Eduardo Oliveira is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL in Switzerland. At the WSL he devotes special attention to the effectiveness of territorial governance in strategic spatial planning and implementation as well as on the impacts of strategic spatial planning on urban land change. Eduardo has also been researching to what extent regional branding contributes to landscape conservation and new forms of environmental governance in and for urban regions.
Julie Tian Miao is Lecturer in Urban Planning and Development at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow in the UK. She obtained her PhD from the University College London where she developed her expertise on regional economics and innovation. Her current research interest lies in an innovative junction between the knowledge economy, the high-tech sectors and the housing market. She is the lead author for an edited volume on ‘Making 21st Century Knowledge Complexes: Technopoles of the World 20 years after’ (Routledge, 2015).
Working together with the Regional Studies Association office team to transform Regions from a printed magazine to a fully online and open access ‘E-Zine’, we can safely say, we are excited about the future of Regions. For the first time in its history, Regions will fully embrace the knowledge dissemination opportunities of the internet by presenting the latest developments in regional studies to both the membership and the general public. In taking this step, we hope to advance the Regional Studies Association’s mission to be a leading and impactful community, by actively reaching out to new audiences, advancing debates in regional studies and providing the latest evidence based regional knowledge to anyone who seeks it. For this reason, we have been redesigning Regions, in an attractive and dynamic, digital format that will combine empirical and theoretical insights in a way that is rigorous, informative and accessible. At the same time as bringing in new changes, we hope to build on Regions’ legacy of being a critical medium for the communication and sharing of knowledge between members and the wider RSA community. By combining the best of the old with the best of the new, we are certain that the new Regions will prove to be a vital tool to showcase the excellent research carried out by all members of the Regional Studies Association.