We are happy to announce that the work of the RSA Research Network continues for the period 2019-2021. The main organisers of this networks are:
- Nicola Francesco Dotti, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
- Marcin Dąbrowski, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
- Leaza McSorley, University of Sunderland, UK
Co-organisers
- Sebastien Bourdin, Normandy Business School
- Alberto Bramanti, Universita Bocconi
- Mattia Casula, Universita’ di Veneza – Ca’ Foscari
- Riccardo Crescenzi, London School of Economics
- Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
- Ekaterina Domorenok, Università di Padova
- Viktoriya Dozhdeva, Stratchlyde University
- Ugo Fratesi, Politecnico di Milano
- Carola Fricke, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
- Mara Giua, Università degli Studi RomaTre
- Piotr Idczak, Poznan University of Economics and Business
- Jiannis Kaucic, Unviersitaet Wien
- Eduarda Marques Da Costa, Universidade de Lisboa
- Ida Musialkowska, Poznan University of Economics and Business,
- Serafin Pazos-Vidal, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
- Laura Polverari, Stratchlyde University
- Oto Potluka, Universiteit Basel
- Paula Tulppo, University of Lapland
The Regional Studies Association (RSA) Research Network on EU Cohesion Policy (CPnet) aims to provide a forum for debating EU cohesion policy, its effectiveness, impacts, paradoxes, and its future. Since 2011, our Research Network has been fully active within the RSA community, having successfully organised ten workshops and special sessions at all the RSA conferences between 2014 and 2018 (Izmir 2014, Piacenza 2015, Graz 2016, Dublin 2017 and Lugano 2018). The CPnet has succeeded in animating the policy debate with two policy-oriented workshops in Brussels, where we discussed our papers with high level EU policy-makers (MEPs, Commissioner’s cabinet, EU Commission staff, Committee of the Regions and other high-level EU policymakers). We have also contributed to the academic debate with three edited volumes and one special issue of Regional Studies – these were based on the outcomes of our RSA-funded workshops
Based on these successful experiences, the goal of the CPnet for the period 2019-2021 is to promote the emergence of new research on Cohesion Policy, in terms of ideas, approaches and methods contributing to a renovation of the cohesion policy scientific debate. For this purpose, a specific focus is devoted to the involvement of new researchers, especially early career researchers that could ‘refresh’ the debate on CP. To achieve this goal, the CPnet proposes a new way of working, which has already had young researchers proactively contributing to this proposal:
Initially, five themes have been proposed by a mix of well-established scholars and young researchers to combine experiences with new ideas.
Secondly, each workshop will be organised by a different team involving young researchers in the preparation of the call for papers as well as following-up scientific outcomes. The coordinators of the CPnet will oversee these different workshops and activities.
Finally, each workshop will be supported by a specific strategy of online dissemination via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to maximise the visibility of research outcomes.
Our ambition is to build on our previous experiences of open discussions between academic research and policy experts, while developing innovative research-based ideas to refresh the debate on CP. In order to increase our organisational capacity and reach wider audiences, we will expand our network by working closely with both a range of tried and tested collaborators as well as new young scholars who will be directly involved in the organisation of the workshops.
The CPNet has chosen five themes for the workshops:
- Building Administrative Capacity [Delft, NL, Nov-2019]
- The Social Dimensions of Cohesion Policy [Glasgow, Apr-2020]
- Theoretical Reflection on Cohesion Policy [Poznan, PL, Sept-2020]
- The Urban Dimension of Cohesion Policy [Madrid, Apr-2021
- Territorialisation of Cohesion Policy [Milan (tbc), Sept 2021]
- Research-Policy Dialogue [Brussels, to be confirmed]