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Call for Papers: Building Bridges: Cities and Regions in a Transnational World

Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2016
3rd – 6th April 2016, Karl-Franzen-University, Graz, Austria

Throughout history, cities and regions have been cornerstones of economic, social and cultural institution building and centres of communication and trade across borders of empires and nations. In a globalised world dominated by multi-level governance and declining economic and political significance of the nation-state, cities and regions are becoming ever more so important in building bridges across nations, supra-national unions, and even continents.

These challenges surpass the usual aspects of integration: it is not sufficient to reduce barriers for the mobility of labour, goods, services and capital, to create a homogenous competitive environment, and a solid monetary system. What is needed in addition are more elements of a new regionalism, which is based on non-hierarchical relationships, on self-government, and on the creation of flexible alliances leading to interregional transnational cooperation. The development of a region is affected by its competitive and complementary relationships with other increasingly distant regions. These relationships have to be embedded in an overall structure of relations which encompass the purely economic ones and have strong social, cultural, legal and political dimensions.

The objective of the conference is to initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue about the f uture of a transnational world of urban and regional cooperation. We welcome submissions from researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in all areas of regional analysis on the following themes:

  • Austerity (Risk and Resilience)
  • Socio-Spatial inequalities, Aging, Knowledge Exchange, Demography and Wellbeing
  • Urban and Regional Sustainability
  • Innovation, Agglomeration, Evolution
  • Leadership and Governance
  • Clusters, Competence Centres, Smart Specialisation and Global Production
  • Geo Economy and Geo Politics
  • Local and Regional Economic Development and Planning
  • City Region Building and Metropolitics
  • Identity, Citizenship and Lived Differences
  • Territorial Politics, Metropolitics and Federalism
  • Cohesion, Competition and Smart Cities
  • Urban and Regional Theory, Methodology and Data
  • Infrastructures and Built Environment
  • Developing Area Studies
  • Smart Rural Areas and Peri Urban Areas
  • Health and Wellbeing/Health Economics
  • Spa Tourism/Music Tourism/ Sports Tourism /Film Tourism
  • Climate Change, Sustainability and Mitigation
  • Federalism, Subsidiary and the Allocation of Competences

Submission of papers

Please submit proposals for papers in the form of a 400 - 500 word abstract (text only, no pictures, graphs or tables) through the Regional Studies Association online portal by Sunday 31st January 2016.

Proposals will be considered by the Conference Programming Committee against the criteria of originality, interest and subject balance.

For conference updates, please visit www.regionalstudies.org/conferences/conference/building-bridges-cities-and-regions-in-a-transnational-world

Conference organisation

Professor Michael Steiner, Karl-Franzen-University Graz , Graz, Austria

RSA Organiser

Please contact Wanda Miczorek at wanda.miczorek@regionalstudies.org for further details and questions regarding abstract submission.