Dear Colleagues and Friends,
We invite you to participate in a series of sessions (see details below), that we will co-organize with the Regional Studies Association at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from April 10-14, 2018.
Economic Geography – Multi-Scalar & Multi-Dimensional Aspects of Economic Development
Economic Geography, at its core, is concerned with questions regarding the persistent nature of uneven regional development. What are the factors that determine the socio-economic fabric of places, their economic performance, and ultimately the well-being and level of prosperity that is enjoyed by the people living and working in these jurisdictions?
Initially, these efforts were directed towards understanding the factors that shape economic growth and technological change, as well as detailing the trajectories of individual places. More recently, work in evolutionary economic geography has explored the relatedness between knowledge types, occupations, institutions and industries in efforts to better understand the socio-economic structure of regions, the linkages between them, and their evolution over time.
It is clear that the fortunes of different regions, across multiple spatial scales, have diverged dramatically over time. Some have shown themselves resilient to maturation of key technologies and industry life cycles, able to diversify at key moments, while others appear locked-in to increasingly obsolete practices, losing their ability to sustain wages and jobs in consequence. What are the critical dimensions of transition that underpin the successful evolution of the regional economy? How are competencies created and competitive advantage secured within the region, and how can lock-in be avoided?
While initial efforts in this regard were directed towards understanding the factors that shape economic growth and technological change, as well as detailing the trajectories of individual places. More recently, work in Economic Geography, and in particular Evolutionary Economic Geography, is exploring the multi-scalar and multi-dimensional aspects of economic development. Essentially, contemporary inquiries are moving from a hierarchical to a networked view of places, and from models that aimed to identify individual factors of economic stimulus to ones that attribute increased attention to the interaction among the significant dimensions that shape economic development, i.e. the relational and every evolving networks between individual actors, organizations, institutions, traded and untraded interdependencies, as well as policy instruments that penetrate jurisdictional boundaries, amongst others.
We seek papers that focus on the evolution and state of regional economies, exploring the dynamics of regional economies and how they respond to economic shocks and constant technological change. We imagine the
regional economy as a complex assemblage of economic actors and institutions enmeshed in networks of political and economic relationships that spill across space. Inasmuch, we welcome broad-ranging papers of a theoretical or applied nature that examine the development of regional economies and their evolution in times of crisis, transition, growth and decline.
The organizers welcome abstracts of no more than 250 words by the 20th of October 2017. Please send inquiries and abstracts to dieter.kogler@ucd.ie.
Organizers on behalf of the Regional Studies Association:
Jennifer Clark (Georgia Tech)
Silvia Rocchetta (University College Dublin)
Peter Kedron (Oklahoma State University)
Ron Boschma (Utrecht University)
David L. Rigby (UCLA)
Dieter F. Kogler (University College Dublin)