarcina, European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Seville

Session Description:

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, positioned science, technology and innovation (STI) as one of the key pillars for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, despites its transformative role, STI remains underfunded, and the main STI investment targets such as the EU target of 3% expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP and the 2024 STISA target of 1% in Africa are not met in most countries.

To finance STI, countries and regions leverage several sources of financing for STI such as domestic public and private finance, foreign direct investment (FDI), and donor capital. However, a primary obstacle they face when implementing STI policies and strategies is the task of securing and effectively utilizing the most appropriate financial resources. Furthermore, in developing contexts, there is often a disconnect between the investment agendas, funding instruments, investors, international donors and the actual needs and priorities at the national and local levels. This misalignment can result in redundant activities and oversight of critical sustainability challenges. To ensure the successful execution of STI strategies, it is essential to understand the landscape of financing in STI, including funding mechanisms, investors, flows and geography.  Besides attracting more funding, improving the effectiveness of STI funding is paramount to unleash the transformative potential of STI.

This special session is open for the submission of contributions that aim to discuss the geography and the directionality of STI financing, with a focus on Europe and Africa, but not exclusively. Moreover, it intends to shed light on mechanisms to improve the directionality of STI funding, as well as funding effectiveness.

Key topics for the session may include:

• Geography of STI financing (by type, flows, gaps, sectors, SDGs, etc.)
• Innovation in STI financing (crowdfunding, debt-for-nature swaps, results-based finance, etc.)
• STI financing and local sustainability needs
• Collaboration and cooperation in STI funding
• Mechanisms to align incentives among STI donor/investor and recipient countries and regions
• The role of the private sector in STI financing
• Governance of STI funding at country or local level

 

3. Smarter, stronger, resilient rural areas

Session organiser:
Lewis Dijkstra, European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Ispra

Session Description:

On many fronts, rural regions in the EU are catching up. The relative gap with urban regions in terms of economic development, productivity, broadband accessibility and the share of tertiary educated has been shrinking over the past decade. But not all rural regions follow the same pattern. Rural regions close to a city are doing most of the converging, while remote rural regions are not reducing the gap. The combination of an ageing population and low fertility rates will alter the age structure of the EU population with big increases in the share of seniors and shrinking share of children and working age adults.

Projections indicate that in the next decade the EU population will start to shrink. These demographic changes affect some regions more than others. Urban regions are the only ones to still grow, while the intermediate and rural regions will shrink. In this session, we invite analysis of economic, demographic and social change in rural regions and areas, especially using a pan-European approach.

We welcome both analysis of the past and projections of the future. Last but not least, we welcome papers that connect these changes to possibly policy responses.

Session Organisers:

Nayara Albrecht, Newcastle University, UK 

Session Description:

In today’s rapidly evolving world, making informed, data-driven decisions is becoming increasingly crucial for policymakers. As regions face complex and unique challenges, ranging from economic disparities to environmental concerns, integrating data into policymaking offers a powerful tool for crafting targeted and effective solutions. This session will delve into the growing relevance of data in shaping policies that are not only evidence-based but also finely tuned to the specific needs of different regions. The session will explore a variety of papers and contributions that demonstrate how data can enhance decision-making, enabling policymakers to tackle pressing regional issues such as economic development, environmental sustainability, and social equity with greater precision and impact. It invites a multidisciplinary approach, encouraging insights from diverse fields that can enrich the discussion on data-driven policymaking. Participants are encouraged to present case studies that showcase the successful implementation of data-driven strategies in various regions, while also acknowledging the challenges that come with integrating data into policy frameworks. Among the key challenges discussed will be issues of data accessibility, privacy concerns, and the critical need for building the capacity of policymakers to effectively utilise data. Ultimately, this session emphasises the importance of collaboration between governments, the private sector, and academic institutions. Such partnerships are essential for overcoming the hurdles associated with data-driven policymaking and fully realising its potential in fostering regional development and addressing local challenges.

Session Organisers:

Emma Ormerod, Newcastle University, UK
Lynette Washington, University of South Australia, Australia

Session Description:

Place-based leadership (PBL) studies has drawn on traditional leadership models, but importantly breaks from these to emphasise agency, the sharing of power, collaboration, informal networking, connectivity, and transformational rather than transactional leadership. Coming largely out of work within the Regional Studies Association, such research has been significant in understanding the development (and divergence) of places: who is leading, in what ways, and how this shapes local and regional place-making. Whilst the study of PBL is now relatively well established, there have been calls for scholarship to pay closer attention to issues of power, diversity and inclusion (Hambleton, 2015; Montero and Medina-Garzon, 2021; Ormerod, 2023; Sotarauta and Beer, 2021). Scholars in critical leadership studies have drawn on a range of perspectives such as feminist, intersectional and decolonial thinking to shed light on unequal leadership (Klenke, 2017; Liu, 2021; Sheridan et al, 2011). How might these and other approaches help shape the future of PBL studies? How can more attention be paid to power relations and systems of oppression across different forms of PBL and different geographies, thus encouraging places to draw on the skills, perspectives and abilities of those who have been excluded? What concepts, theories, methodologies and methods can we use? In this Special Session we welcome submissions that consider the ways in which we might open space to think about future directions in PBL studies. How might we draw on more inclusive practices and thinking that mobilise all members of the community to make visible a range of ongoing inequalities, and think about more equitable futures?

Session Organisers:

Andrea Belmartino Università degli studi di Sassari, Italy
Pablo Galaso UDELAR, Uruguay
Sergio Palomeque UDELAR, Uruguay

Session Description:

Digitalisation and decarbonisation are two of the main strategies for countries to move towards sustainable and inclusive development, impacting the way goods and services are produced and distributed, as well as lifestyles around the world. Both strategies are driven by digital and green technologies. On the one hand, the digital transition infrastructure depends on critical minerals. On the other hand, the green shift paradigm, based on renewable energy technologies, is a turning point compared to previous technology paradigms, based on fossil fuel power generation technologies, as it requires not only significantly larger quantities of critical minerals and minerals, but also a wide range of them. The Latin American region concentrates a high proportion of the world’s production of some of the minerals needed for both transitions, which may open windows of opportunity that will depend on local capabilities and access to knowledge flows.
This session seeks to open a space for discussion on these opportunities for Latin America, and will therefore mainly accept papers dealing with the following topics:

• Just Transition
• Twin transition
• Innovation and sustainability
• Innovation and inequality
• Development of 4.0 technologies
• Green and digital transitions
• Theoretical debate under sustainable transition literature

Session Organisers:

Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Piotr Idczak, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland

Session Description:

The urban axis of the Cohesion Policy has been strengthened in the last budget period, earmarking 8% of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in each Member State for urban actions implemented by local entities. This economic reinforcement operates through urban instruments that from 2007 opened gradually the spectrum of projects that municipalities can carry out, based on the guiding concept of “Sustainable Urban Development (SUD)”, counting with the discursive complement of the Urban Acquis (especially the New Leipzig Charter), the contribution of the Joint Research Center, and still “waiting” for an Urban Agenda for the European Union that does not find the necessary mechanisms and policy support to become a significant route map.

Along with an interesting and rich array of “urban actions”, this scene shows a certain level of policy incoherence and fragmentation as well as inertia to evolve the “sustainability” vision to urban matters so that EU cities can contribute to address local/European challenges. Beyond this, this policy action is being carried out in a context of reflection on Cohesion Policy that aims to “update” EU regional policy, so that our continent achieves the demanding objectives of the European Green Deal. By leveraging their position as economic, social, and cultural hubs, cities can directly support the goals of EU Cohesion Policy through fostering innovation ecosystems, encouraging digitalization, targeting marginalized communities, bridging digital divides, implementing green infrastructure, promoting the circular economy, creating synergies across sectors, and more.

Following this, it is clear that cities are also at the forefront of realizing the objectives of the European Green Deal. They are essential players that can drive the twin just transition at the local level. In a highly complex and uncertain context, when action in cities is emerging as crucial for Europe, this session proposes a reflection on this issue and analysing the potential of the urban axis of the Cohesion Policy post 2027.

The session will feature an introduction by the moderators, and then will give the floor to the contributors. It will be closed with a debate with the audience.
This session is organized in synergy with the Jean Monnet Chair RegenEU- EU urban regeneration to achieve the EGD objectives- (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Transform EU (Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Poznaniu).

Session Organisers:

Ida Musialkowska, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poland
Anabela Santos, European Commission, JRC
Francesco Molica, European Commission, JRC
Andrea Conte, European Commission, JRC
Laura Polverari, University of Padua, Italy
Ugo Fratesi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Oto Potluka, University of Basel, Switzerland

Session Description:

The impact of the European Union’s cohesion policy has long been the subject of extensive debate at both academic and policy-making levels. Looking ahead, the evolving socio-economic and environmental context and its impact on spatial disparities present significant challenges for policy evaluation. Addressing these will require the discussion of new, multifaceted and mixed approaches and the definition of new narratives that could best adapt the policy design to the fast changing geography of disparities. Rising inequality, the housing crisis, demographic changes, the impact of climate change and automation are just some of the pressing issues that need to be addressed to ensure that cohesion policy continues to deliver effectively.

This special session invites researchers to present their insights and innovations on the evaluation of cohesion policy in the context of these emerging challenges. We seek papers that address evaluation from both perspectives, quantitative and qualitative. Contributions that critically analyze the policy’s impact on reducing regional disparities, improving social inclusion and promoting sustainable development are particularly welcome.

Key topics:
• New methods for assessing the impact of cohesion policy: big data and artificial intelligence (AI) applications
• Evaluating the effectiveness of cohesion policy in addressing economic and social disparities
• Sustainability and climate change considerations in cohesion policy evaluation
• Evaluating the role of cohesion policy in fostering digitalization and closing infrastructure gaps
• Challenges in measuring governance of cohesion policy and its implication
• Synergies between funding instruments and the integrated use of Cohesion Policy with other EU funds (e.g., Horizon Europe, NextGenerationEU)
• Assessing coordination mechanisms between different levels of government
• The role of public and private partnerships in enhancing the effectiveness of cohesion policy
• Comparative and case studies on cohesion policy outcomes across different EU regions

We encourage contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including economics, regional development, public policy, urban planning and environmental studies. This session aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue that will contribute to refining and advancing the evaluation of cohesion policy to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness in the face of future challenges.

There will be a Best Paper Award for early career researchers, with the prize being an invitation to present the winning paper at a JRC seminar in Seville, Spain. Early career researchers are defined as PhD students or those who have completed their PhD after 1 January 2020. Applicants for the Best Paper Award must submit their full papers by the end of March 2025 into their profile on the RSA website and include in the title of the submission “BEST_PAPER_APPLICATION”.

Session Organiser:

Cal Innes, Jisc, UK

Session Description:

Explore key concepts, emerging trends, and practical strategies for reducing the environmental impact of digital practices in this insightful session on digital sustainability. This workshop will provide actionable guidance for organisations seeking to implement sustainable digital initiatives.

Topics will include:

– Defining digital environmental sustainability
– Managing energy consumption and digital carbon footprints
– Tackling e-waste challenges
– Positive contributions of digital technologies to sustainability
– Enhancing energy efficiency in digital systems
– Practical solutions for minimising e-waste

With extensive expertise as a digital sustainability advisor across tertiary education in the UK, Cal will offer practical recommendations and best practices, making this session ideal for those aiming to create greener, more efficient digital operations.

Session Organiser:

Katy Shaw, Northumbria University, UK

Session Description:

The culture of a region is more than just the icing on the cake: it can offer a unique connection between its past, present and future, while the cultural and creative industries can position a region at the forefront of innovation, design, and investment on a global stage. This is important, because UK devolution is not just about moving central government power and money to a local level; it’s about creating investable propositions for the future. The case that a place puts forward for investment must be credible, and culture and creativity are uniquely placed to shape and catalyse growth.
As devolution rolls out across England, we are witnessing the biggest shift in power from the centre to the regions in our living memory. For the new mayoral combined authorities (MCA) onboarding new powers has budgets, the challenge is how to harness culture and the creative industries to foster authentically inclusive models of growth, driving not only headline economic performance but developing self-determination in models of innovation and prosperity. This panel will explore the role of culture and creativity in delivering effective devolution in twenty first century England. It will feature three speakers from English MCAs – academic, civil service, and creative – to offer a 360 perspective on how harnessing the power of people and places can deliver new decentralised agency at a local level to unlock the economic as well as the social benefits of creativity and culture for everyone.

Session Organisers:

Igor Tupy, IPEA, Brasil
Simone Grabner, Austrian Institute for SME Research, Austria
Tasos Kitsos, Aston University, UK

Session Description:

Regions at the age of polycrisis and megatrends are faced with the dual challenge of being resilient whilst transforming. It is now well understood that sub-national geographies are not uniformly impacted by shocks. Disrupted local value chains, reduced economic diversity, and intensifying de-industrialisation are just some examples of the long-term negative hysteretic effects that can put a region into a vicious cycle of underdevelopment. The existing research has been effective in documenting these trends and uncovering different resilience factors in, largely, short-term settings, constrained by longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data availability. Going forward, it is clear that there is a need for more research into the mechanisms, drivers, and policy levers of long-term resilience capacity. These are expected to lead to novel conceptualisations and operationalisations of resilience and invite approaches that trespass academic and methodological boundaries, linking the macro to the micro-level.

This session is the first special session of the Research Network on Transformative Regional Resilience and has a dual aim. Firstly, we aim to bring together researchers interested in regional resilience and discuss the latest theoretical and empirical research in order to better understand the formulation of policy at the subnational level. Secondly, we aim for this to be our inaugural in-person gathering that will establish a thriving network of researchers and stakeholders in transformative regional resilience.

As such, we invite contributions that focus (but not limited) on the broad themes:

– New conceptualisations of economic resilience
– New measures and data of transformative regional resilience
– Qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence of resilience determinants
– The short vs long-term nexus of resilience
– Resilience policies and practices

Session Organisers:

Franziska Görmar, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany
Max Roessler, University of Greifswald, Germany
Maximilian Benner, University of Vienna, Austria

Session Description:

In recent years, scholars in regional studies have increasingly turned their attention to ideational concepts such as narratives, visions or imaginaries (Benner 2024). It is assumed that by narrating the past, envisioning or imagining (alternative) futures, agents promote specific, often normative understandings of regional development and legitimise their actions in the present (Görmar 2023). They tie past, present and future into coherent storylines, thereby enabling specific development options that fit these storylines to be realised and others to be foreclosed (Görmar & Kinossian 2022; Roessler 2024).

Narratives and visions can be seen as discursive vehicles used by regional development agents to achieve specific strategic goals (Roessler et al. 2024). Yet, collectively shared narratives and imaginaries, which are part of cultural repertoires, also decisively shape agents’ room for manoeuvre (Miörner 2022). This may be particularly relevant for ongoing transformations such as the green and digital transitions, which are driven by strong normative underpinnings (Benner 2024).
While ideational concepts have been studied for at least two decades in various disciplines such as planning, political science or organisational studies, the debate on an emerging ideational turn in economic geography has only just begun. Many questions are still open, including those about terminological differentiations, definitions and possible typologies of narratives, visions and imaginaries, the different ontological and epistemological underpinnings of the concepts, and suitable methodological approaches to capture them.

With this session, we aim to push this debate further. We welcome both empirical and conceptional papers from diverse geographical and disciplinary backgrounds which give answers to the following questions:

– How can we define and distinguish between different ideational concepts in regional development such as narratives, visions and imaginaries?
– How do such discursive or ideational devices shape regional development?
– How do narratives and imaginaries intersect at different scales?
– What methodological approaches are useful for understanding the emergence and evolution of imaginaries, visions and narratives, as well as their consequences?
– What could a focus on imaginaries bring to current debates on transformation, normativity and directionality in regional policy?
– How can different disciplinary perspectives contribute to our understanding of the role of narratives, visions and imaginaries in regional development?

Session Organisers:

Max Roessler, University of Greifswald, Germany
Crhistian Joel González, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy
Stefania Fiorentino University of Cambridge, UK

Session Description:

Academics and policy makers have highlighted interpersonal and interterritorial inequalities as central factors in explaining the growing ‘political discontent’ and perceptions of ‘left-behindness’ between and within regions (MacKinnon et al. 2024). Places characterised as ‘left behind’ are mainly described as lagging behind in terms of economic performance, prosperity, opportunity and welfare, while it is important to consider conditions beyond purely economic concerns behind the perception of being ‘left behind’ (Pike et al. 2023).
Recent developments raise questions about the conditions behind these perceptions and the types of policies that are likely to change them and improve the development trajectories and resilience of ‘left-behind places’ (Fiorentino et al. 2023). While it is widely argued that different types of ‘left-behind places’ require different types of policies (MacKinnon et al. 2022), there are significant differences in public perceptions of inequalities and left-behindness (McCann 2019), showing how stories and imaginaries held by key actors materialise and become regional realities (Roesssler 2024).
This session mainly focuses on the perceived dimension of inequalities and left-behindness, bringing together senior and junior researchers to explore the drivers of life satisfaction and dissatisfaction, with a particular focus on the social and economic contexts that contribute to the feeling of being ‘left-behind’.

With this session, we aim to move the debate forward by inviting empirical and conceptual papers from diverse geographical and disciplinary backgrounds on the following topics:
– Theorisations and empirical examples of perceived left-behindness
– Policy responses to inequalities and perceived left-behindness
– Life satisfaction, regional discontent and left-behindness: a multidisciplinary perspective
– The psychology of places: fostering sense of belonging and place identities in left-behind areas
– Socio-economic inequalities affecting subjective well-being in different contexts (urban/rural, national/cross-national)
– Other forms of discontent and regional inequalities

Session Organisers:

Iván Tartaruga, Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Portugal
Gema González-Romero, Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Rocío Silva Pérez, Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

Session Description:

The agri-food systems have fundamental influences beyond the essential objective of feeding people, playing a crucial role at a global level in terms of the environment and climate footprint. The definition and search for an alternative agri-food model with environmental sustainability and economic and social objectives is present in the agendas of administrations, NGOs, and citizen associations. Achieving sustainability in these systems requires an agroecological approach rooted in the territorial context. This involves fostering the territorial anchoring of agriculture, short food supply chains, promoting participatory and sustainable consumption, enhancing food security and sovereignty, and delivering ecosystem and biocultural services. Territorial governance, technical and social innovation, and place-based policies are crucial in building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agri-food systems.

In this context, this special session (*) aims to be a debate space for illustrating sustainable, equitable, or innovative trajectories and problems surrounding territorialised agri-food settings. This session also fosters discussion and collaboration around key theoretical perspectives and practical principles for advancing sustainable and inclusive agri-food systems.

Key topics, but not limited to them:
– sustainable agri-food systems,
– sustainability transitions on agri-food systems,
– territorial governance in agri-food systems,
– place-based policies in agri-food systems,
– innovation in agri-food systems,
– agroecology,
– circular agriculture,
– local food security,
– sustainability in food chains,
– alternative food networks,
– territorial agri-food quality labels,
– biodistricts in rural areas,
– inclusive agriculture,
– alternative development strategies for “left behind” places,
– digitalization in agri-food systems, and
– landscapes and food heritage.

(*) – The session is structured into the scope of the “Territorialised agri-food, territorial brands of agri-food quality, and biodistricts in the landscapes of the Spanish pastures” project (Grant PID2023-146317OB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and, by ERDF/EU); and support from the Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT), funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, under the reference UIDB/04084/2020.

Session Organisers:

Jessica Ferm, UCL, UK
Carl Grodach, Monash University, Australia
Tali Hatuka, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Session Description:

This open special session seeks to advance thinking on the role and place for industry and production in cities and regions. Building on the series of sessions at the 2024 RSA conference, it will gather an emerging international network of researchers working on questions at the city-industry interface. The main aim of this session is to draw together conceptual, methodological and practice-oriented thinking to advance the research agenda and develop international comparative reflections.

Accelerated by the pandemic and geopolitical tensions, governments around the world are increasingly looking for opportunities to reshore manufacturing and reindustrialize places to advance more climate sensitive production, boost domestic production capabilities and address rising workforce inequality. These ambitions are especially significant because they demonstrate a break from the recent past where a narrative of ‘deindustrialisation’ underpinned transitions to ‘post-industrial’ economies and cities. Practically, there are numerous challenges in achieving such ambitions. Many cities with competitive urban land markets now face a critical deficit of industrial land after decades of rezoning established industrial areas and relaxing zoning regulations to attract higher value uses (Bonello et al. 2022; De Boeck & Ryckewaert, 2020; Ferm and Jones, 2017; Leigh and Hoelzel, 2012). Societies also deal with the challenge of skilled labour and supporting education institutions alongside environmental challenges and the race towards advancing clean industries. These three challenges – the urban, social and environmental – bring many opportunities as well as open questions.

The session seeks papers that advance thinking around one or more of the following questions:

1. How to conceptualise city-industry dynamics? Research on the productive city to date has drawn on a range of framings and re-presentations of industry including gentrification and displacement, urban reindustrialisation and advanced manufacturing amongst others. There is an opportunity to explore other conceptual or theoretical perspectives on the industrial city and we welcome papers that develop new framings and imaginaries.

2. How to research industry in the city? Different methodological approaches have been adopted to understand the nature and geographical location of industry in cities, and the policies designed to manage it. Drawing on the methodological traditions of different disciplines (architecture, planning, economic geography, urban anthropology etc), there is potential for interdisciplinary research to enrich our understanding and critical analysis. We welcome reflections on research that has adopted innovative approaches, or those that reflect on methodological challenges.

3. How to support and protect industry in the city? This strand would explore and assess the different regulatory, planning policy and governance approaches adopted across different contexts with a view to assessing their impacts and exploring barriers to implementation.

Session Organisers:

Blanca Casares Guillén, AEIDL (European Association for Innovation in Local Development)
Serafín Pazos-Vidal, AEIDL (European Association for Innovation in Local Development)
Branwen Miles, Copa-Cogeca Brussels, Belgium
Margarita Rico, University Valladolid, Spain
Cristina Amaro da Costa, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal

Session Description:

The special session on “Exploring Gender Inequalities in Policy: Regional and Rural Perspectives” aims to create a space for reflection on the needs, possibilities and opportunities for mainstreaming gender in European regional policies. It also seeks to inspire rethinking of monitoring systems for (a) gender equality progress, (b) the development of policies and initiatives that prioritise women’s needs for public support and (c) examine impact of changes.

This special session is set within a critical policy development framework, with the Long Term Vision for rural areas with targets to 2040, the recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture, the new mandate of the EU Commission after 2027, the review of the MFF policy including new territorial impact assessments, proposal of the new Multiannual Financial Framework including relevant strategic areas such as Cohesion and Agriculture (2027-2034), as well as the five-year SDG compliance framework, among others.

The session will bring together leading national governance bodies, EU decision makers, advisors, researchers and other experts and representatives of farmers, farmers and womens associations, ONG, etc, to critically examine how gender inequalities manifest in policy-making, particularly in regional and rural contexts. The discussion will examine the extent to which gender mainstreaming has been integrated into European regional policies, explore the unique challenges faced by women in these areas, highlighting disparities in access to resources, public services, training, representation, and the impact of policies on their economic and social well-being.
The panelists (including the four organisers and invited experts) will share views on the intersection of gender and geography, highlighting the need for inclusive policy frameworks that address the unique needs of regional and rural communities. The discussion aims to promote dialogue on proposals and solutions for the policy cycle, along with strategies to achieve gender equity across diverse regions.

Panelists and the audience will reflect on key challenges in order to adequately monitor both women’s needs and the effectiveness of policies. Important challenges to examine the nature and impacts of political, economic, social and environmental changes are:

1. Lack of gender-disaggregated data, as there are few statistics available that are segregated by gender as well as region. It is challenging to develop targeted interventions that could address the specific needs of women in regional areas. Policymakers and researchers cannot fully understand the extent of gender gaps, leading to gender-blind policies and strategies.
2. Limited comparative studies on rural women across Europe hinder a comprehensive understanding of how gender intersects with regional contexts.
3. Absence of identification and tools/support to replicability of best practices from certain areas making it difficult to scale successful initiatives.

Potential guest experts could come from organisations such as MSA France, UN Women Brussels, Wageningen University, Newcastle University, equality unit of the Spanish Ministry of Agro-ecological Transition, etc. given the relationship with them from European Horizon projects such as GRASS CEILING.
Audience participation will be encouraged to drive collaborative thinking on how to bridge these policy gaps. Interaction with the audience is embedded in the programme, which will be ensured by the facilitator based on a participative dynamic. A range of “bold” lead questions will be put forward by the facilitator to seek a reaction from the audience which in turn prompt the speakers to comment.

A rapporteur from AEIDL will follow the discussion to summarise the main ideas: (i) main ideas discussed, (ii) possible solutions and approaches to overcome the challenges and (iii) points of general agreement and disagreement.

Session Organisers:

Femi Owolade, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Matthew Guest, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Sarah Hassan, University of Birmingham, UK

Session Description:

The notion of the civic university has evolved significantly in recent years, with increasing global recognition of universities as pivotal actors in fostering regional transformation. Historically, in the UK, civic universities were closely associated with the industrial growth of Britain’s cities in the early 20th century, playing a key role in educating professionals to support their local economies (Whyte, 2015). The 21st century has seen the civic mission take on new dimensions, with universities increasingly seen as anchor institutions – entities that contribute not only to local economic development but also to democratic challenges, addressing pressing social and cultural issues (Taylor and Luter, 2013).

This special session builds on the increasing interest in universities’ civic role in partnering with local actors in working towards regional transformations. Building on recent work by the Civic University Network (CUN) and the National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) in the UK to develop more robust definitions of civic activity and to identify the domains in which universities can have discernible impacts on the places that host them (Dobson and Ferrari, 2023; Dobson and Ferrari, 2021) and the development of concepts such as the ‘just anchor’ (O’Farrell et al, 2022), we invite proposals that examine the conditions under which civic activity can flourish and generate lasting impacts.

We wish to pay particular attention to the ‘who’ of civic activity, identifying the key actors on whose work civic impact depends and the organisational and governance ecosystems that enable such work to deliver place-based economic and social benefits and lead to wider regional transformation.

With a view to stimulating an international exchange of experiences, research, and emerging practices, we invite proposals from institutions in the UK, and globally, that enrich our understanding of civic universities and their potential to drive meaningful regional transformation.

We especially welcome submissions on any of the following themes:

• Responses to the domains of the Civic Impact Framework (Dobson and Ferrari, 2021) or comparable assessment tools.
• Civic university perspectives from outside UK-based institutions (International best practice, community engaged research and practice).
• Civic university perspectives from outside the academy (for example, from municipal or community partners, urban practitioners, anchor learning networks).
• Civic university perspectives from management and professional services within universities as well as academics.
• Civic university perspectives from marginalised and subaltern voices who may be excluded or sidelined within current civic agendas.
• Findings from relevant recent or emerging empirical research

Please send proposals in the form of an abstract of 250 – 300 through the Regional Studies Association’s Abstract Portal, selecting ‘SS14: Beyond ‘What Works’ Who Works, How and at what Scales for the Civic University’. The abstract submission deadline is 19th December 2024.

If you would like to discuss your abstract first, please contact Femi Owolade and Matthew Guest at Sheffield Hallam University (f.owolade@shu.ac.uk and M.Guest@shu.ac.uk) before 13 December 2024.

Session Organsiers: 

Peter Karl Kresl, Buckknell University, United States
Ed Blakely, University of California, Berkeley
Erwin van Tuijl, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Mattia Bertin, University of Architecture luav, Italy

Session Description:

Introduction
The issues regarding competition among cities are distinctive and of pressing interest for the near future. The fact that they are so numerous and so distinctive makes it difficult for them to form collaborative groups for collective action. In this Session, we will focus on five of the elements that we find most pressing for mid-sized cities. First, how do we define the mid-sized city? Second, how does a mid-sized city succeed in competition? Third, what options does a mid-sized city have to do to enhance, or regain, its competitive ranking if it has begun to deteriorate? Fourth, in what ways do mid-sized cities distinguish themselves from larger and smaller cities? Finally, can these mid-sized cities be considered to be the core of the national economy? We will focus or analysis on cities in a small number of cities in Australia, the United States and Europe.

Peter Karl Kresl
Strategies for achieving mid-sized city competitiveness.

In this paper I will treat the issue of mid-sized cities in the US and their strategies to achieve success in global competition. I will focus in detail on the experiences of five or more mid-sized cities, the issues that have generated their competitive difficulty and the strategies they have pursued to regain or enhance their competitiveness. Size determines much of what they can reasonably hope to achieve, and each city is distinctive in its capacity, its reach, and its reasonable aspirations. With the macro environment being similar for all of the cities being considered, the distinctive qualities and experiences of each will be easier to identify and to study.

Ed Blakely
Creating a Second Primary City: Parramatta.

Parramatta, located in Western Sydney, is poised to become a second-prime city within the Greater Sydney metropolitan area. This transformation is part of a strategic urban planning initiative aimed at not only decentralizing economic activity and alleviating pressure on Sydney’s central business district, but also generating a new national competitive innovation center to diversify the Australian national economy from raw natural resources to a globally competitive knowledge economic hub. This ambitious project not only addresses the challenges of population growth and urban sprawl but also promises to create a more balanced and sustainable urban landscape for Australia’s largest city.

Mattia Bertin
Preventive repositioning of the settled city

Although extreme events are expected in medium-sized cities and regions, and despite knowing which fabrics will be affected, there is still speculation about adaptive models for defending the existing built environment. The issues of protecting consolidated urban fabrics to maintain the quality and beauty of urban life are considered to be of primary interest both in urbanism and the law. Retreat and planned demolition are considered unacceptable options. Equally, however, these urban systems are highly prone to extreme events related to Climate Change and if maintained in their current form, will become uninhabitable. The contribution describes the thematic cores where innovation and urban design are most needed to rebalance life and memory, focusing in particular on the historic Italian cities of Vicenza, Padua and Venice.

Erwin van Tujil
Installers and just twin transitions in Gothenburg and Rotterdam

The study contributes to wider debates on the twin transition towards a green and digital future, and challenges linked to inclusive energy transitions and energy poverty. We put installers, firms that install, maintain and repair the backbones of our energy- and heating infrastructures, in the centre of our analysis. These smaller firms have received limited attention among academic researchers and policy makers. We combine urban and regional literature on smart and inclusive cities and platform urbanism with that on just sustainability transitions and frugal innovation. We study two case studies of installers and policies in the medium-sized cities of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

The Five Presenters
We will offer our conclusions and observations with regard to the challenges and opportunities of mid-sized cities and regions in the competitive environment of the near future.

Session Organiser:

Michael Howcroft, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Session Description:

‘Civic’ has varied meanings, histories, and practices across places, cultures and identities. For Paul Lichterman and Nina Eliasoph (2014), it invokes democracy, solidarity and participation and is found in everyday action. For Chris Philo (2015), investigating the civic is to consider what makes people feel connected to, or associated with, something larger than themselves: an assembly of ‘others’, a ‘community’ or a ‘society’, and with a collective sense of place. Civics can be imagined and enacted across different spatial scales: by ‘local’ people in places that matter to them, to the transcontinental flows of migrants and refugees, and attempts at European, African, Latin and other transnational citizenships. To research civics is to explore the moments when peoples and places have (or have not) cultivated such connectedness. This process, and its implied constructions of power and authority, can be exclusionary as well as radically disruptive.

In the U.K, ‘civic’ is an outdated, troubling term, tainted by Imperialism, Colonialism and Victorian paternalism. Austerity and the withdrawal of the state have brought the civic roles and agendas of universities and arts organisations into renewed focus, and the concept of ‘private social infrastructure’ has blurred the boundaries of public and commercial ‘goods’. Elsewhere, however, the collective practice of ‘civic imagining’ (e.g. Gianpaolo Baiocchi and colleagues, 2015) has sparked and sustained community action across the United States and in places as diverse as Bologna, Oaxaca, and Freetown Sierra Leone. For Ashis Nandy, we must go “outside textuality” and conventional concepts of the civic if we are to reveal “the powerful, long- term political and cultural forces defining what is forgettable and what must be forgotten” in place. Jenny Hughes (2023) proposes an “egalitarian modality of civic culture – one that centres alterity and otherness, fragility and care, and the unruly and unregulated”.

In the spirit of fostering a research community around these concepts, approaches and problems, we invite papers to question:

• If ‘civic’ is a limiting frame, what alternatives exist, can or have been created?
• If the concept needs critical re-framing to redefine or recuperate it – or should it be relegated?
• How, and by what forces or actors, have civic cultures been changed or sustained?
• What are the cultural specificities of the civic? How is the concept understood and enacted beyond the Anglosphere and do comparative methodologies exist?
• How civic identities intersect with other social and political identities and practices?
• How the ‘civic’ meets with policy and if political interventions can be evaluated by their impact on civic cultures and realms?
• What are the contemporary methodological and ethical approaches to researching the civic?

Session Organisers: 

Benjamin Cornejo Costas, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Dima Yankova, Corvinus University, Hungary
Eduardo Hernández Rodriguez, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Martina Pardy, LSE, UK

Session Description:

This session is part of SPRINT the RSA Research Network on Smart Policies for Regional Innovation, Sustainability and Transitions (SPRINT).

The Research Network on Smart Policies for Regional Innovation, Sustainability and Transitions (SPRINT) calls for speakers for the special session “Place-based approaches to regional development and sustainability” at the Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2025.

In a time characterised by swift technological progress and major global challenges, the importance of place-based regional innovation policies in tackling sustainability and inequality issues is becoming more crucial. This special session explores the significant connections between innovation, sustainability, and economic development.

We encourage submissions from all relevant disciplines offering insights around the following key themes for discussion:
* Place-based regional innovation
* Policies Fostering Sustainable Development
* Sustainable regional development strategies
* Twin transitions
* Regional green diversification and green economic development
* Impact of digital transformation on regional development
* Case studies of successful place-based policy implementations
* Measuring the impact of regional policies on sustainability

Session Organisers:

Michael Howarth, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Madeleine Eriksson, Umeå University, Sweden

Session Description:

This Edgy Matters special session is convened by EdgeNet, the RSA’s research network on peripheral places and regions. We aim to convene critical conversations among a growing community of researchers who are working to reinvigorate the study of peripherality within (and beyond) regional studies. To be marginal is to have limited agency at the edge of core spaces of political life – but also to forge identities, find empowerment, and articulate values. How might social, economic and geographic “margins” represent new fronts for transformative thinking and action? What does “edgy” mean as a characteristic of places, people and processes in the twenty-first century?

We invite papers that engage with questions of peripherality, broadly conceived, and challenge the social, cultural, spatial, economic, environmental, and temporal inter-relationships that shape how peripheries are imagined, governed, lived and felt. We are especially interested in ‘edgy’ contributions that bring fresh methodological and conceptual insights, or introduce new areas and ideas to RSA audiences. Perspectives ‘from the margins’ and scholars who may themselves feel ‘on the edge’ of regional studies are also warmly welcomed.

Potential topics might include:

• ‘Edgy’ examples of social, cultural and political change in non-core areas
• Role of peripheral spaces and non-cores in broader national sustainability transitions, or in response to global challenges
• Theorisations of lived, felt and/or imagined peripheralism (e.g. rural, remote, post-industrial, topological, peripheries-within-cores).
• Reinterpreting the relationships between cores and peripheries.
• Peripheries as spaces of exploitation, extraction, collaboration, and innovation.
• Peripherality in territorial policy, place-based policy and sustainable developmental pathways.
• Local economic futures and territorial well-being in peripheral places

Session Organisers:

Heather Hall, University of Waterloo, Canada
Sarah-Patricia Breen, Selkirk College, Canada
Kelly Vodden, Memorial University, Canada
Joelena Leader, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Session Details:

Major mining companies around the world are investing in new technologies, autonomous equipment, and remote-controlled operations. There is also a growing movement to understand how these technologies are changing the mining sector and, as a result, the ways in which the mining industry interacts with individuals and communities (McNab and Garcia-Vasquez 2011). The nature and extent of this disruption varies globally, with significant implications for rural, remote, and northern communities. Similarly, the extent of the academic literature varies regionally, with regards to different technologies being adopted and varying impacts on people and places (Gruenhagen & Parker, 2020; Ediriweera & Wiewiora, 2021).

To better understand these trends, impacts, and variations in place and space, we welcome contributions around the following themes:
– Technology types
– Drivers and barriers of technology adoption
– Impacts on employment and workforce development
– Impacts on regional and business development
– Responses from regional rights holders (e.g., Indigenous peoples) and actors (e.g., government, industry, and post secondary institutions)

This session is organized by the Canadian Remote Controlled research team, which is a 5- year project exploring technology adoption in the Canadian mining industry, one of the regions where there are substantive gaps in the existing literature. The session will include presentations from this cross-Canada exploration of disruptive technology in the mining sector and its implications for rural regions. More specifically, it will provide insights on the technologies being adopted, the potential impacts (including opportunities and challenges) on workforce development and business development as well as innovative responses to these impacts. We welcome other speakers whose projects align with the above mentioned themes.

Session Organiser:

Simona Epasto, University of Macerata, Italy

Session Description:

In an era of profound global transformations, geopolitical dynamics and technological innovation are redefining North-South relations, with significant impacts on regional development. The session “Geopolitics, Decentralization, and Digital Transformation: North-South Dynamics in Regional Development” aims to explore how decentralization processes and the adoption of digital technologies are reshaping the geopolitical landscape, contributing to new forms of interdependence and governance challenges between the Global North and South.
The growing diffusion of technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence is promoting more decentralized development models, leading to a redefinition of power relations and new opportunities for Southern economies. However, unequal access to these technologies and existing infrastructural challenges often amplify inequalities. This session seeks to analyse the role of emerging technologies and decentralization processes in the geopolitical and regional development dynamics.
Furthermore, this session explores the role of science diplomacy as a bridge between the North and South to foster scientific and technological cooperation. We will examine how international scientific collaborations can support decentralization, facilitate digital transformation, and strengthen regional resilience in the face of global challenges such as sustainability, energy security, and public health.

We invite contributions addressing:

– Theoretical and empirical analyses on the impact of decentralization and digital innovation on North-South geopolitical relations and regional development;
– Case studies illustrating how digital technologies are transforming specific regions or countries within the North-South context;
– Explorations of the interplay between digital transformations, decentralization, and geopolitics;
– Assessments of the impact of technological inequalities on economic and social development in Southern regions;
– Discussions on innovative methodologies for analysing the geopolitical impact of digitalization and decentralization.

This session provides a platform to delve into the role of digitalization, decentralization, and science diplomacy in North-South geopolitical relations, offering participants a unique opportunity to contribute to a deeper understanding of these complex and dynamic transformations.

Session Organisers:

Peter Dannenberg, University of Cologne, Germany
Franziska Sielker, TU Wien, Austria

Session Description:

In recent years, the geopolitical disruptions and military conflicts have exposed the vulnerabilities of trade and the fragility of critical infrastructure across regions. This session will explore the need for a new economic geography of war that examines how military conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and crises influence among others key logistic corridors, critical trade and value chains, resources, products, and investments (including debates around friend shoring etc.). Presenters are encouraged to bring forward case studies and empirical analyses that deepen our understanding of how conflict and crisis reshape trade routes, resource flows, and regional economic stability. By augmenting economic geography, with the outlined perspectives, this session seeks to chart new directions for an economic geography in times of geopolitical and military crises.

Session Organisers:

Ridvan Cinar, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Maria Tsouri Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Liliana Fonseca, University of Strathclyde, UK

Session Description:

Over the past four decades, universities have been recognized as significant actors in fostering regional innovation and contributing into local development in places where they are located. Earlier conceptualizations of the role of universities in innovation and regional development emphasized commercialization activities, technology transfer, investing in start-ups and technological innovation, which usually manifests within entrepreneurial university. More recently, however, they are also expected to play a proactive role in regional sustainability transformations and move beyond an understanding of third mission that is based strictly on techno-economic rationality. In particular, they are expected to collaborate with broader segments of stakeholders (public institutions, NGOs, SMEs etc.) and contribute into different types of innovation (e.g., social, green, public sector etc.) as well. Such contributions indicate a more developmental role and have been framed as part of transformative or engaged university. While new demands have emerged out of several complex societal sustainability challenges, the emphasis on older demands has not lost its validity and legitimacy. This raises the question of how universities are coping with such proliferation of institutional and policy demands, why they prioritize certain demands over others and how they adapt to the recent demands particularly relating to regional sustainability transformation in core and non-core regions.

Hence, this session welcomes all presentations that address the role of the universities in regional sustainability transformation processes in different types of regions. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative approaches on this subject, which may address (but not limited to) the following topics:
· Theoretical, conceptual and/or empirical research on the nature of ongoing regional sustainability transformations and the role of universities in such processes,
· Identifying the role of higher education institutions in regional and transformative innovation policies,
· Evolving from entrepreneurial to engaged/transformative university model,
· Why and how universities legitimize and prioritize certain regional societal demands over others,
· How universities drive quadruple helix collaborations in core and non-core regions,
· How universities contribute into green reskilling of various industries,
. Reskilling and upskilling geared towards digital transition

Session Organisers:

Michael Glass, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Jen Nelles, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Jean-Paul Addie, Georgia State University, USA

Session Description:

This session evaluates the relationships between inclusive regional transformation and infrastructure investment. A recent OECD report on ‘inclusive infrastructure’ argues that infrastructure is fundamental for fostering regional economic development and wellbeing, and that contemporary policy should look to closing ‘infrastructure investment gaps’ that exacerbate regional inequality (OECD 2024). Thinking regionally about infrastructure—an approach we term ‘infrastructural regionalism’ (Addie, Glass, & Nelles 2020)—provides a framework to understand how infrastructural development and regional space are interlinked, and how they combine to shape new regional futures. We invite papers that evaluate the relationships between infrastructural investment, inclusiveness, and regional growth. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:
** The role of multi-scalar governance in supporting infrastructure projects that enhance long-term development plans with community aspirations. What are the planning tools and frameworks that ensure beneficial community consequences of investment?
** The capacity of public-private partnerships to coordinate for beneficial outcomes across the regional scale. How are projects delivered that comport with the needs of local communities?
** Conceptual approaches to understanding the intersections between infrastructural investment and inclusive growth. Can infrastructure be inclusive?
** Case studies and comparative analysis of regional infrastructure projects that were effective in surmounting notable investment gaps.

This session is supported by the Regional Studies Association Research Network on Infrastructural Regionalisms (NOIR). To find out more about NOIR, visit the network’s website (www.noir-rsa.com) and follow us on Twitter/X @NOIR_RSA.

Best,

Michael, Jen, and Jean-Paul

Session Organsiers:

Phil Tomlinson, School of Management, University of Bath, UK
Felicia Fai, School of Management, University of Bath, UK
David Bailey, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK

Session Description:

Industrial policy is back in vogue (Bailey et al., 2023; De Propris, 2024). At the macro-level, policymakers have emphasised the importance of (and begun to implement) so-called mission led industrial policies to meet societal challenges, such as climate change and the transition to net-zero technologies (Mazzucato, 2021). This is evident with the Biden administration in the USA; the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) and CHIPS & Science Act (2022) committed over $2 trillion of funding to support the US healthcare, renewables, and clean-tech sectors (Gansauer, 2024). The EU’s response is a $250 billion Green Deal Industrial Plan, and the by-passing of state-aid rules to fast-track investment and skills upgrading in green sectors. Procurement policies are also being re-geared to support domestic manufacturing. In the UK, the new ‘mission-driven’ government also has ambitions for green technologies, to encourage greater resilience, and ensure security of supply in manufacturing supply chains ‘securonomics’ (The Financial Times, 21/5/24).

While these policies are touted as ‘mission led’, there are concerns the interventions represent a new era of protectionist trade policies, which are likely to have disruptive and displacement effects – with winners and losers – that play out at regional levels. There are also fears that mission-led policies are top-down (Henderson et al., 2023), highly selective, technology-policy focused, with insufficient consideration of differential regional impacts. Regions with existing capabilities, enhanced knowledge bases, skillsets and specialisms, and business and social networks may be in a better position to benefit from ‘mission-led’ initiatives. This will have implications for addressing (existing) regional inequalities. Local policymakers and place leaders will need to adjust place-based policies to ensure their region can take advantage of central government initiatives. Balancing efficiency and equity in the design and implementation of mission-led policy presents national and regional policymakers with significant challenges. Yet knowledge of the socio-economic regional impacts of mission-led policies are lacking and, as such, are typically ignored in national policy discourses.

These contemporary and salient issues are underexplored in the regional studies literature. This special session is associated with a forthcoming special issue of Regional Studies (https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/mission-led-industrial-policies-and-regional-development/) and seeks abstracts
to explore these, (and related) issues which specifically consider how regions and regional policymakers can better align their place-based policy agendas to deliver regional development within the wider social and economic contexts of the new ‘mission-led’ industrial policies pursued by national and supranational states.

Session Organisers:

Cauê Rios, University of Porto, Portugal
Filipa Corais, University of Minho/Head of Mobility Department of Municipality of Braga, Portugal

Session Description:

Urban mobility is a key domain in pursuing sustainable transitions, yet it faces persistent challenges rooted in deeply ingrained unsustainable behaviours, both among the general population and within institutional structures. A dual focus on societal behaviour change and institutional transformations is essential to achieve a paradigm shift towards sustainable urban mobility. This session invites contributions exploring practical approaches to fostering these shifts, focusing on empirical applications and critical reflections on sustainability transition theories, frameworks, and methodologies.
We are particularly interested in case studies or applied research that investigates how transition theories or other frameworks within the socio-technical transitions field have been employed to address behavioural change in urban mobility. Submissions may examine one or more of the following themes:

Behavioural Change in Civil Society:
Strategies to promote sustainable mobility practices among citizens.
Impacts of social innovation, advocacy, and grassroots movements on urban mobility transitions.
Insights into the challenges and opportunities of engaging diverse societal groups in co-creating sustainable mobility solutions.

Institutional Change and Planning Practices:
Applications of sustainability transition frameworks to transform institutional structures and urban planning practices.
Empirical accounts of how planners, policymakers, and other institutional actors integrate transition tools into their work.
Critical reflections on the role of governance, power dynamics, and institutional resistance in shaping the trajectory of sustainable mobility transitions.

Bridging Theory and Practice:
Case studies demonstrating the application of transition methodologies in real-world mobility projects.
Methodological innovations or adaptations that enhance the practical utility of transition theories.
Evaluation of the outcomes and limitations of applied transition tools in urban mobility contexts.

We welcome a range of methodological approaches, from qualitative and quantitative research to participatory action research and mixed methods. The session aims to foster a rich dialogue between researchers and practitioners, creating a platform to share insights, challenges, and lessons learned from practical applications of transition theories in urban mobility.
Innovative formats, such as roundtables or interactive discussions, may be included to enhance engagement and facilitate knowledge exchange. Contributions that provide comparative insights or engage with underexplored geographies, particularly those in the Global South, are especially encouraged.
Through this session, we seek to advance our understanding of how sustainability transition frameworks can bridge the gap between theory and practice in urban mobility, fostering meaningful change across societal and institutional levels

Session Organisers:

Carolin Ioramashvili, University of Sussex, UK
Raquel Ortega-Argiles, University of Manchester, UK

Session Description:

Related variety and growth-complexity theories suggest that past events heavily influenced growth processes. Diversification is critical, but too much relatedness or diversity can facilitate or limit productivity growth. A region’s ability to transition to other growth trajectories depends on the coherence of its capabilities. Regions can become ‘locked in’ to historical productivity growth trajectories. Breaking these patterns of transition to higher productivity growth is critical but challenging without a deep understanding of a region’s past, present and future evolutionary processes.

The papers in this special session analyse regional diversification and related variety from different methodological and data perspectives. We will look into the knowledge composition of places by analysing labour market dynamism (employee mobility), in-demand skill composition (job advertising data), and their association with regional productivity growth. Secondly, looking at unconventional and underdeveloped technological activities (patent information), we analyse non-conventional and unrelated knowledge branching and their short and long-term growth potential. Finally, we exploit new methodologies on natural language processing to evaluate the diffusion and adoption of new processes of knowledge and technology (machine learning in websites).

Session contributors and speakers
Carolin Ioramashvili & Maria Savona
Alexandra Badort, Bernardo Caldarola & Tommaso Ciarli
Silvia Rocchetta
Raquel Ortega-Argiles, Gloria Cicerone & Pei-Yu Yuan

Session Organisers:

Jurga Bucaite Vilke, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Anna Uster, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel
Judit Kalman, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

Session Description:

This session aims to foster a critical debate on adaptive governance models that respond to diverse regional challenges, including socio-demographic, cultural and economic ones. In response to multifaceted societal challenges and failures of state authority, the discussion on the importance of adapting governance approaches and policies to meet local needs and improve community well-being is more relevant. This session will explore how governance, leadership and institutional frameworks are adapting to the rapid changes affecting regions, cities and places today.
Key topics include the challenges of top-down policy implementation versus bottom-up local initiatives that seek to address inclusive socio-demographic and economic needs. We are also interested in scholarship that explores collaborative governance and the impact of multi-level governance networks on regional needs. How do central government policies align (or not) with the specific needs of municipalities, local NGOs, and other local actors? How effective are existing collaborative practices in addressing local governance issues related to welfare, sustainability or economic development? What lessons can be learned from successful collaborations between different levels of government and external stakeholders in addressing these regional complexities? We encourage submissions that address the tensions between national policy frameworks and local quality of life needs, providing examples of successful or challenging adaptations of top-down policies to regional or local contexts.
We welcome submissions from diverse disciplines, including political science, regional studies, sociology, public administration, and regional economics. Papers should present empirical research or city/region/municipality case studies from Europe and beyond that contribute to the understanding the role of tailored governance and impact of institutional change in regional transformations.

Session Organisers:

Lisann Schmidt, University of Greifswald, Germany
Judith Alms, University of Greifswald, Germany
Vassilis Kitsos University of Greifswald, Germany

Session Description:

This session explores the social and institutional changes taking place in rural areas with regard to broader regional transformations. Situated at the intersection of traditional structures and innovative approaches, the ´rural´ is here broadly understood, and its transformation is viewed from within. Instead of considering the ´rural´ as a receptor of changes happening elsewhere, we suggest an approach in which ongoing rural dynamics are central to the development of new political economies and, thus, to a future regional studies agenda also. We are interested in topics such as:

Rural actors and transnational challenges
How do locally embedded actors and organizations envision development for rural areas, and what are their action trajectories? How do they assess the all-encompassing global challenges of our time? We are interested in their specific roles and the challenges they face, as well as in the study of networks, synergies, mutual learning or contesting structures.

Innovations and policy mobilities in rural contexts
What do innovation breakthroughs imply for the ´rural´? How does the transformation of, for example, fiscal policy, welfare provision, spatial planning or cross-border structures strengthen or hinder the resilience of a rural area? We are interested in accounts of the impact of such changing policy landscapes and policy mobilities across rural, regional and inter-regional settings.

The session aims to offer a nuanced perspective on multi-scalar rural transformations and welcomes contributions that offer both conceptual and empirical perspectives.

Session Organiser: 

Ruhamah Thejus, University of St Andrews, UK
Mengxing Joshi, University of St Andrews, UK

Session Description:

Across Western Europe, demographic ageing has been recognised as the key population trend of the decade, with the World Health Organisation declaring 2021-2030 as the Decade of Healthy Ageing. This trend can be celebrated as an achievement of public healthcare and comes alongside changes in fertility trends and family structure – it is expected to continue for the next two or three decades at least. In the EU, between 2020 and 2050, the population of people over 85 years is projected to double, while those reaching the age of 100 years is projected to increase fivefold! By 2050, the EU will have around 130 million older people – defined as those over 65 years old (Eurostat, 2020).

Home is the site for ageing for an overwhelming majority of older people in Europe, with 90% of older people living independently in Germany, France, Finland and the United Kingdom (Pani-Harreman et. al, 2021). Considering the heterogeneity within the population aged over 65 in terms of physical ability, cognition, health needs and social life, co-creating well being should be a priority for older people and policy makers alike. A variety of approaches to this have been developed, including Healthy Ageing (WHO, 2020), Successful Ageing (Pachana and Laidlaw, 2014), Active Ageing (van Malderen et al., 2013) and well-being or a liveable life (Duff and Hill, 2022). Some of these approaches emphasize the multi-dimensionality of the process of ageing and call for a better understanding of the experiences of older people as they age at home.

Ageing in Place can be better understood through the expansive work on understanding home, where home means different things to different people and can be a positive experience, but can also come with challenges and become altogether negative for some (Dowling and Mee, 2007). Home also needs to be understood within the surrounding community – whether that is physically local or connected through more distant networks (Nowicki 2014). The presence of new technology in the home is another consideration that has a bearing on the experience of ageing, especially for older people who may have interacted with technology very differently in past decades (Bousquet, 2014). A regional approach to ageing in place can foster a greater understanding of localised variations and transitions in demography, policy environment and culture to bring about insights into how people navigate the process of ageing.
This sessions seeks to encourage reflection on the experience of ageing in place in Europe. It could include papers that address issues around ageing in place related (but not limited) to the following areas:

Access to housing and housing markets
Community, neighbourhoods and networks
Feminisation of ageing
Health and well-being
Transport and travel
Economic participation, work and retirement
Hobbies, leisure and volunteerism
Technology
Ageing and family

Session Organisers:

Solange Leonel, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Eduardo Albuquerque, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
Leonardo Costa, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
Márcia Rapini, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Session Description:

How can nations rev up their innovation engines to maintain a competitive edge in today’s dynamic global economy? This special session explores the varied financial strategies that drive the effectiveness of national innovation systems (NIS), fostering economic growth and accelerating technological advancement.

The session’s primary aim is to deepen understanding of how customized financial mechanisms can optimize the performance and outcomes of national innovation systems, reinforcing sustainable economic expansion and technological progress.

We welcome submissions that offer comprehensive analyses of how countries cultivate and sustain their innovation ecosystems through governmental support, venture capital, R&D incentives, and other financial tools that spark innovation.

Share your insights and contribute to this essential dialogue.

Potential topics might include:

• The mobilization of financial investment in local, national, and global innovation systems
• The impact of government funding programs (e.g., grants, tax incentives, subsidies) on innovation
• Venture capital and startup funding
• The role of large corporations in funding innovative startups through corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives, and the strategic goals behind these investments.
• The role of financial mechanisms in funding innovation in peripheral regions

Session Organisers:

Panagiotis Iliopoulos, KU Leuven, Belgium
Dariusz Wójcik, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Vladimír Pažitka, University of Leeds, UK

Session Description:

Finance and money are deeply embedded in our everyday lives but oftenly remain veiled in their complexity and perceived by many as opaque and detached from our daily lives. The Atlas of Finance (Yale University Press) seeks to lift this veil, using maps, data visualizations, and narratives to make the world of finance more accessible and relevant to regional and economic studies.

In this session, Dariusz Wójcik and Takis Iliopoulos will present insights from The Atlas of Finance, bringing to light how financial flows shape regional economies, drive policy decisions, and impact economic resilience. The session will explore the intricate relationship between finance, space, and regional development, focusing on how financial patterns influence regional disparities and inform investment decisions. Through compelling visual narratives, we illustrate the spatial dynamics of finance, from urban hubs to rural and peripheral regions, showing how financial networks either reinforce regional strengths or deepen existing inequalities.

Additionally, we examine how finance intersects with politics, governance, and institutional frameworks. Financial systems bind regions and countries together into larger socio-economic and political networks, exposing them into mutli-facted volatilities. With the Atlas we aim to trace these connections and underscore how the economic and political power of finance affects governance and institutional structures defining regional trajectories.

The session will be divided into three parts:

• Financial Flows and Regional Economic Resilience, by Dariusz Wójcik
• Democratic Governance and Financial Power, by Takis Iliopoulos
• Financial Technology in a Changing Regional Landscape by Vladimír Pažitka

Session Organisers:

Isabella Stingl, Heidelberg University, Germany
Micaela Lois, University of Bern, Switzerland
Anna Oechslen, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space, Germany
Susann Schäfer, Heidelberg University, Germany

Session Description:

This Special Session explores how intersectional and feminist approaches can be implemented in research practice in the field of Regional Studies.

Regional Studies, as Emma Ormerod (2023) argues, need to engage more deeply with feminist concepts to address issues of inequality effectively and to open up pathways to alternative, more inclusive futures. A crucial concept in this regard is intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), which examines how intersecting categories of difference—such as race, gender, class, and geographic location—create unique experiences of privilege and marginalization.

Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary (2020) suggests that Regional Studies can benefit from considering intersectionality, as it allows researchers to grasp how power relations shape the lives of individuals and communities within a region. This perspective deepens our understanding of how regional transformations—such as changes in the labor market, access to housing and services, or migration—affect people differently and can reinforce existing inequalities. In this way, examining how intersecting power dynamics shape regional development can guide more inclusive policies that address the diverse needs of individuals and communities.

Intersectionality also informs how knowledge is produced: doing intersectionality implies critically assessing established methodologies and developing a specifically intersectional research praxis (Collins, 2019). Broadly speaking, an intersectional perspective values diverse voices and promotes participatory and inclusive research methodologies that incorporate the lived experiences of individuals and communities across different social contexts. Maria Rodó-Zárate (2023), for example, has developed the methodology of Relief Maps as a tool to capture, analyze, and visualize the social, geographical, and emotional dimensions of intersectional inequalities.

In this session, we welcome contributions that apply an intersectional perspective to explore various themes within Regional Studies. Submissions should focus on the methodological implementation of this perspective. We particularly welcome contributions that engage with collaborative and creative research practices—such as feminist interviewing, biographical/life story approaches, collective storytelling, drawing/mapping exercises, and other participatory approaches. Submissions are not limited to ‘methodological successes’; we also encourage reflections on instances where methodological approaches have not unfolded as expected but which may nonetheless help to refine and improve future intersectional research practices.

Please note this session title has been updated. It was previously: Going “backwards”? Changing Peripheries Through Youth Mobility

Session Organisers:

Madalena Fonseca, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto & CEGOT, Porto, Portugal
Martina Dal Molin, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius University , Lithuania
Fabiano Compagnucci, GSSI – Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy

Session Description:

Peripheries, remote regions, lagging areas, left-behind places—however they are labelled—have recently drawn significant attention from regional science scholars (Pike et al., 2023). This growing interest stems from various factors, including the rise of populism and far-right parties, often associated with new forms of discontent and social insurgency (Dijkstra et al., 2019; Florida, 2021; Glückler et al., 2023; Nilsen et al., 2022; Rickardsson et al., 2021; Rodríguez-Pose et al., 2023, 2024).
In the European Union, over the past 30 years, peripheral regions have pinned high hopes on regional and cohesion policies. Yet, these hopes have often been met with disillusionment, leading to a widespread sense of failure and even misfortune (CE, 2024; Dijkstra et al., 2019; Rodríguez-Pose & Dijkstra, 2020). Meanwhile, the concentration of economic and social opportunities in large metropolitan areas persists, exacerbating territorial inequalities (Iammarino et al., 2019.) and specific forms of agglomeration diseconomies.

Traditional people-based and place-blind regional development policies have largely failed to close these territorial gaps, overestimating the trickle-down effects from central areas. What is urgently needed are place-sensitive policies (Iammarino et al., 2019) that recognize the unique value of territorial capital (Camagni and Capello, 2013) and tailor development strategies to local contexts in light of ongoing megatrends.

Universities, as engines of socio-economic development, are the starting point for this special session. Universities contribute to regional and local growth through various mechanisms, often framed as “third mission,” though all their missions have regional impacts (Compagnucci & Spigarelli, 2020). This role is particularly vital in lagging regions, where universities are seen as crucial drivers of development (Charles, 2016; Carrascal Incera et al., 2022).

In peripheral areas, student migration flows emerge as key channels for the transfer and circulation of human capital, fostering innovation and knowledge capable of transforming these regions (Baas, 2019; Ballarino et al., 2022; Biagi & Ciucci, 2023; Brezis & Soueri, 2011; Breznitz et al., 2022; Dotti et al., 2014; Fonseca et al., 2020; Incera et al., 2021). While much research has focused on the outflows of students from peripheral areas to metropolitan universities, our work highlights the often-overlooked counterflows—students choosing to remain in or even migrate to peripheral regions (Fonseca, 2023; Dal Molin et al., 2025). Not all young people from these regions flee to big-city universities; some stay, while others migrate between peripheral areas or from centres to peripheries.

This special session invites researchers to present studies—whether advanced or exploratory—on the (often silent) dynamics of peripheral regions. The aim is to uncover new and innovative approaches to inform public policies that foster sustainable development and promote social and territorial equity.
We are particularly interested in studies that explore how peripheries can leverage innovation, talent, creativity, culture-led initiatives, and multiculturalism to drive sustainable development. Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. Student and youth counterflows to peripheral regions.
2. Different forms of innovation in peripheral areas.
3. Second-tier city and peripheral universities as engines of local development and innovation in peripheries.
4. Public policies aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of peripheral regions, including case studies of success and failure.

Session Organisers:

Luis Orozco, University of Toulouse, France
Eva Coll-Martínez, University of Toulouse, France
Amélie Gonçalves, INRAE, France
Simon Nadel, University of Lille, France
Geoffroy Labrouche, University of Toulouse, France

Session Description:

The development of a circular economy and the sustainable transition of energy systems are critical to achieving climate change mitigation goals. This transition requires close interaction between novel technologies, policies, and the effective governance of local resources. In this context, the production of biogas and biomethane through anaerobic digestion (AD) has gained significant attention in recent years as a key solution for developing a circular economy at regional and territorial levels. This is largely due to its ability to address biowaste management, produce fertilizers, and create new business opportunities.

Biogas technologies have undergone notable growth since the mid-1970s, driven by rising oil prices. However, the use of biomass for energy production has faced considerable scrutiny, especially given the ongoing debates surrounding the competing demands for essential resources such as biomass, land, and water. In recent years, biomethane production through AD has regained interest, particularly as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address geopolitical challenges related to gas supply.

With the advancement of new technologies and the rise of digitization, regional strategies and stronger coordination among local stakeholders have emerged as crucial factors in this transition. At the same time, opposition from local communities and neighbors against AD plants has become a growing concern.

Anaerobic digestion has established itself as a pivotal technical solution for biowaste treatment and local energy production. Nonetheless, many areas of research remain open. The special session invites empirical and conceptual papers from diverse disciplines to address issues related to sustainable energy transitions and biomass-based energy production, and territorial circular economies.

The session will address the following topics:

1. Regional factors, biogas production, and circular economy
2. Technological trajectories of biogas
3. Circular economy at regional and territorial levels
4. Biowaste treatment technologies
5. Socio-territorial acceptability of biogas plants
6. Regional policies and governance of biogas and circular economies
7. Sustainable energy transitions and regional development

The session is organized within the framework of the TRABIOG project, entitled “Technological trajectories of biogas,” which is funded by the Toulouse Laboratory of Excellence Structuring of Social Worlds (LabEx SMS).

Session Organisers:

Mikko Weckroth, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
Gundi Knies, Thünen Institute of Rural Studies, Germany
Jonathan Hopkins, The James Hutton Institute, UK

Session Description:

Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) research has gained increasing prominence in regional studies as well as rural and urban geography, reflecting a growing recognition of the role of spatial SWB measurements in shaping sustainable, inclusive, and resilient communities. This special session aims to explore the spatial dimensions of SWB and identify emerging empirical insights which might inform improved policy-making processes and development approaches which could address urban, rural, and regional disparities in wellbeing across European contexts.

As recent research has shown, the geography of SWB can reveal essential insights into how different populations experience wellbeing based on where they live. From urban to rural settings, these spatial patterns often reflect underlying socio-economic conditions, environmental factors, and access to resources. Understanding contextual impacts on place-based and people-based SWB differences, and measures of inequality in SWB across space, appear critical in the context of the geographies of both life satisfaction and discontent affecting several rural regions in Europe. In this session, we welcome all studies and methods that investigate the spatial analysis of SWB patterns and highlight urban-rural differences within and across European regions. However, we are especially interested in interdisciplinary contributions that examine how empirical analyses of SWB might support policy development at various governance levels, from local municipalities to national and EU frameworks.

We invite abstracts that address the following questions:

1. What are the spatial determinants of SWB, and how do these vary between urban and rural settings? Studies examining the spatial factors that drive wellbeing differences between city and rural landscapes and the spaces where urban and rural areas intersect.

2. How can SWB data inform policies for sustainable urban and rural development? We are interested in contributions that outline how new insights on multidimensional SWB can support policy objectives for more equitable and inclusive growth, a just transition, improving access to services, and enhancing quality of life across diverse spatial contexts. Especially welcome are studies that empirically explore the dynamics between parallel geographies of institutional discontent and subjective wellbeing as well policy formulations derived from new emerging economic paradigms (e.g. foundational economy and wellbeing economy) which could contribute levelling out the spatial disparities.

3. What role do national and EU-level policies play in influencing SWB across regions? We welcome abstracts that address the interactions between local/regional policies and overarching EU strategies, shedding light on best practices, potential gaps, and pathways for multilevel governance to improve SWB outcomes.

4. How can interdisciplinary methodologies enhance our understanding of SWB and its policy implications? We encourage submissions that employ mixed and novel methods, cross-sectoral insights, add new value to secondary datasets, or which examine the processes by which SWB data can be effectively translated into policy action.

This session aims to foster a robust dialogue among geographers, regional studies scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, promoting collaboration across disciplines to advance the practical application of spatially tuned SWB research. By bridging academic and policy perspectives, we hope to contribute to more cohesive and impactful approaches to addressing geographical wellbeing inequalities and supporting resilient communities across Europe.

Session Organisers:

Bridget Backhaus, Griffith University, Australia
Eeva Puumala, Tampere University, Finland
Johanna Hokka, Tampere University, Finland

Session Description:

At a time of growing geopolitical instability, escalating attacks on democracy, and the ongoing climate crisis, national, regional, and local futures alike feel increasingly uncertain. Though this age of polycrisis transcends borders, the experiences of life under crises are localized in the everyday and navigated differently according to their unique context. What is lost in broad-scale, transnational discussions of polycrisis is the nuanced and specific impacts on communities and how these crises can also change what community stands for, for diverse people. This special session seeks to explore how communities are formed in an age of polycrises, and how they navigate and negotiate the regional impacts and transformations prompted by polycrisis.

Here community is understood as a foundational building block of regions and nation-states: collectivising actors through shared geographies, interests, or lived experiences. However, communities are not pre-determined, rather they are constructed and maintained through ongoing processes and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Thus, in light of growing polarisation and social inequalities, we frame community-making as a contentious act, one that is both banal and radical in its aims. The global context of polycrisis has significant implications for the everyday practices of collaboration and coexistence, which may even require how the ‘common’ is thought about. This special session offers a space for interdisciplinary discussions of how communities are created and sustained in the face of intersecting and compounding crises, and the role of research in conceptualising and catalysing possible transformations.

We invite participants to share ideas related but not limited to the following themes:
– Community-making across difference
– Communities in conflict
– Urban and rural place-based communities
– Affective entanglements and communities
– Practices of care, compassion, and co-existence
– Regionalism, exclusion, and the limits of community
– Communication and identity in emerging and established communities
– Critical perspectives on participation
– Boundaries, peripheries and liminal spaces of communities
– Political and civic engagement within/across communities
– Creative engagements with community

Session Organisers:

Anna Butzin, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Luís Carvallho, University of Porto, Portugal
Hugues Jeannerat, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Pauline Lavanchy, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Jesper Manniche, Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark
Kerstin Meyer, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Session Description:

In the face of pressing societal challenges, traditional paradigms of regional development focused on knowledge-intensity and competitiveness are questioned. The European “Green Deal” and the reinvigorated idea of “missions” illustrates such paradigm shift, prioritizing the transformation of entire socio-technical systems and directing innovation to tackle ongoing sustainability challenges. While this paradigm shift has inspired a wealth of research at the interface of regional and transition studies, the nature, role and context of knowledge itself remains underexplored and imprecise, often treated as an implicit enabler of change tied to technological evolution.

A longstanding tradition in regional studies emphasises an understanding knowledge through distinct concepts and frameworks, such as the knowledge-knowing dichotomy, the knowledge bases model, production-consumption nexus in territorial knowledge dynamics, the idea of “learning regions”, among others. However, to tackle contemporary transformation challenges, it is crucial to assess whether and how these conceptual tools are suitable for understanding and fostering “transformative” forms of knowledge (action-oriented, multi-actor, undergoing societal valuation processes), and which other perspectives can be relevant to critically engage with the evolving roles of knowledge in driving regional transformation. This special session – organised under the RSA research network on “Transformative Knowledge Regions” (TRAKR) – invites conceptual, methodological, empirical and policy-related contributions that engage with one or more of the following (or related) questions and topics:

– The nature of transformative knowledge, knowing and learning: What are distinctive features of transformative knowledge and learning involved in regional sustainability transitions? To what extent and how are existing knowledge concepts and typologies from regional innovation studies, organisation studies and other adjacent disciplines appropriate for studying sustainability transitions? What kinds of knowledge do regions and regional actors need to facilitate system-wide transformation?

– The territorial contexts for transformative knowledge: what kinds of regional conditions and geographical settings matter to co-create, activate and diffuse transformative knowledge? How do different types of regions and places vary in this matter? Does transformative knowledge underpin new types of core-periphery relations? Which geographies, scales, sites and materialities matter to enact the “transformability” of knowledge?

– Knowledge actors in regional context: How do different types of actors create, enact and diffuse transformative knowledge in (and across) regions? What are the new possibilities and challenges for universities and education institutions to play transformative roles and support transformative knowledge dynamics in regions?

– Regional Policy and governance: What are the regional policy implications of a transformative knowledge paradigm? Which competences are needed by local and regional policy agents, and how do they shift from a competitiveness paradigm to envision and act upon transformative change?

Session Organisers:

Anabela Santos, European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Andrea Conte, European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Policy Debate Session:

The Draghi report offers an in-depth analysis of the EU’s innovation gap with the US and China, proposing a novel framework with strengthened industrial policies to address this challenge. However, the EU innovation’s landscape is characterized by significant territorial disparities, meaning that any effort to close these gaps will have substantial spatial implications. This session aims to explore this issue by examining, in particular, the interplay between industrial and territorial policies and the role of Research and Innovation (R&I) instruments and policies. The EU plays a crucial role in supporting innovation, mainly through the Commission’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and, more recently, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Nevertheless, the spatial distribution of these efforts remains highly uneven, reflecting varying allocation criteria and the disparate innovation capacities of recipient regions (Molica and Santos, 2024).

At a time when Europe faces an urgent need to strengthen its innovation capacity to stay competitive globally and achieve policy objectives such as the twin green and digital transitions, critical questions emerge regarding the new scope and objectives of EU R&I instruments.
For example: Do EU funds effectively contribute to narrowing Europe’s innovation gap, and to what extent? Can territorial equity and economic efficiency be successfully reconciled within EU R&I investments? How do local factors influence the allocation and impact of EU R&I funds (Dotti and Spithoven, 2018)? Are existing policy frameworks (e.g., Smart Specialization Strategies) effective in directing R&I efforts towards the right objectives (D’Adda et al., 2022)?

These questions are particularly relevant as discussions on the future of the EU’s long-term budget are in full swing. With this in mind, the session aims to facilitate an exchange of views between academics and policy makers.

Speakers:

To be confirmed shortly

Session Organisers:

Rikard Eriksson, Umeå University, Sweden
Martin Henning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Dieter F. Kogler, University College Dublin, Ireland

Session Description:

It has been nearly 20 years ago since it was asked: “Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science?” (Boschma & Frenken, 2006). Much research has been conducted within and related to the Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) paradigm since: a simple search for the term on Google Scholar collects close to 12k hits. Through this research, the economic geography community has learnt much about technological change, regional resources and capabilities, the coherence of local production, regional path dependency, diversification patterns of local economies, and much more. More recently, EEG research has also offered new perspectives on how to define the paradigm in terms of its key conceptual elements, how EEG might provide insights in light of the ongoing polycrisis, and also how it contributes towards policy-making, e.g., EU’s Smart Specialization policies, and sustainable economic development more generally (Kogler et al., 2023).

But where should we head next? In an attempt to shed light on this question we are looking for empirical papers that take on new perspectives on, or closely related to, evolutionary economic geography. We especially welcome submissions of papers that approach empirical data in novel and theoretically profound ways. Our aim is to create a vibrant forum for discussions concerning the next steps for Evolutionary Economic Geography.

Session Organiser:

Réka Horeczki, HUN-REN CERS Institute for Regional Studies, Hungary

Session Description:

Various studies have discussed the role of cities as leading actors on the world stage by virtue of their economic, political and symbolic capital, reflecting the diminishing exclusivity of state-centric international relations. The connection between globalisation and networking is crucial. Elements of economic activity are spatially segregated, while the competitive structure of large firms and competition is becoming increasingly internationalised (this is true not only for advanced business services or new industries, but also for traditional sectors and decision-making methods). This internationalisation, the emergence of global networks, also applies to other sectors (e.g. research, climate change) and can be interpreted in terms of inter-city relations (competition/collaboration/lobbying). Analysis of European and global cooperative alliances of cities is essential for their contribution to global goals and the effective functioning of participatory democracy. The importance of examining (all types of) inter-city relations has become a priority in the 21st century, as it is no longer only nations or regions that can represent economic and political power, but also cities themselves.

The session incorporates research papers that address, from an innovative perspective, the intervention, management, and communication of the city network or town alliance.
For this reason, the aim is to analyse how to promote the local and city power based on their resources and networks by a group of international, trans-generational, and interdisciplinary researchers.

The following questions are open to speakers:

• to what extent do geographical, linguistic, cultural, economic and size factors play a role in the formation of relations;
• to what extent are horizontal, inter-municipal cooperation and county–county seat relations typical in international connection building; whether these relations show specific spatial patterns;
• what role of cities play in various less formalised international networks, projects and European initiatives (e.g. Covenant of Mayors, Millennium Goals, Covenant of Free Cities, Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, Green Cities in Europe etc.)
• what financially supported tools the EU offers in the field of developing and strengthening of local governments’ international relations for urban and rural areas and municipalities (e.g. INTERREG, URBAN, URBACT, LEADER), and what lessons can be drawn from their experiences.
• does the network of small and medium-sized towns exist in Europe? What part does it play and does it have any socio-economic benefits?

We warmly invite all presentations focusing cooperation networks between cities and the economic, ecological and social benefits of these cities and towns.

Session Organisers:

Aleg Sivagrakau, Higher School of Management Personnel, Poland
Alena Harbiankova, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Sławomir Kalinowski, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Session Description:

The session seeks to explore innovative approaches, critical evaluations and case studies that highlight the role of local strategies in achieving sustainable development goals.
Submissions on the following themes are invited:

1) The impact of tailored local strategies on regional resilience and sustainability.
2) Integrating environmental, social and economic objectives into local planning.
3) Experience of implementing sustainable development strategies in different contexts.
4) Assessing the effectiveness of local strategies.
5) Modern tools and methods for improving the effectiveness of local sustainable development strategies.
6)The relationship between the level of local self-government and the sustainability of territorial development.

Session Organisers:

Dahae Lee, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany
Patricia Feiertag, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany
Lena Unger, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany

Session Description:

Coined by Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues in 1970s, the term ‘co-production’ was used to explain and give a theoretical foundation to practices that involved citizens in the production of public services. The concept has gained in popularity since the 2000s in the context of austerity and new governance. Today, co-production is of great interest to scholars and practitioners across various fields including planning. The rapid growth has, however, resulted in the ambiguity of the concept (Lee, et al. 2024a, 2024b, 2024c). Co-production requires more conceptual clarity as a permanent contention due to various understandings can result in the collapse of the concept.

In this session, we discuss how co-production distinguishes from other similar concepts and explore different ways to improve our understanding of the concept in the planning field. We invite to submit abstracts that align with the aim of this session. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
– What makes co-production stand out against other forms of collaboration in planning?
– To what extent does the implementation of the concept in planning practice fulfil its aspirations (e.g., changes in actor relationships)?
– What discipline specific features and values does co-production have in planning? How similar or different are they compared to those in other fields (e.g., economics, public administration)?
– How can we improve our understanding of the concept? (e.g., developing types and typologies of co-production in planning)
– What methods and methodology can be useful thereby? (e.g., comparative analysis)

Session Organisers:

Iryna Fil Kristensen, Örebro University & Lund University, Sweden
Diana Morales , University of Oslo, Norway
Andrew Kythreotis , University of Lincoln, UK
Rhiannon Pugh, Lund University, Sweden

Session Description:

The current global climate crisis calls for a complete transformation of socio-ecological systems as evidenced through a multiplicity of global agendas and initiatives, inter alia, Agenda 2030, the European Green Deal, the EU Missions on Climate Change, the OECD agenda for transformative STR&I, and net zero and carbon neutrality initiatives across the world. Notwithstanding the normativity of these policies, it has been argued that the transformation required involves a fundamental rethinking of norms, values, visions and practices (Coloff et al., 2021).

In this context, the dynamics of innovation policy are also changing. It is no longer a mere “catalyst of innovation” and “a driver of technological and economic change”, but also an active agent of systemic change, stimulating “institutional, environmental and societal transformation” (Jeannerat & Crevoisier, 2022: 2158, 2162; Molas-Gallart et al., 2021). Novy et al. (2022) distinguish between transformative innovations that are ‘desirable’ – those that enable a good life for all within planetary boundaries innovations, and those that are ‘feasible’ – those that can be implemented here and now given present actor capabilities, power relations and structural constraints.

But what definitions of transformative innovation often lack is greater attention to spatial and scalar dimensions given we have witnessed a shift from sustainable urbanism to climate urbanism (Rice & Long, 2019). Recent literature has suggested how innovations in climate adaptation policy and governance at subnational scales are usually driven through distinct sectoral modes via the national competition state (Kythreotis et al., 2020) resulting in missing ‘interconnections of scale’ for more innovative subnational and urban climate adaptation policy and governance (Kythreotis et al., 2023).

The above literature suggests the need for the emergence of various place-based responses (Howarth et al., 2024) and/or urban climate experimentation (Bulkeley, 2023) to geographically diYerentiated climate challenges, often where place leadership via willingness, mobilisation and framing, roles, collaboration and responsiveness, plays significant (re)scaling roles (Horlings & Wills, 2024).

This special session requests papers from diverse contexts that comprehensively investigate the evolving role of sub-national levels of government, regional policy-making and social innovation in addressing climate change as a relational and regional policy issue. Understanding this relationality and scalar dimension is key in identifying what critical sub-national success factors for climate policy and governance innovation might look like in theory and practice.

Questions to be addressed in this special track session include but are not limited to:

1. How are regional governments addressing climate change?
2. How can ‘transformative innovation’ be leveraged to address climate change adaptation?
3. How well is local climate change embedded in broader policy approaches to sustainable development, if they have at all?
4. What is the role of regional innovation policies in tackling climate change?
5. How can existing regional innovation policies be improved to better respond to evolving environmental sustainability demands (and broader societal challenges)?
6. How can local (urban/rural) climate actions be scaled up to national (and international) level, if they can at all?
7. What is the role of (multi-scalar) governance, broadly construed, in supporting and elevating local climate action innovation?
8. What are the roles of different actors in supporting and leading local climate action innovation?

Session Organisers:

Dorota Czyżewska-Misztal, Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland
Piotr Idczak, Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland
Sebastien Bourdin, EM Normandie Business School, France
Daniel Nepelski, JRC, Spain
Elodie Carpentier, JRC, Spain
Johan Stake, JRC, Spain
Fabien Nadou, EM Normandie Business School, France
Diego D’Adda, JRC, Spain

Session Description:

The session focuses on the critical role of digital innovation intermediaries (DIHs, EDIHs, others) in accelerating digital transformation across Europe, particularly in the context of the twin transition—digital and green. They act as one-stop shops supporting businesses, especially SMEs, and public sector organizations (PSOs) in adopting digital technologies and transitioning to more sustainable operating models. They provide access to funding, technical expertise, training and networking services, and opportunities to test technologies before investment, facilitating a circular economy and sustainable management practices.

The goal of this session is to deepen understanding of the functions (E)DIHs serve in transforming regional landscape and to analyze their role as territorial innovation intermediaries within Europe’s digitalization strategy. Discussions will explore how they operate in their regions, the type of organizations they serve and the services they offer as well as their impact on regional competitiveness, promotion of circular and sustainable economies, and contribution to achieving the EU’s digital goals. We invite scholars and practitioners to share contemporary research and regional experiences related to EDIHs and other digital innovation intermediaries.

Here are some proposed themes for presentations in the special session:

• Digital innovation intermediaries as enablers of regional competitiveness
• The effectiveness of satisfying regional demand for digitalisation services by EDIHs
• Assessing the effectiveness of EDIHs in promoting digital transformation
• EDIHs and the twin transition: bridging digital and green goals
• EDIHs as catalysts for regional collaboration and transformation
• EDIHs’ role in promoting circular economy business models and fostering sustainable manufacturing
• Comparative perspectives: EDIHs vs. other digital innovation intermediaries

These themes provide a broad yet focused framework to guide discussions during the session.

We look forward to engaging discussions and your contributions to this important topic!

Session Organiser:

Joseph Hongsheng, Zhao University of Suffolk, UK

Session Description:

In recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, research methods in regional studies have undergone profound transformations. These shifts reflect ongoing dialogues within the discipline, shaped by the creative turn in geographical studies (Hawkins, 2019), the decolonization of research agendas (Thambinathan & Kinsella, 2021), and the inherently interdisciplinary nature of regional studies methodologies (Lichfield, 1970; Rocchetta & Mina, 2019).

Fieldwork, a cornerstone of regional studies for collecting firsthand data, has become increasingly challenging due to successive global crises. The COVID-19 pandemic, marked by widespread travel restrictions, and ongoing regional conflicts in succession, have introduced significant uncertainties for researchers, particularly those studying regions in crisis, such as in Ukraine and Gaza. These challenges, however, also present opportunities to reimagine and adapt traditional qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Scholars are increasingly addressing these uncertainties through transformative methodologies that emphasize flexibility and creativity (Dunia et al., 2023), prioritize researcher well-being, and cultivate resilience (Amos, 2014), fostering a more adaptive and reflective research community (Zhao & Bao, 2024).

This panel invites contributions that explore these evolving landscapes of research methods and field works, welcoming papers, and presentations on, but not limited to, the following themes:

1. Reflections on emerging trends and innovations in regional studies methodologies.
2. Critical reviews of positionality, reflexivity, and researcher’s resilience in fieldwork across diverse contexts.
3. Proposals, assessments, and evaluations of creative methodologies within regional studies.
4. Case studies addressing uncertainties and challenges in conducting regional research amidst compounded crises, particularly in the Global South.

This session aims to provide a platform for sharing insights and strategies, inspiring a more resilient and adaptive regional studies research community.

Session Organisers:

Charlotte Hoole, University of Birmingham, UK
Jack Newman, University of Bristol, UK
Andy Pike, University of Newcastle, UK

Session Description:

The spatial distribution of institutional capacity represents a critical nexus of political, economic, and governance challenges. This special session will critically examine how entrenched geographical inequalities are related to, caused by, and ameliorated through the spatial distribution of governance capacity and public resources allocation. The session aims to unpack the complex institutional mechanisms that perpetuate spatial inequalities and explore innovative approaches to more equitable governance structures and funding allocation approaches.

Key thematic areas of interest include (but not limited to):

• The drivers of spatial disparities in governance capacity
• The challenges facing disadvantaged places/regions in building institutional capacity or securing funding
• The economic and political consequences of spatial inequality
• Innovative mechanisms for more responsive and equitable public resource allocation
• The potential for democratic revitalisation through restructured governance models

Session Organiser:

Max Walter, Tony Blair Institute, Global

Session Description:

Industrial policy is back on top of the global economic policy agenda, with governments around the world devising strategies to boost production, value chain localization, and competitiveness in specific strategic industries, whether in semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical mineral value chains, or textiles and apparel. LMICs, however, are at a severe disadvantage. First, many LMIC governments have been discouraged or prevented from developing industrial policies by structural adjustments and 40-years of IMF loan conditionalities and credit rating systems that discourage state intervention, and as a result have either lost or never managed to develop the organisational and political capabilities for industrial policymaking. Ministries of Industry are among the least empowered and resourced ministries, with power concentrated in Central Banks and Ministries of Finance focused on implementing a neoliberal policy regime. Second, many LMIC governments are facing a fiscal crisis, with poor credit ratings making borrowing expensive, a large proportion of annual budgets being taken up by loan repayments, and IMF rescue packages being made conditional upon drastic austerity measures. As a result, LMIC governments have very little fiscal space for implementing industrial policy measures. At the same time, high-income countries are offering billions of USD in direct and indirect subsidies to attract manufacturers in strategic industries to invest in their countries.

In this challenging context, it is imperative for LMIC governments to (re)build their industrial policy design and implementation capabilities. Industrial policies are difficult to design and even more difficult to implement: they require significant political capital (to overcome vested interests and coordinate state functions), financial resources (to shift the incentives of private economic actors, provide public goods, and address market failures), and human expertise (to manage complex projects, liaise with and understand industry/investor needs, and design effective policy solutions).

Innovative solutions to this complex problem are required from cutting edge thinkers and practitioners in public financial management, industrial policy, state capacity and public administration, and other areas. The session would bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss this issue.

The Tony Blair Institute is a global non-profit that helps political leaders get big things done. We work with political leaders on strategy, policy, and delivery, enabled by technology and science. Working in more than 40 countries, most of which are LMICs, we work through embedded advisors who solve problems shoulder-to-shoulder with political leaders and their teams. We also have global teams of subject matter experts in areas such as industrial policy, investment, agriculture, infrastructure, trade, climate, among others, and foster a network of external partners and experts that we help governments leverage. The question this session will seek to address is at the core of our institute’s work with political leaders on industrial development and economic transformation.

Session Organisers:

Milad Abbasiharofteh, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Jessica Birkholz, University of Bremen, Germany
Tom Brökel, University of Stavanger, Norway
Emmanouil Tranos, University of Bristol, England

Session Description:

Access to unstructured textual data—such as news articles, online job postings, and text from firms’ websites—combined with advancements in computational power, machine learning, and most recently, large language models, offers significant opportunities for advancing research in regional studies. Despite this potential, the field often continues to rely on traditional secondary data sources, such as patents, scientific publications, R&D projects, and administrative records.

To address unresolved challenges, particularly in the context of (regional) transformation processes, scholars increasingly recognize the need for alternative micro-level data derived from textual sources. While many disciplines have embraced these data and the advanced methods required to analyze them, regional studies have yet to fully harness their potential to uncover critical insights and generate new knowledge.

This special session aims to explore how researchers can leverage unstructured textual data to enhance our understanding of regional transformation and support the development of place-based policy solutions. We welcome both conceptual and empirical contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

– Harnessing unconventional data (e.g., firms’ web text) and machine learning to map the geography economic activity.
– Utilizing large-scale textual data, including news, websites and social media, to map knowledge production and networks in space and time.
– Creating regional datasets from unstructured data using machine learning and LLM , such as semantic analyses of patents and trademarks.
– Leveraging historical textual data, like newspaper archives, to analyze the economic developments in regions over time.
– Exploring regional occupational landscapes using data from job postings.
– Employing machine learning and AI to enhance regional planning and decision-making for sustainable transitions.
– Mapping and analysing the diffusion of clean technologies and sustainable practices using novel textual datasets.
– LLMs-assisted deductive coding of unstructured data.
– Discussions about the implications of new data and new methods for the discipline and its theoretical as well as empirical basis.
– Discourses on the ethical and practical use of modern text analysis tools including AI.

Session Organisers:

Suyash Jolly, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Petr Rumpel, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Session Description:

Several industrial regions across Europe and other parts of the world are facing complex challenges related to industrial decline, ageing population, outmigration of youth, strong competition, weak governance, and restructuring challenges (Blažek et al., 2012; Blažek & Květoň, 2022; Rumpel & Slach, 2022; Nagy et al., 2023). Prior studies have indicated the need for industrial regions to develop the necessary resilience (Ženka et al., 2019; Trippl et al., 2024) to bounce back from existing societal crises and develop new competencies to adapt and transform themselves to address the challenges (Grillitsch & Asheim, 2024) and explore alternative new regional industry paths. The regions need to develop new competencies and skills related to green and digital transitions (Fazio et al., 2024) and enhance the transformation towards just transitions (Eadson & van Veelen, 2023). Furthermore, not all regions have the necessary resources, knowledge base, skills and capabilities to benefit from the emerging green transition, and there will likely be winners and losers in the future (Grashof & Basilico, 2024).
Questions have arisen regarding the extent to which the emergence of new green industry paths contributes to challenges related to ecological sustainability, well-being and social inequality (Trippl et al., 2020; Breul et al., 2021; Eadson & van Veelen, 2023) and marginalize the rights of the citizens and vulnerable social actors such as women, rural residents, youth, elderly, industrial workers, migrant workers, Indigenous communities etc. (Rodríguez-Pose & Bartalucci, 2024; Sovacool et al., 2024). This special session invites submissions to present preliminary exploratory studies that focus on the future of industrial regions and the long-term transformation challenges they face. Submissions are also welcomed to inform regional strategies and regional transformative policies that foster the long-term transformation of industrial regions and critically look at who wins and who loses out in the process and what are the consequences (economic, ecological and societal) of the current political interventions? Submissions are welcomed in the special sessions addressing the following questions but are not limited to them.

1. What are the emergent conflicting regional narratives supported by different regional and non-regional actors (Nilsen et al., 2024) that support multiple sustainable regional futures (Chlebna et al., 2023; Gong, 2024), and how does the lack of coordination and misaligned priorities (Ziemba et al., 2024) between them hinder long term transformative development of industrial regions?

2. How do regional public sentiments and emotions (Hannemann et al., 2023) in fossil fuel-dependent industrial regions (e.g. oil and gas, coal, extractive mining industries, etc) (Afewerki & Karlsen, 2021; Gürtler & Löw Beer, 2024) shape their long-term transformation? How are public debates regarding the future of industrial regions reflected in the media? How does this contribute to increased or decreased support for inclusive green transitions in industrial regions?

3. How do regional authoritarian and populist movements (Wanvik & Haarstad, 2021) advocating dependence on existing fossil fuel-based industrial infrastructure emerge, and which societal stakeholders gain from them? What are the discursive, institutional strategies (Geels, 2014) utilised by incumbent regional industries to delay decarbonisation initiatives (Yazar & Haarstad, 2024) and obstruct inclusive green transitions with alternative visions? Which societal groups lose out due to such interventions, and what are the implications regarding distributive, redistributive and procedural justice (Tarasova, 2024)?

4. What promising alternative futures (Gong, 2024) can industrial regions embark upon, and how can industrial regions in peripheral and geographically remote places (Karlsen et al., 2024; Gansauer et al., 2024) manoeuvre complex economic, social, and environmental trade-offs while shaping regional futures (Benner et al., 2024)?

Session Organisers:

Aditya Ray, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), UK
Uma Rani, International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland

Session Description:

The integration of new technologies of automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and blockchain, is poised to transform the global service supply chains. These new technologies are redefining how services are being organised and delivered — from entry-level data work to complex Information Technology (IT) & IT-enabled business process outsourcing (ITeS-BPO) services. With their capacity to collect, monitor and process large amounts of data in real time, they also challenge conventional outsourcing models, their underlying political economy, labour dynamics, even shifting the geographic centres of work.
The panel will explore these transformations from multiple perspectives, examining how emerging technologies are reshaping tasks, work and employment in service supply chains. We invite scholars to consider not only the changing structures of operations in globally outsource ed services, but also the human dimensions, including changes in work tasks, job security, career paths, professional status, and local developmental impacts.

We encourage panellists to critically address the following key issues:
• Mapping the impact of new technologies on IT and IT enabled services in specific sectors and sub-sector (IT, BPOs/LPOs/KPOs, call centres etc.)
• Understanding the risks and opportunities from automation and other emerging technologies for established services outsourcing hubs (e.g. in India, Philippines, South Africa) and for emerging geographies and regions (in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America).
• Implications of technological shifts for workers in services supply chains, including workers’ experiences, professional identity/status, job-security, and career-paths.
• Implications of new technologies on understanding of “knowledge work” in massified entry-level and more specialised ‘mid-/high-end’ services consulting (for e.g. in call centres, data entry, legal and software services).
• Broader developmental implications of automation and other technologies, particularly their effects on local and regional labour markets and decent work opportunities.

We invite scholars to submit abstracts of up to 300-400 words. Contributions should consist of theoretical, empirical, or case-study-driven analyses that address one or more of the themes outlined above. Papers from multidisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome.

Session Organisers:

Jessica Ferm, University College London, United Kingdom
Ben Hughes, University College London,United Kingdom
Myfanwy Taylor, University College London, United Kingdom

Session Description:

In mainstream discourse and research, there has in recent decades been a gap between how the economic success and development of places is measured – for example, through GDP and productivity growth – and how people living and working in places experience their everyday lives; in areas that are experiencing economic growth and market-led development, as well as places that are not. In response, there is a growing recognition of the need to review and revise understandings of the economy and measure the success and development of places. In the UK, for example, the Scottish Government has made community wealth building national policy, the Welsh Government has taken up the idea of the foundational economy and the new UK Government has shown interest in the related idea of the everyday economy. Beyond government, there is also growing interest in how communities facing economic injustice can build collective power to transform the economy (e.g. the work of People’s Economy).

This special open session invites contributions that explore new understandings of the prosperity, development and success of places emphasising lived experiences, co-production and/or practical experiments and initiatives. We are particularly interested in the potential of such new understandings to generate new approaches to local, urban and regional development policy, especially in places that may otherwise be characterised as ‘left-behind’, lagging, peripheral or deprived places. We aim to shift the debate towards workers and communities as active agents of local, urban and regional development, exploring the potential for community-centred and co-produced policy agendas.

We invite practice-based, empirical and/or conceptual contributions to re-thinking place-based economic development from across disciplines, sectors and countries on topics that could include:

– Often-overlooked parts of the economy that include the everyday, foundational and social/solidarity economy, and their intersections with place-based economic development.
– Social infrastructure and social value in local, urban and regional economic development.
– Local economies as lived and experienced in place, for example emphasising livelihoods, place attachment and identity.
– The relevance of diverse and community economies perspectives, including for ‘left-behind’ places.
– The roles of community organising, commoning and/or community planning in re-framing place-based development.
– Place-based just transitions and their visions and approaches for place-based development.
– Re-thinking the role of the state and/or the roles of workers and communities in place-based development, for example via new municipalist approaches.
– Co-production and place-based policy, including inequalities and how they might be addressed.
– Methodologies for understanding and developing local, urban and regional economies.

Session Organisers:

Nicola Francesco Dotti, European Commission (DG RTD)
Julien Ravet, European Commission (DG RTD)
Pierre-Alexandre Balland, CEPS & Harvard Kennedy School
Florence Benoit, European Commission (DG RTD)
Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Session Description:

This policy-oriented session aims to discuss the main characteristics and evolution of the European regional R&I ecosystems. Between 2000 and 2022, clear innovation divide among European countries was observed with northern and western regions outperforming southern and western counterparts in terms of research and innovation (R&I) performance (European Commission, 2024). Despite overall progress in innovation at the EU level, significant regional disparities persist, underlining a growing divide between “innovation leaders” and “emerging innovators”. This gap manifests along the different dimensions of R&I activities, from R&D expenditures and investments to the various outcomes such as patenting activity, research collaborations, and the broader commercialization of research.

These regional R&I disparities affect Europe’s competitiveness across Member States and their regions and cities. The recent Draghi report (Draghi, 2024) on the future of European competitiveness made clear that “accelerating innovation” is crucial in a context of geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, and significant societal challenges, such as climate change, demographic shifts, and the digital transformation. If Europe is to remain globally competitive and resilient, addressing these R&I imbalances will be crucial.

This session aims to gather policy-relevant research contributions on the drivers and barriers of regional R&I disparities, focusing on the clustering of R&I activities and the spatial evolution of the European regional R&I ecosystems. Specific interest is devoted to the structural challenges posed by the inter- and intra-national R&I disparities for European economic competitiveness, in the broader context of geopolitical instability. In this context, the discussion aims to identify the strategic opportunities for fostering more balanced and inclusive innovation growth.

Key topics:
-The regional R&I disparities in Europe with specific attention to the drivers and barriers for regional development;
-The (socio-) economic consequences of R&I fragmentation in Europe;
-The regional trends in terms of science, research and innovation performances across Europe;
-Policy responses and regional innovation strategies that leverage EU funding mechanisms to mitigate regional disparities;
-The role of EU programmes and instruments in stimulating cross-border research and innovation activities;
-The interplay between EU and national/regional policies for R&I ecosystems

Session Organisers:

Rhiannon Pugh, Lund University, Sweden
Riley Ding, Lund University, Sweden
David Charles, Northumbria University, UK
Yuzhuo Cai, Tampere University, Finland
Romulo Pinheiro, University of Agder, Norway

Session Description:

There has, in recent years, been much interest in the role of universities in regional development in the academic and policy spheres. Models such as the “Triple helix”, “Third mission” and “Entrepreneurial University” suggest that working with businesses, civil society, and government means that universities can have a profound impact on the economic development of their regions (Salomaa, 2019). This can be through their teaching, research, and engagement activities. However, we know much more about these dynamics in core areas, and less about the roles of universities in driving development in rural areas. What we do know suggests that universities in rural and peripheral areas could have a positive impact on regional development, but that it might be more challenging to work with communities and businesses in such areas where there is not a strong precedence of this taking place. Meanwhile, universities are increasingly expected to deliver on sustainable development agendas, including regional and national policy priorities, the SDGs and Agenda 2030 (Filho, 2011; Leal Filho et al., 2019) .
We see empirically that university presence in rural and peripheral regions has been growing, with the expansion of the university sector especially in smaller cities and locations outside of the main metropolitan regions and old university towns. The impact of universities in such locations has led to economic and social gains (Benneworth et al., 2022).
This session will bring together researchers working on this issues internationally, to fill in the blanks in our knowledge about this issue, and also set the ground for a larger research agenda drawing on different methods and cases internationally to gain a deeper and wider understanding of the roles of universities in peripheral regions’ development. It is founded on the understanding (as per Harrison & Turok, 2017, p.978) that universities’ “contributions to wider forms of social enquiry, environmental innovation and critical reflection are also vital at a time of extraordinary challenges and risks facing regions and nations.”.

Some questions this sessions will address, amongst others are:

What roles do universities play in peripheral regions? How does this relate to sustainability?
And are these the same as what has been found to be the case in core urban settings?
How do universities contribute to sustainable development in peripheral regions?
How does the expansion of universities in peripheral regions shape regional development?
How are the traditional three missions of the university evolving in peripheral regions?

Session Organisers:

Kadri Leetmaa, University of Tartu, Estonia
Ingmar Pastak, University of Tartu, Estonia
Bianka Plüschke-Altof, University of Tartu, Estonia
Bradley Loewen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Session Description:

Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the way society functions. Digital life is no longer just a means of communication, but instead, ‘digital’ has become ‘natural’, making it hard to distinguish digital transactions from our general presence in society.

At the same time, today’s rural ‘smartification’ pathways rather apply upon the same ‘powerlines’ of inequality already known – that access to the benefits of digital transition is unequal, e.g. digital services are more readily available in urban areas and used by younger, digitally affluent people. This draws attention to the other side of the coin: aging rural populations facing an increasing rate of digitalisation in services; the need for digital skills in the labour market; the lack of digital innovation from rural margins; and missing services designed in and for rural contexts. Such digital divides are caused by gaps in digital infrastructure, lack of digital skills, and different preferences, but also by the fact that there is a lack of understanding of what a digital society outside major centres fundamentally is.

There is a growing body of work by scholars who are inspired to look into rural areas, small towns and peripheral regions and tilt the gravity of ‘smart’ from urban to rural context. These studies touch on the potential for digitalisation to enhance well-being and to include otherwise excluded groups such as rural elderly, minorities, people with special needs, by analysing services in shrinking rural areas and looking at many other critically important issues.
Inspired by the recent smartification trend and growing literature from rural context, this session aims to present the empirical and theoretical accounts in discovering:

• the interrelations between smart development and rural areas,
• critical reflections on smart city and smart rurality concepts,
• new interpretations of ‘smart’, ‘development’ and ‘innovation’
• state and local government induced smart development,
• best practices of ‘smart’ and ‘digital’,
• and the influence of smart transformation on rural communities.

Session Organisers:

Dariusz Wojcik, NUS, Singapore
Karen Lai, Durham, UK
David Bassens, VUB, Belgium
Franziska Sohns, ARU, UK
Silvia Grandi, Bologna, Italy

Session Description:

We propose this session as an annual FinGeo-RSA lecture, celebrating the collaboration between the Global Network on Financial Geography and Regional Studies Association, including the co-sponsored journal Finance and Space (https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rfas20). Our distinguished speaker for the lecture is Professor Clara Raposo, who was the Dean of ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management until 2022, and has been the Vice-Governor of Banco de Portugal (the Central Bank of Portugal) since. Her research focuses on corporate finance and governance topics, with a more recent focus on entrepreneurship, SMEs and banking relations, with attention to economic and financial geography, as well as regional development.

In her lecture Professor Raposo will talk about strategies of navigating regional transformations towards sustainable finance. She will discuss the needs for and trends in climate and sustainable finance, and the role of central banks in the process. She will present how climate risks affect different parts of the financial system at international, national, and subnational scale. She will use examples showing how the Banco de Portugal deals with those challenges as part of the European System of Central Banks. For further information on the speaker see https://www.bportugal.pt/en/membroconselho/clara-raposo.

 

Session Organiser:

Alex Shi, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Session Description:

Informal institutions play a crucial role in entrepreneurship development by shaping the social norms and cultural practices that influence entrepreneurial behaviour. These institutions help in building trust and cooperation among diverse stakeholders, which is essential for fostering new ventures in urban settings. However, the same informal institution may play contrasting roles in different regions, highlighting its strong spatial heterogeneity.

For instance, the impact of cultural diversity on entrepreneurship development is mixed in both Europe and China. On one hand, cultural diversity provides a conducive environment where entrepreneurial ideas are nurtured, exchanged, and augmented via intensive interactions. On the other hand, cultural diversity could build various hurdles for collaborations across cultural groups, such as linguistic, ritual, religious, and food barriers.

Why the same “cultural diversity” could lead to different entrepreneurship outcomes? Why the positive impact of cultural diversity is more prevailing in Europe? Why western scholars are skeptical about China’s cultural diversity, arguing “China is one”? Is China’s cultural diversity underestimated due to the lack of historical vision?

These questions are also applied on other informal institutions. Therefore, the conceptualization of informal institutions in entrepreneurship development demand more spatial perspectives beyond the conventional focus on input factors. This special session will establish a platform for us to explore the role of informal institution in facilitating urban entrepreneurship development from both European and Chinese visions.

Therefore, we invite papers that focus (but not limited) on the following topics:

– The dynamic geography of entrepreneurship and informal institutions in Europe and China.

– The impact of informal institutions on urban entrepreneurship development.

– Formal vs informal institutions in entrepreneurship development.

– The reasons behind the regional divergence on entrepreneurship development.

– The quantification methods of informal institutions, such as social norms and cultural practices.

 

Session Organisers:

Sabine Dörry, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Luxembourg
Sara Bencekovic, University of Luxembourg

Session Description:

Financial geographies have undergone profound changes in recent years. Financial centres are deeply embedded in a dynamic landscape shaped by geopolitical instability, climate challenges and shifting global economic orders. These changes are further intensified by the ongoing global ‘polycrisis’, where threats to democracy, technological disruption and socio-economic inequalities are redefining the development of financial centres. Amidst these challenges, financial geography offers critical insights into the evolving role of financial centres as hubs of innovation, resilience and adaptation. Yet, many financial centres face their own ‘development traps’, navigating uneven progress while managing multiple transitions, from digitalisation to the decarbonisation of finance. However, the literature often overlooks the active role financial centres play in shaping these dynamics, thereby contributing to the challenges associated with these development traps. The complexity of these changes, coupled with the ambivalent agency of financial centres, raises urgent questions about pathways toward an inclusive, equitable and sustainable transformation in finance.

We invite scholars to examine the evolving dynamics of financial centres and their critical role in shaping global, regional and local futures. We seek contributions that critically assess how financial centres respond to the pressures of a polycrisis and the extent to which they can catalyse – or hinder – inclusive and sustainable outcomes. We also encourage submissions that advance theoretical understanding of the complex geographies of financial centres and their transformations. This includes analysing how financial centre transformations intersect with broader goals and challenges of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Green Deal, among others.

Themes of interest include but are not limited to:
• Case studies on the evolution of financial centres under geopolitical, technological and/or environmental pressures.
• The role of policy frameworks and regulation in shaping, and being shaped by, financial centre trajectories.
• Comparative studies exploring uneven development across financial geographies.
• Historical and forward-looking analyses of financial centres as agents of regional transformation.
• Methodological innovations in studying financial centres within broader urban and regional systems.
• Insights and lessons for creating more inclusive and sustainable financial geographies.

We welcome multi-disciplinary and multi-scalar perspectives that bridge theory and practice, sharing insights into how financial centres navigate transformation. We look forward to your valuable contributions to this timely dialogue.

Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts (max 250 words) should outline the research focus, methodology and their relevance to this call for papers. Submissions are due by 19th December 2024 through the RSA conference portal at: https://lounge.regionalstudies.org/Meetings/Meeting?ID=529.

Session Organisers:

Carla Gonçalves, University of Porto, Portugal
Nicolás Artaza, University of Porto, Portugal
Paulo Conceição, University of Porto, Portugal
Paulo Pinho, University of Porto, Portugal

Session Description:

Coastal regions are at the intersection of critical ecological, social, and economic challenges, particularly in the face of accelerating climate change. As dynamic interfaces between land and sea, these areas face significant difficulties in balancing the competing demands of ecological preservation, economic development, and community well-being.
This session aims to foster dialogue on how interdisciplinary approaches can bridge the gap between current governance practices and envisioned sustainable and resilient regional futures. By integrating insights from diverse disciplines, we will examine the multifaceted challenges confronting coastal regions worldwide and identify pathways for innovative, adaptive, and equitable governance systems.
By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, we seek fresh perspectives on the governance of coastal regions, addressing both systemic structures and community-driven agencies to co-create sustainable and equitable futures. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and practice-based contributions that explore the relationship between governance, planning and management on the following topics:
• Innovative coastal and marine governance frameworks: Fresh perspectives on Maritime Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Zone Management, and alternative models that enhance resilience and adaptability, such as coastal landscape governance, coastal socio-ecological systems governance, and other interdisciplinary planning approaches.
• Land-Sea Interactions: Governance frameworks addressing the ecological, social, and economic interdependencies between terrestrial and marine systems to manage interconnected challenges and opportunities better.
• Coastal Socio-Ecological Dynamics: Exploring how governance affects the interplay between coastal ecosystems, biodiversity, cultural heritage, climate adaptation, and socioeconomic activities while identifying strategies to strengthen these relationships.
• Future-looking pathways for the governance of the coastal region: Highlighting the importance of innovation and adaptability in governance systems to anticipate and address the challenges posed by climate change, socioeconomic shifts, and ecological transitions.
• Justice, Equity, and Representation: Insights into how governance processes can prioritise justice, equity, and inclusion, particularly for historically marginalised or vulnerable coastal communities.
• Community-Driven and Participatory Approaches: The role of local knowledge, co-governance, and participatory methods in shaping future-oriented and inclusive governance systems.
• Prospects on the Blue Economy: Exploring how activities like fisheries, aquaculture, maritime transport, renewable energy, and coastal tourism can harmonise economic growth with ecological integrity and community well-being.

Format: 90-minute sessions featuring a keynote presentation, PowerPoint presentations, and pre-appointed discussants, followed by an interactive dialogue with the audience.

Session Organisers:

Stefania Toma, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Maria Manuela Mendes, ULisboa, CIES-Iscte, Portugal

Session Description:

The Special Session aims to discuss the lived experiences of marginality and peripherality of the Roma minority in different European regions. Roma communities are often characterized by poverty and discrimination, living in areas with limited access to resources, infrastructure, and services and thus experiencing the stigmatizing experience of living on both the geographical (rural isolation or urban segregation) and social periphery (facing stigmatization, racism, exclusion).
The session will explore how these dual peripheries shape Roma minority’s sense of of belonging, identity, and aspirations. We also aim to highlight how Roma communities exercise transformative agency to navigate and overcome their marginality.

We invite contributions that address belonging and agency as key concepts to interrogate geographical and social marginalities. We are particularly interested in contributions grounded in the direct experiences of the Roma communities, as well as those that critically engage with the potential policy relevance of their findings at local, regional, and international levels. Some key questions might include:

How does the intersection of geographical marginality and social exclusion shape the everyday experiences of belonging for members of the Roma minority?
What are the research and policy challenges in understanding rural and urban marginality?
How do Roma individuals/households use mobility, migration and transnational networks to challenge marginality?
How do ethnic relations frame questions of identity and belonging?
How can policies move beyond “integration” and focus on agency and empowerment?

Session Organisers:

Chiara Leggerini, University of Brescia, Italy
Martina Dal Molin, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Mariasole Bannò, University of Brescia, Italy
Andrea Ascani, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy

Session Description:

The concept of the twin transition, encompassing the green transition alongside digital transformation (Faggian et al., 2024; Rehman et al., 2023), has become a central theme in policy discussions at both national and regional levels, as well as within academic debates (Brueck et al., 2024; Faggian et al., 2024; Fazio et al., 2024). From an academic perspective, the twin transition is gaining increasing attention from diverse perspectives, such as industry competitiveness (Montresor and Vezzani, 2024; Rehman et al., 2023), human capital, and skills development (Trevisan et al., 2024). Notably, the literature underscores that the twin transition is neither a uniform nor a monolithic process, as highlighted by Faggian et al. (2024, p. 2).

Within this growing discourse, the regional perspective has received relatively limited attention, with some exceptions (see, for example, Fazio et al., 2024; Bachtrögler-Unger et al., 2023). Addressing this gap is crucial, as the regional context significantly influences the development and adoption of green innovations (Galliano et al., 2023; Losacker et al., 2023), which are intrinsically linked to the twin transition. For instance, Fazio et al. (2024), in their European study on ICT technologies and green innovation orientation, observed notable differences in innovation orientation across regions in Europe. Their findings also demonstrate that ICT innovation orientation plays a pivotal role in shaping the twin transition. Similarly, Bachtrögler-Unger et al. (2023) explored the potential of European regions to support the twin transition, focusing on relatedness, complexity, and inter-regional linkages. Their research confirms that spatial and regional contexts are critical, with twin transition technologies predominantly concentrated in more developed regions.

Building on this foundation, this special session aims to explore the regional determinants of the twin transition and examine how regional contexts can either support or hinder these transformative changes. Based on this premise, this track aims to deepen our understanding of these dynamics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• What regional drivers influence a region’s ability to engage in the twin transition?
• How does regional human capital and skills affect the adoption of green and digital technologies?
• How twin transition could reduce regional inequalities?
• How can interregional networks and global connections influence twin transition adoption in less developed regions?
• How does the regulatory and policy context influence firms’ decisions to adopt twin-transition technologies?
• How do regional institutional context affect firms’ decisions to adopt twin-transition technologies?

We encourage both empirical and theoretical contributions, utilising qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method research approach. The objective of the session is to promote a debate that offers useful pointers for local and national policies, stimulating an inclusive and balanced transition that takes into account territorial differences. Submissions characterised by an interdisciplinary approach and those drawn from diverse industries and contexts are highly encouraged.

Session Organisers:

Han Chu, Kiel University, Germany
Robert Hassink, Kiel University, Germany
Di Wu, Nanjing Normal University, China

Session Description:

Traditional frameworks in regional studies and economic geography, sometimes referred to as Territorial Innovation Models (TIMs), such as Industrial Districts, Clusters, Regional Innovation Systems (RIS), and Local Production Systems (Moulaert & Sekia, 2003), have long emphasized the role of tacit knowledge, face-to-face interaction, and spatial proximity in fostering innovation and enhancing regional competitiveness. However, while these concepts have shaped foundational understandings of regional development, TIMs have faced critiques for their limited theoretical novelty (Doloreux et al., 2019) and for overemphasizing endogenous dynamics while neglecting external relations, market processes, and the role of consumption in shaping knowledge and innovation (Jeannerat & Kebir, 2016). Although later iterations of these models began to emphasize the importance of external linkages, producer-consumer relationships, and the dynamic interplay between local and global knowledge flows in regional innovation processes (Olsen, 2012). They have largely overlooked the transformative impacts of digitalization and platformization on innovation, entrepreneurship, and spatial proximity. These processes reshape knowledge generation, transformation, and anchoring, and even challenge the assumptions underlying traditional innovation models (Jeannerat & Theurillat, 2021).
The platform economy potentially disrupts foundational TIMs assumptions such as the reliance on spatial proximity, localized trust, and agglomeration economies. Digital platforms enable geographically unconstrained virtual networks, instant reputation mechanisms, and platform-mediated interactions, fundamentally altering how innovation and entrepreneurship unfold (Stark & Pais, 2020, Wu & Qiao, 2024). These processes not only potentially disrupt traditional territorial dynamics but also require new approaches regarding skills development, knowledge exchange, and educational policies that can address the challenges of the platform economy. For instance, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs)—recently integrated into the TIMs framework (Kuebart & Ibert, 2019)—reflect these shifts by emphasizing the socio-economic and cultural aspects of entrepreneurship. The emergence of Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (DEEs) further redefines the spaces for entrepreneurship by incorporating boundary-spanning activities, online-offline dynamics, and digital infrastructures into entrepreneurial processes (Sussan & Acs, 2017; Bejjani et al., 2023).Simultaneously, digital platforms democratize innovation by facilitating open innovation, user-driven innovation, and social innovation across physical and virtual spaces (Bogers et al., 2017; Casais et al., 2020). Entrepreneurship itself has become more inclusive and accessible, lowering barriers to entry and fostering diverse entrepreneurial landscapes (Chu et al., 2023).

These developments call for a re-evaluation of TIMs and require a critical rethinking of how knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship, and spatial proximity interact in the platform economy era.

Call for Contributions

We aim to explore how this digitalization and the platform economy transformations reshape knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship and spatial proximity addressing their implications for theory, practice, and policy. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• How do TIMs concepts such as clusters and RIS adapt to the challenges of platformization and digitalization?
• What new theoretical insights emerge from analyzing innovation in the platform economy? How do digital platforms transform knowledge creation, transfer, and anchoring processes?
• How do DEEs redefine traditional notions of spatial proximity, trust, and agency in entrepreneurship?
• How do democratized innovation practices like open innovation, user innovation, and social innovation intersect with territorial frameworks?
• What tensions arise between virtual and physical spaces in fostering innovative activities?
• How should regional policies evolve to support TIMs in the context of digitalization?
• What governance structures are needed to address the balance between territorial and virtual dynamics in innovation and entrepreneurship?
• How to reconceptualize the relationships/interactions between virtual and physical space in supporting knowledge exchange, innovation, and entrepreneurial activities?

For inquiries or further information, please contact: Han Chu chu@geographie.uni-kiel.de .

Session Details:

Laura de Dominicis, European Commission – Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Belgium
Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK
Lewis Dijkstra, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Italy
Jorge Durán Laguna, European Commission – Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Belgium

Session Description:

Institutions that are transparent, accountable, governed by the rule of law, and equipped with effective structures have a profound impact on economic development and the outcomes of public investment, including investments under cohesion policy. High-quality institutions create a stable and predictable environment for economic activities by upholding the rule of law, protecting property rights, and ensuring the enforcement of contracts. When businesses and individuals trust the legal framework and institutional systems, they are more likely to invest, innovate, and participate in productive ventures. High-quality institutions are linked to female achievement and support demographic growth, because it makes it easier for women to combine raising a family and a job.

Over the years, a growing share of cohesion policy funding has been allocated to strengthening institutional capacity within Member States. This funding has supported key areas such as public administration, judicial systems, the rule of law, and public procurement processes.

This special session aims to provide a platform for discussing the challenges and opportunities related to measuring institutional quality and assessing the business environment at the subnational level, as well as examining the implications for policy effectiveness.

We welcome submissions from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Measuring institutional quality and the business environment: Methodologies and frameworks for evaluating the quality of institutions and the business environment at the subnational level.
• Institutional quality and regional development: Exploring the link between institutions and regional economic growth, inclusive and sustainable regional development, innovation, and competitiveness.
• Cohesion policy and institutional governance: Analyzing how high-quality institutions and a healthy business environment enhance the effectiveness of regional policy frameworks, particularly in reducing disparities and fostering balanced development.
• Institutional reforms and regional policy: Empirical studies investigating how institutional reforms contribute to improved regional economic outcomes and cohesion policy results.

This session will bring together diverse perspectives to better understand how institutional quality shapes the business environment and drives sustainable and inclusive regional development in the EU and beyond.

Session Organisers:

Myfanwy Taylor, University College London, United Kingdom
John Tomaney, University College London, United Kingdom
Sarah Chaytor, University College London, United Kingdom

Session Description:

This session explores the potential role for universities in working with communities and policy-makers to explore and advance alternative development agendas for left-behind places.

Universities have long been understood as important to local and regional innovation clusters and networks, and have therefore been important actors in place-based development agendas seeking to enhance these functions. In parallel, universities have increasingly invested in developing links with industry and commercialisation, both to improve their own increasingly precarious financial positions and to demonstrate their local and national importance and value. This session re-examines these roles and functions of universities in driving place-based innovation in the context of the failure of relatively narrowly framed local and regional growth strategies to address enduring spatial inequalities over the last few decades. Recognising that much attention to date has been focused on cities, agglomeration economies and high-tech clusters, we aim to re-orientate the debate towards the role of universities in ‘left-behind’ places. In other words, we revisit and re-examine the role of universities in social innovation, socially-useful knowledge production and their so-called ‘Third Mission’ in relation to the contemporary challenges of left-behind places.

Growing inequalities coupled with compounding financial, health and climate crises have mobilised a proliferation of new understandings of prosperity and development (e.g. foundational economy; community wealth building; doughnut economics; postgrowth) that are increasingly being taken up within local and regional development policy and research. In terms of place-based innovation networks specifically, we are beginning to see an increasing focus on social, civic and public innovation, including in usually-overlooked foundational sectors (e.g. Henderson, Morgan and Delbridge, 2023; 2024), inspired partly by the shift towards mission-oriented government. Relatedly, there has been increasing focus on re-directing local and regional policy for left-behind places specifically towards empowering and resourcing local change-makers, whose local knowledge, lived experience, attachments, pride and hope in place make them key agents of local and regional economic development (e.g. Tomaney et al, 2023).

In this context, this session focuses on the role of universities in enabling and driving public, private and civic innovation for more socially-just and environmentally-sustainable development in left-behind places. We welcome practice-oriented, empirical and more conceptual papers from a variety of countries and regions, reflecting on emerging, ongoing or longstanding place-based projects and partnerships to draw out their wider implications for university agendas and/or policy recommendations for left-behind places. Topics might include:

• Long-term place-based commitments and partnerships between universities and communities and/or policy-makers.
• Co-production of place-based policy with communities and/or policy-makers.
• Ethical issues involved in university-community-policy place-based partnerships.
• Integrating research with long-term place-based engagement and collaboration.
• Linking teaching and learning to place-based partnerships with communities.
• Institutional issues within universities, for example funding; policy; impact.
• Social innovation, socially-useful knowledge production and universities’ ‘Third Mission’.

This session builds on a session on co-production held at the 2024 Regional Studies Association Annual Conference in Florence. It will inform a Special Issue proposal linking UCL’s new Regional Communities agenda with other examples of long-term collaborations between universities, communities and policy-makers in left-behind places within the UK and internationally. If you might have something to contribute to the topic but are unable to participate in the 2025 RSA Conference in Porto, please get in touch to discuss further.

Session Organisers:

Aggelos Panayiotopoulos, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Jenny Kanellopoulou, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Nikos Ntounis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Session Description:

The recognised role of heritage in national and regional identities (Goulding and Domic, 2009; Ashworth, 2013; Smith, 2017), regeneration and interpretation is stressed by academics, communities, local/regional/national authorities and businesses alike; in some cases, unproblematically and uncritically, entangled with tourism development as a solution to any given crisis, as a panacea that cures all ills. The session calls for researchers to critically reflect on heritage as a space for contested meanings, as a product of social, historical and legal processes (Kanellopoulou et al., 2024); a resource for interpretation of (new?) meanings , including authorised and alternative discourses, identities and social relationships, as well as cultural strategies and tourist development in an environment of polycrisis (Bianchi and Milano, 2024).

Ashworth, G. J. (2013). From history to heritage–from heritage to identity: in search of concepts and models. In Ashworth, G. and Larkham, P. (Eds) Building A New Heritage (RLE Tourism) (pp. 13-30). Routledge.
Bianchi, R. V., & Milano, C. (2024). Polycrisis and the metamorphosis of tourism capitalism. Annals of Tourism Research, 104, 103731.
Goulding, C. and Domic, D., 2009. Heritage, identity and ideological manipulation: The case of Croatia. Annals of Tourism Research, 36(1), pp.85-102.
Kanellopoulou, E., Panayiotopoulos, A., & Pavlidis, S. A. (2024). Cultural heritage beyond juridification: towards a place-first research agenda. Journal of Place Management and Development, 17(2), 220-236.
Smith, L. (2017). Heritage, identity and power. Citizens, Civil Society and Heritage-Making in Asia, 15-39.

Indicative themes:
Critical Heritage Studies
Regional Cultural Policies
Heritagisation
Tourism/Touristification
Crisis/polycrisis
Aesthetization
Place making
Regeneration
Politics/geopolitics
International and EU Cultural Heritage Law

Session Organisers:

Dieter F. Kogler, Spatial Dynamics Lab, University College Dublin
Bernardo S. Buarque, Motu Research, Aotearoa New Zealand
Ryan Hynes, FTI Consulting, UK
Simone Salotti, European Commission, JRC
Pablo Casas, European Commission, JRC

Session Description:

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, automation, and digitalization is profoundly transforming economies and societies worldwide. These technologies are reshaping workforce composition, altering skills demand, and redefining the role of education in preparing future generations for the challenges of an increasingly automated and digital world. Meanwhile, the implications for regional development, economic inequality, and the spatial distribution of opportunities and resources are only beginning to unfold.

As technological change accelerates, critical questions emerge about its impact on productivity, employment, and regional disparities. How can regions harness the benefits of AI and automation while mitigating potential disruptions? What strategies are most effective in fostering workforce adaptability, inclusive growth, and resilience in the face of technological disruption? How does education need to evolve to address shifting skills demands?

This special session seeks to bring together researchers exploring these pivotal issues. We invite contributions that examine the multifaceted impacts of AI, robotics, and digital technologies on the workforce, education, and regional development. We welcome both theoretical and empirical studies, as well as interdisciplinary approaches, to foster a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by technological change.

Key Topics:

• Regional impacts of AI, robotics, and automation on employment and productivity
• The role of skills and education in adapting to digital transformation
• AI-driven changes in workforce composition: opportunities and inequalities
• Regional policies and strategies to mitigate technological disruption
• The effects of new technologies on industrial structures
• Technological change, spatial disparities, and inclusive growth
• Cross-regional comparisons of automation’s impacts
• The role of patents and intellectual property in fostering technological innovation
• Mapping and analyzing knowledge spaces: implications for regional innovation
• New methods for assessing technological change
• Case studies of workforce transformation in the age of AI

While the session highlights these key topics, we warmly welcome contributions that address a broader spectrum of issues related to the intersection of technological change, workforce dynamics, and regional development. We encourage contributions from diverse disciplines, including economics, regional science, education, public policy, and labor studies. Novel perspectives are particularly encouraged to enrich the discussion and explore new dimensions of these critical themes. This session aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue on the societal and regional implications of AI and automation, providing actionable insights for policymakers, educators, and practitioners navigating the technological frontier.

Session Organisers:

Paweł Capik, University of the West of England, UK
Artur Klimek, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland
Magdolna Sass, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

Session Description:

For over a decade now global value chains (GVCs) have been undergoing profound transformations in response to ongoing geopolitical, economic, technological and environmental challenges.

Global disruptions, the polycrisis of COVID-19 pandemic, military conflicts, climate change, and heightened geopolitical and trade tensions are driving fundamental changes in the location, forms, and scale of economic activity. The rise of new forms of shoring – nearshoring, friendshoring, backshoring – and regionalisation reflects growing concerns about the resilience and sustainability of supply chains and, in turn, the fate and prosperity of regional economies. Technological advancements, including digitalization, automation, artificial intelligence, decline of some industries and emergence of new ones, as well as new forms of companies and ways of working, add further complexity to the GVC structures and processes.

This Special Session aims to explore these trends and examine their implications for regional home and host economies in industrialised countries and the Global South.
The Session aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue, drawing insights from economics, geography, regional science, economics, international business, and political economy. We invite cross~ and multidisciplinary, conceptual as well as empirical papers utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

The contributions may explore, but should not be limited to the following issues:

• emerging trends in reconfiguration of global value chains;
• sector-specific GVC transformations
• near/back/friend-shoring trends in manufacturing and service sectors;
• factors determining GVC reconfigurations (macro, mezo, micro perspective);
• consequences of GVC reconfigurations for host and home regional/local economies;
• the impact of GVC restructuring on sustainable growth and development of regional economies;
• regional revival and/or downgrading of skill base;
• the role of regional and local actors in fostering GVC resilience, innovation, and economic security;
• policy frameworks for balancing globalisation, regionalisation, and sustainability objectives;
• policy approaches to foreign direct investment;
• policy research (initiatives, impacts, evaluations).

It is envisaged that a selection of papers presented at the Session will form a special issue of a relevant peer-reviewed journal or an edited collection (details to be confirmed).

Session Organsiers:

Nick Gray, Teesside University, UK
Tasos Kitsos, Aston University, UK
Carolin Ioramashvili, Sussex University, UK
Liz Shutt, Newcastle University, UK

Session Description:

The cooperation between academics and policymakers has been a topic of increasing focus across both spheres of stakeholders. On the one hand, evidence-based policies require robust analysis and the shrinking of state research capacity mean that policymakers in different countries are increasingly turning to academics to cover analytical needs. On the other hand, the recognition of policy impact as a main evaluation component of academic performance as well as the need to pursue applied, relevant research, has led academics to seek contact with decision makers.

However, the academic-policymaker relationship is not without tensions. and this session aims to explore these tensions and bring together transferable lessons to maximise impact and minimize pitfalls.

The session organisers are all active in different aspects of policy engagement for their universities and we invite contributions that focus (but not limited) on the broad themes:
– Case Studies of Successful Research-Policy Collaborations: Examples of academic researchers working with or alongside policymakers or cases where academic research has directly influenced policy decisions and outcomes.
– Challenges and Barriers: Identifying and overcoming obstacles to effective collaboration between researchers and policymakers.
– Future Directions: Exploring new avenues for enhancing the engagement between academia and policy-making bodies.

Session Organisers:

Carlo Corradini, Henley Business School, UK
Lisa De Propris, Birmingham Business School, UK

Session Description:

Evidence is emerging that the digital and green transitions as well as the fourth industrial revolution will redefine some of the existing industries, create new ones whilst phasing out others. Such a systemic transformation of the activity composition of regional economies will inevitably impact of the fundamentals of local labour markets: jobs and skill, as well as wages. Digital technologies are expected to displace many repetitive jobs in the service industries with substantial job losses that do not compensate for the digital jobs that might be created across the economy. At the same time, it is less clear whether the outcome of the diffusion and adoption of green technologies will overall create jobs.

Increasingly, heterogeneity in skills and tasks across occupations is being explored as an important element to better understand regional transformation processes. Not only the regional distribution of industries and economic activities but also the underlying skills in the local economy and their significant path dependencies are increasingly discussed as key drivers in defining the ability of places to transit onto the new digital and green technological paradigm as well as wider processes of new path creation. This raises therefore concerns that existing regional socio-economic disparities could further widen. The skill and wage polarisation that has been observed following the Third Industrial Revolution suggests that technological changes can have consequential effects on the demand for skills and competences, and therefore on the regional distribution and nature of jobs.

In this special session, we invite papers connecting to these debates in the literature that address the following broad issues:

1. How are the dynamics of regional industrial transitions impacting on the nature of green & digital skills and vice-versa?
2. Where are the job creation and job loss potentials of regional skill transitions?
3. What are the regional barriers and drivers of new skills and competences formation in relation to green & digital jobs as well as the fourth industrial revolution?
4. What is the role of skills gaps and skills vacancies in regional transitions?
5. How is the pace and nature of the skill transition shaping regional growth trajectories?
6. What policies can leverage a skill transition that mitigates for regional growth imbalances?
7. What is the role of the skill transition in delivering a just transition?

Session Organisers:

James Davies, University of Birmingham, UK
Abigail Taylor, University of Birmingham, UK

Session Description:

Place-based approaches to policymaking continue to gather pace across countries. In the UK for example, linking national-level policies with regional and local governance, and stimulating partnership working with locally embedded actors was a key element of the previous UK government’s Levelling Up agenda, as well as the new Labour government’s missions.

Within that shift exists a recognition of deeply entrenched regional inequalities across countries, in particular, England and the devolved nations, requiring a sensitivity to local contexts and requirements, and that interventions be both designed and delivered in collaboration with local actors.

The concept of ‘culture’ is multifaceted and highly place based. The term is inclusive of identity and community in the sense of place and being, the infrastructure and assets built around that (e.g. built heritage and cultural institutions) which feed into and link to the cultural and creative industries (CCIs). ‘Culture’ can be considered as both physical infrastructure and intangible relationships and identities.

There is therefore both economic and social value in cultural activities, but greater understanding is needed of how local actors can be empowered to respond to cultural challenges in their region or place, in a manner that represents and includes all communities of that place.

The aim of this Special Session is to bring together intelligence and learning from different countries and contexts, to better explore culture and communities in place, through developing deeper understanding of approaches to place-based partnership working in order to develop capacity, capability and confidence in place. We will look to identify learning and best practice to approach the bespoke nature of the challenges faced in their region effectively.

To that end, we welcome submissions that can cover a number of themes as they relate to place-based partnership building. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• How do we conceptualise and perceive ‘culture’ and identity in place, and what implications does this have for inclusion, exclusion, and cultural infrastructure across regions?
• What are the impacts of regional variability in cultural infrastructure, and how can we evaluate the contributions of arts and culture beyond purely economic terms?
• How can place-based initiatives effectively and inclusively stimulate cultural activity that reflects the diverse demographics of their communities?
• What role do communities play in addressing place-based challenges, and why is investing in community assets important for social, economic, and environmental improvements?
• How can anchor institutions and place partners effectively invest in community assets to benefit their regions?
• Why is active community engagement important, and what are the best practices for conducting it appropriately in different places and contexts?

Session Organsiers:

Tina Haisch, University of Applied Sciendes and Art Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland
Max-Peter Menzel, Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
Suntje Schmidt, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS), Germany

Session Description:

Societal challenges (Coenen et al, 2015) drive substantial socio-economic and socio-ecological transformation processes across all spatial scales, with a particular need for action at local and regional levels (Flanagan et al, 2023). An innovation perspective highlights the importance of novelty and innovation and provides a framework for examining knowledge-driven transformation processes (Geels, 2011). However, research has shown that transformation processes often generate tensions, conflicts, and frictions, with social values and norms playing a critical role in these transformative dynamics (Schot and Steinmueller, 2018).

Such frictions are typically viewed as negative externalities. A valuation perspective, by contrast, takes social norms as its starting point, arguing that social actors evaluate or coordinate their activities based on “orders of worth” (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2006) or mediating tools such as market devices (Muniesa et al, 2007). This perspective thus frames these frictions as intrinsic to processes where differing orders of worth collide (Stark, 2009).

Studies have already examined the specificities of valuation within regional transformations. They highlight, for instance, that frictions between social values can act as drivers of these transformations (Hussels et al, 2024), that social values are inherent in transformative innovation processes (Jeannerat, 2024), that policies transfer values which often lead to frictions (Schot and Steinmueller, 2018), and that valuation processes take place within ecologies of valuation that are structured in diverse ways (Haisch and Menzel, 2023).

Building on these insights, this session invites theoretical and empirical contributions on the intersection of valuation and regional transformations. In particular, contributions are encouraged in areas that have been extensively studied from an innovation perspective but could benefit from the added lens of valuation. Examples include:

1. Transformative Policies: Mission-oriented policies or experimental approaches.
2. Geographies of Transitions: Transformations of markets, innovation, or finance in fields such as food, mobility, or energy.
3. Ecologies of Valuation: Project ecologies, entrepreneurial ecosystems, or digital platforms.

Session Organisers:

Diana Rokita-Poskart, Opole University of Technology, Opole, Poland
Małgorzata Adamska, Opole University of Technology, Opole, Poland

Session Description:

This session examines how student mobility intersects with regional economic trends and demographic resilience. In the face of ongoing socio-economic and demographic transitions, higher education institutions play a crucial role in attracting and retaining both domestic and international students. By comparing metropolitan and non-metropolitan settings, the discussion will highlight the ways in which student distribution influences regional development, economic growth, and demographic stability.
We warmly welcome researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to contribute their insights and engage in a dialogue about the connections between student mobility, economic factors, and demographic sustainability.

Potential topics might include:
• The impact of student mobility on regional economic development.
• Demographic challenges and opportunities for higher education institutions.
• Comparative analyses of metropolitan and non-metropolitan student markets.
• Strategies to enhance resilience in regions with declining demographics.
• Policies to attract and retain international students in non-metropolitan areas.
• The role of higher education in fostering demographic and economic sustainability.

Session Organiser:

Marina Ranga, Ulysseus Innovation Hub on Energy, Transport and Mobility f or the Smart City, University of Sevilla, Spain

Session Description:

The European University Alliances are an ambitious EU initiative, implemented primarily through Erasmus+ funding and aimed at establishing long-term structural and strategic partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) from across Europe, to improve international competitiveness and promote European values and identity. Since their inception in 2019, the European University Alliances, currently counting 64 consortia and involving more than 560 HEIs from 35 countries, including all 27 Member States, have been a key pillar of the European Education Area.

They have significant achievements in fostering collaboration and innovation across European higher education, such as the creation of European inter-university campuses that allow seamless mobility for students, researchers, and staff across member institutions, promoting interdisciplinary and cross-border education and research; implementation of joint integrated long-term strategies that align education, research, and innovation with societal needs; promoting Living Labs and knowledge-creating teams that use challenge-based approaches to address real-world problems and engage diverse stakeholders, etc.

In addition to all that and most importantly, the European University Alliances also have a clear mission to strengthen regional innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, by collaborating with businesses, local governments, and civil society, to foster innovation, regional competitiveness, and integrate universities into broader societal frameworks.

While some alliances have had notable success in this mission, others are faced with many challenges of structural, institutional and cultural nature, such as:

1. Heterogeneous regional contexts, with varying regulatory and financial frameworks, organizational structures, strategic priorities, and innovation capacities, as well as disparities in funding resources and access to innovation grants.
2. Institutional barriers driven by fragmentation between institutions and deeply rooted governance models that do not stimulate collaborations among innovation stakeholders.
3. Limited engagement of local and regional industry players, SMEs and large corporations, and low involvement of the local communities.
4. Lack of innovation infrastructures, such as business incubators and accelerators, and lack or scarcity of entrepreneurship programmes tailored to regional needs, for creating or improving skills and matching them to the needs of the regional labour markets.
5. Cultural differences in approaches to entrepreneurship and innovation within the university curricula that can leave gaps in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among students and slow down the development of cohesive ecosystems.

Addressing these challenges is an imperative for the success of the European University Alliances. Fully aware of this imperative, the Ulysseus University Alliance – a consortium of 8 universities from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Finland, Slovakia and Montenegro led by the University of Seville, Spain (see https://ulysseus.eu/es/) proposes this Special Open Session at the 2025 RSA Annual Conference.

In this session, the impact of European University alliances on regional innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems will be a central focus. The session will explore how alliances build, measure and evaluate their influence on these ecosystems, addressing the need for robust methodologies and metrics that capture not only immediate outcomes but also long-term societal benefits.

Invited participants include all the 8 Ulysseus partner universities, as well as other European University Alliances that prioritise the development of regional innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems, to share experiences and learn from each other. Emphasis will be placed on showcasing impact measurement frameworks and examples of successful outcomes.

The presentations prepared for this Open Session will lead to the development of several research and practitioner papers to be submitted for publication in academic journals, book chapters and communications in other scientific events. These papers will not only highlight the progress of the Alliances but also contribute to the emerging field of impact assessment for these initiatives. This will provide relevant evidence on the rise of the European University Alliances as key actors in the regional innovation and entrepreneurship landscape – evidence that is currently very scarce.

Session Organisers:

Maria Conceição Rego, University of Évora – UÉ, Portugal
Lucir Reinaldo Alves, Western Paraná State University – Unioeste, Brazil
Louise Kempton, Newcastle University, UK
Madalena Fonseca, University of Porto – UP, Portugal

Session Description:

The special session “Higher Education Institutions and development at different scales and territorial contexts” aims to create a space to present, debate and discuss the influence of HEIs in the territories where they are located in different dimensions: social, economic, political, technological, development strategies, etc.

The existence of an HEI in a territory does not mean that the region will be developed. This relationship is not automatic. At the same time, it is important to recognize the different roles that HEIs of different characteristics play in regional development, and that different mechanisms for engagement might be needed depending on how formally they organize regional activities and how stated commitments translate into practice.

For example, HEIs in lagging regions in developed countries and developed regions in less developed countries are most likely to see their role as central and strategic and align their research accordingly. The stronger alignment of teaching to regional need in less developed countries may reflect an emphasis on the human capital development role of HE in these countries rather than their broader role in regional innovation and development that underpins regional strategy in many developed countries.

We suggest the Regional Studies Association Policy Impact Books “Putting universities in their place: The contribution of higher education to local and regional development” for a better understanding of the different forms that an HEI can have in its territory.

We invite papers that engage with these questions and themes in our special session “Higher Education Institutions and development at different scales and territorial contexts”.

Session Organsiers:

Krzysztof Mieszkowski, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Maria Grazia, Zucchini ART-ER, Italy
Lorenzo Dorato, ISSiRFA CNR
Francesco Molinari, Freelancer, Spain/ Italy
Els Van de Velde, Ideaconsult, Belgium
Wim De Kinderen, Brainport, Netherlands

Session Description:

We are proposing the joint session of two ERA Hubs related project – ERA_FABRIC and COOPERATE which are funded under the Horizon Europe Programme. The purpose of this session is to present some outcomes of the projects’ implementation to the regional studies academics mainly interested in research and innovation policies, research and innovation ecosystems, European Research Area and smart specialisation.

According to the call requirements both projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
– Test the new ERA Hubs[1] concept across different geographies and structures in Europe, based on common compliance criteria; the process should act as an incentive for advanced ecosystems to seek recognition, and for less advanced ecosystems to reach the criteria facilitating support from European, national and regional level.
– Better coordinate relationships between the European Research Area and relevant national or regional stakeholders in order to ensure the smart directionality introduced in the new ERA.
– Develop a common platform for collaboration and best practice sharing across borders, sectors and disciplines on knowledge production, circulation and use, and facilitate cross-fertilisation and smart directionality among ecosystem actors to achieve transformative changes and advance Europe together.
– Increase both the interoperability of the European ecosystems and the intra-operability within each territorial ecosystem, aiming to improve coordination, and foster excellence.
– Facilitate a better circulation and absorption of talents in countries/regions, as well as improve knowledge circulation and uptake of research results;
– Provide a toolbox of best practices for researchers, innovators, industry and institutions across Europe to cooperate.

A vibrant ecosystem is an essential condition for growth. In order to take full advantage of possible synergies and complementarities between the EU and national and regional ecosystems for knowledge production, circulation and use, there is a need to make compatible and interoperable the policy frameworks that govern existing structures for knowledge transfer and sharing, and address common criteria for assessing work, processes and outputs. Reinforcing the networking interconnecting geographically or thematically, the ecosystem actors on the basis of smart specialisation and other strategic considerations, such as value chains, will consequently stimulate excellence and complete the coverage across Europe.

The project build on the preparatory work of the previous Work Programme on Knowledge Ecosystems, which provides among others a mapping of existing ecosystem actors engaged in knowledge production, circulation and use across Europe, as well as designing the ERA Hubs concept as a toolbox of pre-defined common standards of work, processes and outputs, and key performance indicators on operational, programme and strategic impacts. The concept is tested on collaborations, platforms, or other structures bringing together ecosystem actors, and increase networking between those structures in a coordinated approach, around a common agenda and compliance criteria. The rollout of the concept across Europe is expected to support and coordinate the efforts at local and regional level for the implementation of a pan-European ERA Hubs initiative.

The scope of two projects is to pilot the ERA Hub concept with a limited number of ecosystems through implementation in countries and regions where knowledge ecosystem structures aligned to the ERA Hubs concept already exist, combined with countries or regions where an integrated place-based approach is missing. The main goal of the action is to fine-tune through experimentation the designed concept of ERA Hubs and its technical specifications and compliance criteria, share practices, as well as provide a toolkit of best practices and activities that ensure a strong basis for a potential scale-up in different geographies across the EU territory in the next phase.

Projects includes entities or networks of structures involved in knowledge production, circulation and use activities at European, national, regional or city level, which should take the coordination role in orchestrating the actors of an ecosystem working together to implement the ERA Hubs concept, in pursuit of intra-operability with the territorial ecosystem and a common agenda supporting the economic transitions and smart specialisation strategies, as well as job creation and skills development to better absorb talent in a country or region. The partners have the competences and/or the willingness to become pioneers, benchmarks and ambassadors of the new concept and should include higher education institutions or their tech transfer offices, research institutes, business schools, private companies, not for profit organisations, or entities already part of pan-European networks or coming from different funding communities, in order to better connect those communities.

The projects include the development of an independent monitoring mechanism to assess the progress of the ecosystem actors engaged in a common agenda and implementation of the ERA Hubs concept in a dedicated country or region. On the basis of the assessment, projects will also provide recommendations on how to deploy the ERA Hubs in different geographies and regions.

[1]See COM(2020)628, Commission Communication, A new ERA for Research and Innovation
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-widera-2022-era-01-30

Overarching aim of the ERA_FABRIC project is to define, structure, populate and validate the “interconnected knowledge space” foreseen by the EU ERA Hubs initiative (COM 2020 628 final). Three distinct, and intertwined, dimensions, all of them relevant for policy making, are adopted as a structuring principle for the community to be built and cultivated during the project:

1) ERA Hubs as Knowledge Ecosystems: fostering the dynamic interaction of R&D and innovation actors at regional and multiregional levels, taking into account the different knowledge and cultural contexts and the alignment of research foci and industrial needs;
2) ERA Hubs as Multi Stakeholder Platforms: bringing together the representatives of the various involved interest groups in a seamless and uninterrupted discussion and deliberation on strategic priorities, actions and results evaluation; 3) ERA Hubs as a Policy Co Creation Toolbox: a transformative set of measures and tools operating in a “middle ground” needing to be configured as a distinct space from both the EU and the MS/Regional levels, historically presided over by “ad hoc” sets of instruments (e.g. Framework Programmes for R&I, Structural and Investment Funds, Interregional and Cross Border Cooperation Programmes).

It is the consortium’s vision and assumption that the 3 above dimensions should be presided over and made interoperable, in order for the ERA Hubs initiative to become path breaking and impactful at broad EU level. ERA_FABRIC is designed by leading European actors in the domain of regional development. The 11 partners represent 8 Member States and 1 Associated State. With the addition of the letters of interest gathered before the proposal presentation, almost half of EU27 territorial coverage has been reached.

COOPERATE’s overall objective is to develop and pilot the ERA Hub concept, based on the vision and success stories developed within the EuroTech Universities Alliance and their R&I ecosystems. The overall approach revolves around co-creation arenas in which ecosystems and their broader community of quadruple helix actors can interact. The piloting phases of hte project’s implementation are expected to test the approach and pave the way for its consolidation and replication phase. This project is shaped along the policy documents and guidelines concerning the European Research Area, Responsible Research and Innovation and National and Regional R&I policies, European Industrial Strategy, European Green Deal and 2030 Digital Compass to name a few. Our value creating approach within the proposed ERA-Hub framework model is conceived to benefit the policy priorities, exploiting synergies and avoiding conflicts while guaranteeing a close coordination between the regional, national and European levels, supporting long-term stability and sustainability and moving away from the more biased short-term policy perspective.

Speakers:

Maria Grazia Zucchini – Introduction to the ERA_FABRIC project approach.
Wim De Kinderen – Introduction to the COOPERATE project approach.
Francesco Molinari – Collective intelligence for policy design: a theory of change based approach, implemented in the ERA_FABRIC project.
Lorenzo Dorato – The theoretical framework and the main findings from the analysis of territorial case studies.
Krzysztof Mieszkowski – The conformity of the partner regions to the #ERAHubs ideal type.
Els Van de Velde and Lidia Nunez – Fostering knowledge valorisation in the ERA – An ecosystem approach

Session Organisers:

Joana Costa, INESC TEC, UA and GOVCOPP, Portugal
Fernanda Sperotto, CEGOT, Portugal

Session Description:

Reshoring has emerged as a pivotal force in regional development, driving economic growth. Relocated activities such as manufacturing, technology production, and high-value services stimulate local economies by generating employment, increasing demand for local suppliers, and strengthening industrial clusters. The relocation of these activities enhances productivity and competitiveness by leveraging regional innovation ecosystems and reducing dependency on complex global supply chains, shifting economic dynamics, and emphasizing sustainability and local resilience.

This movement fosters job creation, strengthens local economies, and enhances industrial ecosystems by reestablishing critical sectors closer to end markets. Additionally, it supports innovation by integrating research and production facilities and improving collaboration across industries. In the regional dimension, reshoring contributes to reducing economic imbalances, revitalizing declining areas, and harmonizing the micro dimensions of global policy goals such as energy efficiency, resource preservation, and carbon footprint reduction.

This special session aims to explore how far reshoring can serve as a catalyst for economic growth, offering regions the opportunity to revitalize declining industries, enhance value chain integration, and support long-term sustainable development.

Session Organsiers:

Stephen Little, Hume Institute for Post-Graduate Studies, Switzerland
Mammo Muchie, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

Session Description:

This session allowing researchers in Africa, the diaspora and others engaging with issues relevant to the continent to contribute in African nations are confronted both by the consequences of climate change and related conflict over forced migration and by growing competition over the resources demanded by the technologies necessary to global climate transition.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 requires synergy between the growing number of collaborative economic and political structures emerging at regional levels across the continent in contrast to the increasingly polarised domestic and international politics evident in the global North. The achievement of the proposed Continental Free Trade Area requires engagement with technical, economic, political and institutional barriers and opportunities that must be negotiated.

The reconfiguration of Global Value Chains following the shocks of pandemic, climate change and related conflicts over natural resources is creating opportunities for industry policies and approaches to the challenge of the Circular Economy more aligned to African needs.

At the same time the transition from the STEM mantra of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics to STEAM: Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics provides an opportunity to introduce the diversity of African cultures and traditional knowledge into the narrative of added value.

Contributions to recent RSA Conferences have addressed many of these issues and this session seeks to leverage this work by exploring the viability of the development of an Africa Division of the Association.

Proposals for contributions can be submitted through the Regional Studies Association’s Abstract Portal selecting this Special Session: ‘African Priorities in Regional Studies: Scoping an Africa Division for RSA.

If you would like to discuss your contribution first, please contact Stephen Little at stephen.little@humelausanne.ch ahead of the 19 December 2024 abstract deadline.

Session Organisers:

Celeste Varum, University of Aveiro, GOVCOPP, Portugal
João Leitão, UBI, NECE, Portugal
Vanessa Ratten, La Trobe University, Australia
Dina Pereira, CEG-IST, Portugal

Session Description:

We welcome researchers, scholars, and practitioners to contribute to our panel on Innovation Districts. This panel aims to delve into the diverse aspects of Innovation Districts, providing a thorough examination of both prominent and overlooked areas. We are looking for empirical and innovative research that offer evidences, new perspectives and practical recommendations for the development of IDs. Topics of interest are: Socio-Economic Impact (ex-post and/or prospective); Sectoral specialization and Cluster based ecosystems; Sustainability and inclusivity; Business development strategies; Urban Planning and Design; Functional mix & innovation; Policy Issues; Governance; Case Studies, ..

Session Organsiers:

Jen Nelles, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Raquel Ortega-Argiles, University of Manchester, UK
Michalis Papazoglou, Oxford Brookes University, UK

Session Description:

Join us and contribute to a conversation between policy engaged academics and practitioners of regional policy to discuss challenges, opportunities, and best practices in translating research into regional policy practice. The session is organized by members of the Innovation and Research Caucus (IRC), a UK-based group of academics that develops evidence-led research and innovation policies, strategies and decision-making, providing insights into what works, where and why in partnership with government stakeholders. We are seeking contributors from both university and policy-related institutions who would like to share their views, describe experiences in translating research into practice, reflect on the role of academic research in the design and implementation of regional policy, and draw out lessons for navigating challenges effectively. Thematically, the discussion will focus on the regional and local implications of Industrial Policy and Innovation Policy design and implementation, although we expect it to touch on other experiences. Some questions and provocations that we hope will animate the conversation include:

• What are the barriers to translating academic research into actionable insights to support place-based or place-sensitive strategies?
• Are some areas of regional research more easily translated into practice than others? To what degree can successes inform approaches to more difficult policy areas?
• What research is frequently misconstrued, misunderstood, or mistranslated into place-based policy?
• Given their civic mission, how can universities and research-oriented institutions support local and sub-national economic development initiatives?
• Considering the variable capacity of local governments, what role can universities and research centres play in the monitoring and evaluation assessment exercises to ensure the best outcomes from policy initiatives?
• How and when are policy initiatives informed by local knowledge (formed by academic-led evidence) to tailor place-sensitive policies as opposed as “one-size-fits-all” approaches?
• How do policy makers view academic credibility and how does this affect engagement and translation practices?

This session aims to fill gaps in our understanding of the way that the knowledge produced by researchers is traced and transformed into policy plans and implementation. We hope that, by sharing experiences in a constructive and engaging discussion, we can open a productive dialogue and generate insights of value to both academic and practitioner communities.

Please submit a short “abstract” of your proposed presentation highlighting the policy translation experience/challenge you will be focusing on and briefly summarizing the lesson/takeaways you want to discuss.

Session Organsiers:

Yahya Shaker, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Ersi Zafeiriou, Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS), Leibniz Institute for Ecological Urban and Regional Planning (IOER), Germany

Session Description:

The European Union’s (EU) regional and urban policies face multiscale challenges at the confluence of socio-spatial-temporal justice (Madanipour et al., 2021), spatial planning and territorial governance (Nadine et al., 2018; Berisha et al., 2021). This special session addresses two critical and interdependent domains: vulnerability challenges through resilient spatial planning responses (Brunetta & Caldarice, 2020) and the multi-level meta-governance (Jessop, 2004) required to advance the Just Green Transitions (Shaker & Berisha, 2024). These domains encapsulate the tension between short-term adaptive needs and long-term, transformational imperatives, highlighting the necessity for integrative, reflexive, and just governance frameworks. This session seeks to advance the intellectual discourse by interrogating how spatial planning’s plausible resilience pathways (Rega & Bonifazi, 2020)—often hindered by fragmented governance, sectoral silos, and systemic uncertainties (Skayannis & Zafeiriou, 2021)—can be reimagined within the EU’s ambitious transcontinental transformation (Almeida et al., 2023). Central to this inquiry is the meta-concept of the so-called Just Green Transitions (Shaker & Persico, 2024), which pivots on the simultaneous and multi-scalar coordination, co-production alignment across diverse actors, sectors, scales, and levels of decision-making. The session critically evaluates how these frameworks can be conceptualised and operationalised to reconcile resilience imperatives with the justice dimension of green transitions (Shaker & Berisha, 2024).