2019 RSA CEE Conference Special Sessions

Session organisers: The Western Balkans Network on Territorial Governance (TG-WeB)

Rudina Toto, POLIS University and Co-PLAN, Albania; Giancarlo Cotella, DIST Politecnico di Torino, Italy; Marjan Nikolov, Center for Economic Analyses, Macedonia; Besnik Aliaj, POLIS University, Albania; Erblin Berisha, DIST Politecnico di Torino; Peter Nientied, IHS, the Netherlands.

The aim of this special session is to generate knowledge on territorial development, governance and politics in the Western Balkans, and facilitate exchange among EU and Western Balkans researchers, in order to contribute to filling the gap of Western Balkans place-based evidence and perspectives in relation to a combined ‘EU – Western Balkans’ territorial development. Aligning EU and Western Balkans perspectives is a necessary step towards the mutual preparation of both parties for the much-expected integration. From a theoretical perspective, the contributions and debates during this special session intend to provide input to a comprehensive territorial, multi-level, and polycentric governance discourse, by bringing in perspectives from a macro-region that is insufficiently studied with regards to its territorial politics and governance. On a policy-making level, the contributions of the participating scholars and professionals should feed recommendations, or draw attention to how the Western Balkans’ integration path could be tailored, taking into account the Western Balkans territorial and socio-economic diversities.

Session organisers: Dávid Fekete, Széchenyi István University, Count István Bethlen Research Centre and János Rechnitzer, Széchenyi István University, György Enyedi Foundation

The goal of this session is to strengthen the scientific debate related to creative cities in the CEE countries. Researchers, international organisations and European Union institutions have been dealing with creative cities for over two decades. Creative industry is playing more and more important role in the economic growth of the cities of Central and Eastern European Countries. In theory, there are many elements of creative cities, such as vibrant cultural life, the presence of creative industry (e.g. design, IT, craft, marketing) and a so-called “creative class”. Metropolises and centres of polycentric urban regions often try to subsidize their creative sector in order to realize benefits from these activities. Not only local governments, but the European Union introduced many initiatives to foster cities, which are interested in developing their creative sectors. One of the most important tools is the title of “European Capital of Culture” (ECOC), but there are other initiatives, like Community-led Local Development (CLLD) or the new monitoring system “Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor” (CCCM).

Session organisers: Mariusz Sagan, Lublin City Office, Urszula Bronisz, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Andrzej Jakubowski, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University

Metropolitan areas are perceived as centers of potential and growth of civilization progress, places of concentration of management functions, specialized services, innovations, scientific and research activities and modern industry. They are seen as key drivers of territorial development. The metropolisation process requires the strategic of rural urban linkage, context setting and local assessment, strategic community investment, and interculturalist approach. In this context the metropolisation processes taking place in peripheral areas face special challenges and different trajectories of development.

This special session will be devoted to metropolitan aspirations of cities located in peripheral areas and the challenges associated with it. Thus, we seek to stimulate a lively debate and set the basis for an ongoing conversation on the future and development of metropolisation processes in peripheral areas.

Session organisers: Luc Ampleman, Jan Kochanowski University and Duszan Augustyn, Jagiellonian University

Political conflicts linked to land-use and taking place at the local or regional levels of governance may have a significant impact on the local population and public subnational administrations. These conflicts come in many forms and have various levels of intensity. While the biggest cities and metropolitan areas may receive the attention needed to deal with these conflicts from influential stakeholders, including central governments, multinationals and the media, the fate of small communities in rural, remote and peripheral areas may, on the contrary, appear difficult in this respect.

The present session aims to bring together scholars and practitioners willing to share their observations, questions and findings on this topic while paying particular attention to rural and peripheral communities in Central and Eastern European Countries.

Session organisers: Dominika Rogalińska, Renata Bielak and Marek Pieniążek (all Statistics Poland, Poland)

Conducting regional and spatial research requires access to current statistical data at the lowest levels of spatial aggregation. One of the prerequisites for the production of regional/spatial statistics is opening to methodological and organizational innovations. Statistics Poland develops spatial research aiming to provide data for the monitoring of a wide array of economic and social phenomena. The session will involve the presentation of four studies where novel approach to spatial research was employed, i.e. commuting surveys, monitoring of SDGs and spatial planning, in-depth research on construction activity and use of remote sensing in statistics.

Statistics Poland have been taking efforts to open up to innovative methods of data acquiring and publishing. We are convinced that opening of the data contributes not only to a better understanding of the world and the region, but also allows better its better management.

This session is dedicated to the discussion about the information needs of the scientific community. The public statistics endeavours to ensure up-to-date and comparable data describing the increasingly dynamic and complex reality. Selected research examples concern the most important aspects of the functioning of the economy and society in regional levels.

This special session will be sponsored by Statistics Poland.

In the case of any questions regarding the session, please, do not hesitate to contact Dominika Rogalińska (D.Rogalinska@stat.gov.pl) or Marek Pieniążek (M.Pieniazek@stat.gov.pl).