The December 2016 issue of the newsletter of the North American Regional Science Council is now available online at http://www.narsc.org/newsite/?page_id=417.

CRUISE-Statistics South Africa Urban and Regional Science Conference 2017

Date

July 3-5, 2017

Location

STIAS, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Organization

The 3rd Biannual ISIbalo CRUISE Urban and Regional Science Conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration (CRUISE) and Statistics South Africa in conjunction with the Regional Science Association International.

Aim

The conference is aimed at bringing researchers from academia, the private and public sectors and non-governmental organisations together in an effort to present and debate prevalent urban and regional evelopment issues and to share knowledge, viewpoints, methods and research outcomes around six main themes:

Theme 1 – Social, economic and structural change in cities and regions

Theme 2 – Clusters / corridors / declining / lagging areas

Theme 3 – Formal / informal business growth / decline

Theme 4 – Mobility / migration / commuting trends and issues

Theme 5 – Urban growth / housing trends and issues

Theme 6 – Governance / policy issues

Researchers in the fields of Economics, Planning, Geography, Sociology and related Social Sciences are encouraged to participate.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

Participation in the conference requires an oral presentation of 20 minutes. The conference is organized in panels of 4 papers each. Presentations are selected on content and appropriateness to the conference themes.

ABSTRACTS

• Interested researchers should submit an abstract of around 250 words by e-mail not later than February 24, 2017, to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Enquiries: Arul Naidoo, E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Successful participants will be informed by March 31, 2017.

PUBLICATION

Opportunities will be given for publication of collections of approved papers for publication in journals after the conference (publication plan to be announced during the conference).

NETWORKING

The conference is an opportunity for researchers to meet and to discuss future joint research initiatives and opportunities.

REGISTRATION

• Conference fee:

Non-RSAI members: Early Bird registration180 Euros before April 15; 250 Euros after April 15.

RSAI members: Early Bird registration 150 Euros before April 15; 200 Euros after April 15.

Participants from Africa: Early Bird registration RZA 1000 before April 15; RZA 1500 after April 15.

• Conference fee includes participation in the conference, programme and abstracts in digital format, Wi fi, secured parking, coffee-breaks and lunch.

• Downloadable registration forms: http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=9282

IMPORTANT DATES

• Submission deadline for abstracts: February 24, 2017.

• Notification of abstract acceptance: March 31, 2017.

• Early bird registration and payment: 1 - 15 April 2017.

• PowerPoint Presentation.

• Full paper for publication: date to be announced during the conference.

CONFERENCE CONVENOR & ORGANIZATION

Manie Geyer

Centre for Urban and Regional Innovation and Statistical Exploration

Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch, South Africa

http://www0.sun.ac.za/cruise/

Arul Naidoo

Statistics South Africa

Pretoria, South Africa

CONFERENCE VENUE

STIAS Centre

Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch, South Africa

CONFERENCE E-MAIL & WEBSITE

Conference e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Conference website: http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=9282

ACCOMMODATION

http://www.booking.com/city/za/stellenbosch.html

http://www.stellenbosch.travel/stay-us

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

July 3, 2017 Monday

08:00 to 09:00 Conference registration

09:00 to 09:15 Welcome and Housekeeping

09:15 to 09:45 Address: Minister

09:45 to 10:30 Address: Member of University Executive

10:30 to 11:00 Keynote Address

11:40 to 17:20 Presentations

July 4, 2017 Tuesday                                    

09:00 to 16:00 Presentations 

July 5, 2017 Wednesday

09:00 to 14:40 Presentations

14:40 to 15:30 Publication Strategy Meeting 

See attachment.

The Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER) is once again reaching out to regional scientists who would like take the next step and learn the nuts and bolts of operating a university research center.  AUBER has established the Polzin Prize of $500 for the best paper presented at its fall conference October 21-24, 2017, in Albuquerque. Paul Polzin was the 30^th President of WRSA in 1990 and was active in the SRSA in the mid-to-late 1990s. For more information about AUBER go to www.auber.org.

The 2016 winner of the Polzin Prize was Prof. Carl Bonham of the University of Hawaii.  His paper it titled “Forecasting in a Mixed-Up World: Nowcasting Hawaii Tourism.”

Eligibility:  To be considered for the Polzin Prize:

• The paper’s lead author must be an individual AUBER member at the time of the Fall Conference or be employed at an AUBER member unit whose membership is in good standing; (Fall Conference registration fees include a one-year membership for non-AUBER members who submit papers for consideration)
• The paper must be presented on a panel at the Fall Conference;
• The paper should be prepared in academic format (APA or other commonly accepted scholarly style);
• Because the purpose is to encourage new work, submissions should not have been previously published or accepted for publication. 

Process:  Each eligible paper will be read by all members of an evaluation committee (the three most-recent AUBER Past Presidents) and evaluated against the criteria below. Committee members must decline to judge papers if they have the following special relationships with the author(s) of the papers submitted: relatives, students, colleagues, or co-authors. The winner will receive a $500 cash award during the Fall Conference Awards breakfast.

Submission Deadline:   September 1, 2017

Submit one copy of your paper by email as a PDF attachment, without identifying author information, to Kathy Deck (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by the deadline. The winning paper will be announced at the AUBER Fall Conference. 

Call for Submissions    NOW OPEN

The Local Organizing Committee of ERSA2017 invite you to submit your contributions to ERSA2017 in Groningen! We look forward to receiving your submissions before February 10th 2017 . Should you have any questions, please contact the Local Organizing Committee at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Congress themes

The congress theme is ‘Social progress for resilient regions’, but the congress covers all fields in Regional Science. In addition to the general themes, a limited set of Special Sessions will be organized. The Special Sessions address specific and topical themes in Regional Science. Please, refer to the Submission guidelines 2017 for the procedures and important dates for each session type.

Special Sessions (S)

S01. Regional Resilience in the face of Natural Disasters and Climate Change (in association with the Waddenacademie)
        Alessandra Faggian, Luciana Lazzeretti, Silvia Rita Sedita, Jouke van Dijk
S02. Urban Disasters and Resilience Policies of Cities
        Kamila Borsekova, Peter Nijkamp
S03. The Impact of Earthquakes on Regional Housing Markets and Regional Economic Development
        Roderik Ponds, Harry Garretsen, Gerard Marlet
S04. Rural Challenges and Quality of Life in Times of Change
        Suzan Christiaanse, Tialda Haartsen
S05. Smart Rural Development and Beyond
        André Torre, Fred Wallet
S06. New Smart Manufacturing Models for Resilient Regions
        Lisa de Propris, Marco Bellandi
S07. Regional and Urban Perspectives on Individual Well-Being
        Camilla Lenzi, Philip S. Morrison, Giovanni Perucca, Paolo Veneri
S08. Happy Communities: Effects of Social Interaction
        Aleid Brouwer, Eveline van Leeuwen, Heike Delfmann
S09. Tourism for Resilient Regions (in association with the Waddenacademie)
        Jouke van Dijk, Stefan Hartman
S10. Modern Approaches to Labor Market Polarization
        Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Steven Brakman, Terzides Nikolaos
S11. Determinants of Unemployment in Regions
        Stephan Brunow
S12. Real Estate and Housing (in association with ERES)
        Paloma Taltavull, Gunther Maier, Arno van der Vlist
S13. Measuring Agglomeration Advantages using Innovative Geo-Data
        Joachim Möller
S14. Are Cities more Productive but less Inclusive? (in association with European Commission)
        Lewis Dijkstra, Laura de Dominicis
S15. Problems and Prospects of Slowly Growing Medium-sized Cities
        Rüdiger Hamm, Martin Rosenfeld, Artur Ochojski, Alina Schoenberg, Ondřej Slach
S16. What is the Place of Retail in Contemporary Cities?
        Krystian Heffner, Małgorzata Twardzik
S17. W on the Focus
        Jesus Mur, Ana Angulo
S18. Mapping Urban Networks
        Gudrun Haindlmaier
S19. Foreign Investment, Multinationals and Regional Development
        Riccardo Crescenzi, Nicola Cortinovis, Frank van Oort
S20. Cross-Border Cooperation as a key Factor of Resilience (in association with the European Commission)
        Nathalie Verschelde, Lewis Dijkstra, Jean Peyrony
S21. Walled Territories
        Andrea Székely, Thomaz Dentinho
S22. Spatial Demography in Regional Science
        Rachel Franklin, Jacques Poot
S23. Counterfactual Methods for Regional Policy Evaluation
        Elena Ragazzi, Marco Mariani, Lisa Sella
S24. The EU Cohesion Policy after the Crisis and Brexit
        Riccardo Crescenzi, Ugo Fratesi, Vassilis Monastiriotis
S25. More than Planning: Land Use and its Policies in the OECD (in association with the OECD)
        Abel Schumann
S26. Issues in Urban Policy
        Johan Lundberg
S27. Place-based Policies and International Embeddedness
        Dirk Dohse, Dirk Fornahl, Robert Gold
S28. Territorial Policy Impact Assessments in CGE Models
        Martin Aarøe Christensen, Francesco di Comite
S29. Spatial CGE Modeling and Transport Issues
        Tomoki Ishikura, Atsushi Koike
S30. Trade and Entrepreneurship for Growth in all Regions (in association with the OECD)
        Alexander Lembcke, Paolo Veneri
S31. The Social Dimension of Entrepreneurship in the Context of Economic Crisis
        Veronique Schutjens, Darja Reuschke
S32. National and International Locational Preferences of Firms
          Dario Musolino, Ilaria Mariotti
S33. Urban Economics: Markets, Real Estate and Planning 
        Philip McCann, Jouke van Dijk, Arno van der Vlist
S34. A new Industrial and Regional Policy for European Growth and Integration (by invitation only)
        Riccardo Cappellin, Enrico Ciciotti

General Themes (G)

G01. Social Progress for Resilient Regions (Resilience, Well-being, Inequality, Segregation, Poverty)
G02. Regional Economic Development
G03. Regional or Urban Labour Markets
G04. Migration, Commuting or Mobility
G05. Infrastructure, Transportation or Accessibility
G06. Innovation and Entrepreneurship
G07. Benefits of Agglomeration
G08. Education
G09. Tourism
G10. Transitional economies
G11. International Trade and FDI
G12. Regional or Urban Policy, Governance 
G13. Institutions
G14. Real Estate and Housing
G15. Regional Finance, Investment or Capital Markets
G16. Convergence/Divergence
G17. Rural Issues
G18. Environmental Issues or Sustainable Development
G19. Location of Economic Activity
G20. Methods in Regional Science or Urban Economics

Session Types

ERSA2017 offers four session types you can submit to: Refereed Sessions, Special Sessions, Young Scientists/Epainos Sessions and Ordinary Sessions (R-Sessions, SS, YSS and O-Sessions).

In R-Sessions, SS and YSS you will receive ample presentation time (~30 minute slots) and your contribution will be assigned a discussant. Initial submission to these sessions is on the basis of an extended abstract or a draft paper (before Feb 10th). Each contributor must have uploaded a full (draft) paper before June 9th 2017.

O-Sessions allow for presentation times of 15-20 minutes and feedback is provided by the audience present. Submission to O-sessions is on the basis of an abstract.

https://ersa.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebsitePortal/2017-ersa-congress/official-website/ExtraContent/ContentSubPage?page=7&subPage=1

Dear colleague,

We are pleased to announce the International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts to be held at the University of Castilla La Mancha (Spain) on October 4^th-6^th, 2017.

Considering that High-speed Rail has been in operation for more than half a century in Japan and thirty-five years in Europe, this Congress aims to discuss and debate the long-term Technological, Socio-economic and Transport/Territorial impacts of High-speed Rail and to develop a better understanding of the planning criteria for the future.

As you can see in the attached Call for Papers, contributions are welcome on a wide range of topics and participants are encouraged to take part in this event by sending an abstract before April 5th, 2017. Due to the relevance of the topic, our aim is to contribute with the publication of different Special Issues in high-quality journals gathering some of the papers presented at the Congress (authors interested in this possibility should consider the requirements established in the Congress Website).

For more details, please check the Congress web page:

http://eventos.uclm.es/7333/detail/international-congress-on-high-speed-rail_-technologies-and-long-term-impacts.html  

Finally, we would be really grateful if you could distribute this Call for Papers among those of your colleagues that may be interested on the Congress topics.

We are looking forward to seeing you next October in Spain.

Kind regards,

Inmaculada Mohíno

PhD in Territory, Infrastructures and Environment

City and Regional Planning Research Group 

University of Castilla-La Mancha

Avda. Camilo José Cela  s/n – 13071 Ciudad Real (Spain)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cell: (+34) 626.24.55.46