Dear RSAI members,

I hope this email finds you well.

I am pleased to write you to send you the newest issue of the RSAI Newsletter (download). 

Enjoy the read, and please do not hesitate to get in touch with Martijn (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Mina (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to propose new material for the newsletter.

Kind regards,

Dear colleagues,

The Organizing Committee and the Scientific Committee of the XLVII International Conference on Regional Science (Granada, October 19-21, 2022) would like to inform you about the participation, as keynotes speakers: Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, from London School of Economics and Richard Shearmur, from McGill University – Université de Montréal.

Also remind you that the submission of extended abstracts (of at least 1500 words) or complete papers for all sessions will be open until June 15, 2022, and will be uploaded to the members’ area with the model that you will find here. You can download the abstract template and more information about the congress here.

We look forward to your participation and see you in Granada.

A cordial greeting,

The Organizing Committee

Congratulations to Jouke van Dijk  who is the winner of the 2022 Kohno Prize.

The Jury (Eduardo Haddad, Chair, Lily Kiminami, Yoshiro Higano, and Geoffrey Hewings) would like to propose that the award for 2022 be made to Professor Jouke van Dijk (University of Groningen).

In similar fashion to Professor Kohno, Van Dijk started his involvement with the Dutch section of RSAI during which time he served as co-organizer and member of the LOC of the ERSA meetings in Groningen in 1982, 1994 and 2017. For the decade of the 1990s, he served as Executive Secretary of the Dutch section with the responsibility for organizing two meetings each year. When Professor Juan Cuadrado Roura became President of ERSA in 1995, he proposed that van Dijk be appointed as Executive Secretary of ERSA and the European Organizing Committee (EOC) and he served in this position from 1996-2001. He remained a member of the EOC for all but three years between 1993 and 2019. From 2007-2019 he served as either ERSA or Papers in Regional Science representative on the RSAI Council. During this period, he also served as President of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) from 2014-2018.

In addition to his section/ERSA/RSAI duties, he also served in an editorial capacity. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Papers in Regional Science, 2007-2012; prior to this, he was the European Editor of Papers in Regional Science, 2005-2007. In 2012, he was appointed as one of the editors of the Springer Regional Science Series Advances in Spatial Science. In these positions, he has helped advance scholarship, especially of younger scholars, to print.

In all of these positions, he worked tirelessly to enhance the quality and participation of sections in ERSA and he managed to enhance the stature of PiRS through his work in soliciting the best papers from conferences and generating a sense among authors that this was a journal of increasing prestige. He has also enhanced RSAI/ERSA’s visibility in the EU DG REGIO division by organizing a lecture series and University workshops at the annual European Week of Regions and Cities. He was also an initiator in promoting the participation of ERSA in the Masterclass for young scholars and University workshops at the annual European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC, former Open Days) co-organized with EU DG REGIO in Brussels; each year, over 6.000 participants attended from regions all over Europe. In addition, Co-founder and co-organizer of the series of annual International Workshops on ‘Regional, Urban, and Spatial Economics’ (RUSE) in China. He has promoted regional sections within Europe as a member of the Editorial Board Review of Regional Research (Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft) since 2013 and as a member of the International Scientific Board of Investigaciones Regionales, the review of the Spanish Association, since 2014. Further, he has served on juries for prizes, organized congresses, round tables, and well as being an active participant at congresses and meetings, in numerous European sections (French Speaking., German Speaking, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and in the Nordic countries). These are contributions that are often overlooked but turn out to be critical in creating a sense of community among regional scientists.

Over three decades, Professor van Dijk has demonstrated a continuing, sustained commitment to enhancing the organization of regional science in his various leadership capacities. ERSA is now one of the strongest of the multinational organizations within RSAI; prior to COVID, attendance of 800-1,000 at the annual meeting was not unusual. Through his leadership and dedication, Professor van Dijk has made a difference that has promoted and enhanced Regional Science and the Jury feels that he would be a most deserving recipient of the Hirotada Kohno Award for Outstanding Service to Regional Science.

Dear Colleagues!  

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the 8th Central European Conference in Regional Science (CERS) 'Resilience of cities and regions in an uncertain time'. The conference hosted by the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland will be held on 21st-23rd November 2022 in a virtual formula. The conference is co-organized with European Regional Science Association – Polish Section, Hungarian Regional Science Association and Slovak Section of ERSA. 

CERS have a long tradition and is organized every 2-3 years in one of the Visegrad countries. The previous edition of the conference was held in Sopron, Hungary in 2019. The idea of the conference is to promote research in the field of Regional Science. It is also a good point for the consolidation of many groups of scientists working on human and economic geography, spatial management, spatial economy, regional and urban economy, demography, spatial planning, architecture, and ecology.

We are happy to announce two distinguished keynote speakers: Jean Claude-Thill (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) and Kostyantyn Menzetsev (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). 

The leading concept of the 8th CERS conference is to facilitate a welcoming forum for a presentation of academic research and the exchange of ideas, concepts, experiences, and different points of view.  

Main themes of the conference: 

• Contemporary and future challenges for cities and regions: Are we ready for them?
• Cities and regions facing the economic crisis and global epidemic,
• Cities and regions in climate change,
• Circular economy for resilient cities,
• Uncertainty in local and regional policies,
• Urban and regional development,
• Demography, migration and social inequalities,
• Innovation, entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness,
• Spatial planning, sustainable development and ecological transition,
• Rural regions and their development,
• Culture, tourism, health and education in an uncertain time,
• Land use, transport, mobility and accessibility,
• Perspectives on shrinking cities development,
• Regional finance, fiscal issues, investment and capital markets,
• The digital world, digital region and digital society,
• Methods and models in regional science and urban economics,
• Ukraine and CEE countries in the face of war.

We warmly invite you to organize one of the sessions during the conference. The call for Special Sessions is open now. Please submit your proposal via the registration form available here. 

For more detailed information, please visit the conference website. More information will be available soon.  

Hoping to see you at CERS! 

Richard Church has been elected as a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Rick has been a major presence in regional science since presenting one of his first conference papers at the 1973 meetings of the North American Regional Science Council held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA (November 9-11, 1973). This paper was subsequently published in Papers of the Regional Science, formerly Papers of the Regional Science Association (Church, R. and C. ReVelle, 1974, “The maximal covering location problem”, Papers of the Regional Science Association 32, 101-118), one of the most highly cited regional science publications. He has made important and sustained academic contributions to regional science, particularly in the areas of location science, spatial optimization, natural resource management and transportation. Reflecting this are a long list of distinctions and awards, including Fellow of the Regional Science Association International (2009), Isard Award for Scholarly Achievement for the North American Regional Science Council (2018), Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science from the North American Regional Science Council (2019) as well as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009),  Lifetime Achievement Award from the Section on Location Analysis of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (2012) and the UCGIS Research Award (2014), among others. Worth mentioning as well is his important service to regional science, which includes President of the North American Regional Science Council (2015) and President of the Western Regional Science Association (2021-2022).

Congratulations Rick on your election to the National Academy of Sciences, and your continued contributions to regional science!