We have Extended the Deadline till 15th May!

CITTA - the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment – is organizing its 8^th Annual Conference together with the AESOP Thematic Group on Public Spaces & Urban Cultures, on the general theme - Becoming Local: Generative Places, Smart Approaches, Happy People, that will take place at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Oporto / Portugal, on the 25^th of September 2015.

We would like to invite you to submit an abstract till the 15^th May  2015 on the following topics:

Topic 1) Physical dimension / Real and virtual boundaries
Topic 2) Social dimension / (Un)successful mediation
Topic 3) Cultural dimension / Local identities and meanings

Confirmed keynote-speakers: Ali Madanipour (University of Newcastle, UK), Carlos Fortuna (University of Coimbra, Portugal) and Sako Musterd (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands).

More information about the theme, programme, registration and venue can be found on CITTA's conference website http://citta-conference.fe.up.pt

Video about the city of Porto (https://vimeo.com/86438582)

Registrations must be made through our website, on one of the options:
Option 1 - register for two days event, 24th - 25th September - AESOP Thematic Group (fieldtrip + workshop + CITTA Conference)
Option 2 - register for one day event, 25th September - CITTA Conference

Yours sincerely,

Sara Santos Cruz & Fernando Brandão Alves  (Conference Chairs)
Paulo Pinho (Director of CITTA)

Secretariat: Cláudia Correia
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

William Louis Garrison, UC Berkeley professor emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and former director of Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies, died on Feb. 1, 2015 in Lafayette, CA. He was 90.

Garrison joined the CEE faculty as a Professor in 1973. That same year he was appointed director of the Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering (ITTE) (the predecessor of the Institute of Transportation Studies), a position he held for seven years. He retired from Berkeley in 1991. Although his work at Berkeley was focused on how innovation and technological change occurs in the field of transportation, he was well known earlier in his career for leading the so-called “quantitative revolution” in geography.

“Bill moved from geography to transportation in the 1970s. He was particularly interested in innovation and how technological change occurs,” said David Levinson, a former student of Garrison’s who now serves on the faculty of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota. “He strongly believed that we should be seeking new development pathways, rather than remaining stuck perfecting existing systems—what he called the 'polished present'."

Another former student, Barry Wellar, commented in 2007 at the 2007 Anderson Distinguished Lecture in Applied Geography that Garrison “had a way of looking at things that were way outside the box years before that notion was popularized, and even his so-called ‘easy reads’ contained nuances about relationships and processes that would be missed by the casual reader.”

Garrison was born in 1924 and raised in Tennessee. Following his service in World War II during which he did meteorological work for the US Army, he received his PhD in Geography from Northwestern University in 1950. A few years later, as a young faculty member at the University of Washington, he led the way to revitalizing the field of geography through the use of greater scientific thinking and methods. That led to an increased use of computerized statistical techniques such as multivariate analysis in geographical research. Garrison and his students used such historic computing systems as the IBM 604 and IBM 650. Many of those students would later go on to revolutionize geographic science and geographic information systems.

In recent years, the biennial William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography was created to recognize Garrison’s outstanding research and educational contributions. The award is intended to arouse a more general and deeper understanding of the important role that advanced computation can play in resolving the complex problems of space–time analysis that are at the core of geographic science.

In addition to the University of Washington, Garrison taught at Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois, University of Pittsburgh, before he arrived at UC Berkeley in 1973 as Professor in the Civil Engineering Department, and ITTE Director. By then his interests had shifted to transportation. He made invaluable contributions to the Transportation Engineering Program in the department, expanding and strengthening the planning and policy elements of the curriculum. Likewise, when he took at the helm at ITTE he set out to expand and broaden the scope beyond transportation and traffic engineering.

"Bill steered the institute into a broad based center for the study of transportation. He expanded its agenda and broadened the community of faculty affiliates to encompass many departments on the campus including City and Regional Planning, Economics, Geography, Public Policy and Sociology," said Adib Kanafani, CEE Professor of the Graduate School. Kanafani succeeded Garrison as ITS Director in 1983. "Bill's leadership was reflected in the institute's name change as ITTE became the “Institute of Transportation Studies.”

Garrison served on numerous national committees, and served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board in 1973. In the late 1980s he spent time in Austria examining growth trajectories of various transportation technologies. Much of that work is what forms the nucleus of The Transportation Experience first published by Oxford University Press in 2006, then revised and published in a second edition in 2014. His co-author was David Levinson. “He was one of the few people to take a macro-view of transportation and who tried to understand the long-term dynamics of systems,” said Levinson.

In 2007, Garrison gave the Anderson Distinguished lecture in Applied Geography at the Association of American Geographers in Washington, DC. In his address, he said:

“About fifty years ago I began to teach a course on transportation geography, and at about that same time I began working with others on highway improvement and financing in Washington State and nationwide telephone communications as a civil defense matter. In subsequent decades I have worked to understand transportation systems of many types as well as engineered systems such as sanitary systems. This work raised many questions of a ‘why do systems and actors do what they do’ sort. To comment on those questions I will refer to constraints formed by networks and institutional structures. Systems are birthed when actors combine old or new building blocks and produce services aligned with markets. Early on, there is flexibility as the marriage of systems and markets is forged.

The early decades of the railroads provide a sweeping example. Created by mixing and matching building blocks from tramways, steam engines, canal and toll road construction techniques and pricing protocols and management and financing techniques from military, church and industry they molded themselves like clay. Discovery was a key theme—discovering a workable mix of hard and soft technologies and, equally important, discovering markets. Discovery extended to finding improvements in technologies to respond to social innovations, such as those asking for expanded passenger transportation. Railroads adjusted themselves to circumstances of market density, raw materials for fuel and construction, and styles of national governance. They were flexible.

The flexible period ran from about 1830 to 1860. Afterwards, deployment and growth ruled, and network and organizational inflexibilities began to exert themselves, along with those imposed by those striving to control development using standards, regulations, and other tools. Flexibility became more and more restrained…

I recognize that our legacy infrastructure systems have enormous value. They serve as inputs for all that we do, and shape social and economic structures. They form a record of learning and social and economic actions and achievements. But at the same time, their inflexibilities are costly now and place serious limits on options for the future.”

William Louis Garrison is survived by his wife Marcia Garrison and their four children, Deborah Churich, James Garrison, Jane Garrison Grimaldi, and John Garrison; his three children, Sara Garrison, Ann Darrin, and Helen Saxenian from his first wife Mary Margaret Garrison (who predeceased him); 16 grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

Call for abstracts

Dear colleagues:

We would like to remind you that 15 May is the deadline for sending your abstracts to the XLI International Conference on Regional Science. This event will take place at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili between 18 and the 20 November 2015.

The lemma of this conference will be Innovation and Geographical Spillovers: New Approaches and Evidence. Furthermore, as you may have seen on the conference website, the number of subject areas has increased (17), as have the special sessions (6), so that everyone interested in territorial-based issues will be catered for, be they economists, geographers or urban planners. Your participation is essential!

We are currently designing an attractive conference at academic level, however are able to provide the information on contents:

- Workshop: “Spatial Econometrics with the R Package”, presented by Coro Chasco (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Julie Le Gallo (Université de Franche-Comté). Free course.

- David B. Audretsch will be presenting “Innovation Spillovers: a Strategy for the Crisis”, Indiana University

- David B. Bailey will be speaking on “Drivers of Change in the Global Auto Industry”, Aston Business School.

With respect to leisure activities, we are also planning different events, which we will be announcing at a later date.

Therefore remind that 15 May is the deadline for sending your abstracts. THE COUNTDOWN HAS ALREADY BEGUN.

We look forward to seeing you at Reus,

The Organizing Committee

English version of the Meeting website is already available: http://www.reunionesdeestudiosregionales.org/Home-82-home

INFER Workshop on

Modelling Economic Resilience to External Shocks

June 1-2, 2015, Business and Economics Department, University of the Azores

Jointly organized by

INFER – International Network for Economic Research

CEEAplA – Centre of Applied Economic Studies of the Atlantic

EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION IS May 3rd, 2015.

Workshop Objectives

This workshop provides an opportunity for all those interested in the ECONOMIC MODELLING OF EXTERNAL SHOCKS to discuss their research and to exchange ideas. Researchers are invited to submit both empirical and theoretical papers that are broadly consistent with the workshop’s special topic. 

In particular we welcome papers related to the following topics:

Approaches:

THE BLUE ECONOMY

THE GREEN ECONOMY

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY AND EXTERNAL CHANGES

PUBLIC POLICIES TO ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE

RESILIENCE TO SHOCKS

Instruments:                                                               

CGE MODELS

ECONOMETRIC MODELS                                                        

INPUT/OUTPUT MODELS

The workshop is open to anybody involved in these research areas, including both young and experienced researchers, Ph.D. students, post-doctoral researchers, and professionals from business, government and non-governmental institutions.

Keynote Speakers

We are happy to welcome the following internationally distinguished keynote speakers:

Alfredo Marvão Pereira, The College of William and Mary (Department of Economics)

Júlia Seixas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente)

Ali Bayar, EcoMod Network (Free University of Brussels)

Scientific Committee

Mário Fortuna (CEEAplA and University of the Azores)

Francisco Silva (CEEAplA and University of the Azores)

Luz Paramío (CEEAplA and University of the Azores)

Alberto Bagnai (University of Pescara)

David Duffy (University of Ulster)

Agnieszka Gehringer (University of Göttingen)

Nikolay Nenovsky (University of Amiens)

Elias Soukiazis (University of Coimbra)

Andreea Stoian (University of Bucharest)

Camelia Turcu (University of Orléans)

Jan Van Hove (University of Leuven)

Organization

The workshop is jointly organized by the

- International Network for Economic Research (INFER)

- Centre of Applied Economic Studies of the Atlantic (CEEAplA)

INFER is a non-profit international scientific organization that stimulates research and research networking in all fields of economics through international workshops and conferences. Website:

www.infer-research.net

The Centre of Applied Economics Studies of the Atlantic (CEEAplA) was created in 2003 and it is evaluated and financed by FCT - Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation. Its mission is to promote theoretical and applied scientific advanced research using its highly skilled human resources engaged in research projects in the areas of business and economics, namely: Labor Economics; Tourism Economics and Development, Regional Economics; Public Sector Economics; Economic History; Management; and Finance.

Submission of Papers

Only full papers may be submitted, preferably in pdf-format. Papers should be submitted to 

Susana Sardinha

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

EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION IS May 3rd, 2015.

Authors are allowed to submit more than one paper. We will confirm receipt of your submission.

All submitted papers will be peer reviewed according to a high-quality and fast referee process. You will receive an e-mail indicating whether your paper is accepted for presentation during the workshop or not before May 5^th, 2015.

Paper presenters are expected to discuss one other paper during the workshop. The discussant assignments will be made by the workshop organizers at a later date. As the workshop intends to build a network in this research area, participation is welcome even without paper contributions.

Publication of Papers

A selection of papers presented at the workshop may be published in one or more international publications. INFER offers several publication possibilities to workshop participants, including book volumes and journal publications. The workshop organizers will contact you about these publication possibilities later.

Registration and Registration Fee

The registration fee for presenting and non-presenting participants will be:

• INFER members: 60 EUR

 • other participants: 120 EUR

Please note: the annual membership fee for private INFER members is 25 EUR only (institutional INFER members 200 EUR). You are invited to become a member! 

The registration fee includes all lunches and drinks. It doesn’t include travel and accommodation expenses. All workshop participants have to register for the workshop. Please note that paper submission is not regarded as a registration. Registration can be done as follows:

By the INFER website + PayPal

Please register on the INFER website (www.infer-research.net). Payment can be done via PayPal on the website. Note that you can use the same website to become an INFER member.

Deadline for registration and payment: May 15^th, 2015.

In case of late registration, the fees will be increased by 50%.

Further Information

Questions may be directed to the local workshop organizers’ secretariat, Susana Sardinha, (CEEAplA and University of the Azores):

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

Local Organizing Committee:

Mário Fortuna, CEEAplA and University of the Azores (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Francisco Silva, CEEAplA and University of the Azores (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Luz Paramío, CEEAplA and University of the Azores (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Questions about INFER may be directed to the Chair of the INFER Workshop Committee, Camelia Turcu (University of Orléans and INFER):

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

Dear Rural Studies Researchers

The International Conference 'Meanings of the Rural – between social representations, consumptions and rural development strategies' will take place between 28 and 29 september 2015 at the University of Aveiro.

The Conference join together the 3rd Conference on Regional and Urban Planning, the RURAL MATTERS Conference and the IX ENPLANT.

The Call for abstracts is now open until May, 20.

Abstracts are welcome to one of the following themes:

1. Social Meanings and Representations of the Rural.
2. Rural Development Policies, Strategies and Actors.
3. Consumptions of the Rural

For information on themes, registration and abstract submission, please visit: http://meaningsoftherural.web.ua.pt/

and follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Conference-Meanings-of-the-Rural/355422951324634?pnref=story)

Please dessiminate the call among your contacts.

Looking forward to receive your abstract

Best Regards

Elisabete Figueiredo

INFER Workshop on
Economic Geography, Agglomeration and Environment
September 24th – 25th, 2015
University of Corsica, Corte (France)
Jointly organized by
INFER (International Network for Economic Research)
LISA (Laboratory « Places, Identities, Spaces and Activities ») UMR CNRS

Workshop Objectives:
The aim of this workshop is to provide an opportunity to researchers to exchange their ideas on agglomeration and environment. We wish to focus the discussions around two main topics: first, the economic dynamics of regions and urban expansion on which researchers can broach the questions of the cities and regions size, specialization and inter-connexions in a globalized world economy; second, the effects of agglomeration process on the environment, the impact on citizens welfare, on firms and people location choices, the environmental policies that may be set up and their impact on the agglomeration dynamics.
We invite researchers to submit both empirical and theoretical papers that are broadly consistent with at least one of these subjects.
The special topic of the workshop will be Economic Geography, Agglomeration and Environment. Papers that address these questions through the field of (New) Economic Geography are especially welcomed.

Keynote Speakers:
We are happy to welcome the following internationally distinguished keynote speakers:
Michael Rauscher (University of Rostock)
Cees Withagen (VU University Amsterdam)

Please find attached the call for papers.

The deadline for paper submission is June 18th, 2015 .

Professor Manfred M. Fischer, from Vienna University of Economics and Business, received the RSAI Jean Paelinck Award 2015. The Jean Paelinck Award recognizes and honors the truly outstanding scholarly achievement of a senior and internationally recognized regional scientist in the field of Regional Science Methods and it is awarded with the nomination of five RSAI Fellows, with the selection of the Jury and with the approval by the RSAI Council.

Manfred M. Fischer fulfills all the required criteria in an excellent way:

• From the mid-1970s on, Manfred M. Fischer has been actively publishing in regional science and economic geography. From early on his work was internationally oriented (first publication in Regional Science and Urban Economics in 1979) and focusing on methods. His early work was on regional taxonomy, later he contributed to discrete choice modeling, GIS, network analysis, and neural network based methods. Recent work shows a strong interest in spatial econometrics
• Manfred M. Fischer has maintained an active research and publication schedule over 40 years. His CV lists over 100 journal publications, 13 journal special issues, 40 monographs and edited books. Although he is close to retirement, Manfred M. Fischer is still highly active in research and publishes extensively. Although his CV may not reflect the whole year, for 2014 it lists 3 journal publications, 1 book, and 4 book chapters.
• The long list of awards, among them the RSAI Fellow (2006), the EIB-ERSA-Prize (2012), demonstrates Manfred M. Fischer’s international recognition.
• Many of the publications listed in the CV of Manfred M. Fischer are coauthored, about half of them with considerably younger scholars. Many of them have themselves entered a successful academic career. Examples are T. Scherngell, A. Varga, and J. Essletzbichler.
• Despite a strong and maintained focus on regional science in general and regional science methods in particular, Manfred M. Fischer also reached out to other areas in his work. On the one hand, he was among the first European regional scientists who collaborated with Chinese scholars. On the other hand, he also aimed to reach across to other disciplines like computational science, management, data management, etc.
• Manfred Fischer is one of the founding fathers and (co) editor in chief of the prestigious methodology publication Journal of Geographical Systems. He also serves on the board of many other journals in Regional Science and related fields.

The University of Wisconsin-Extension is seeking a tenure-track local government specialist to build an applied research and outreach educational program focusing on the needs of Wisconsin local governments. The position requires a PhD in economics, public finance, public administration or related field. The successful candidate will be expected to build research and teaching relations with faculty and staff on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus (position housed on the Madison campus) and other UW campuses as appropriate.

posted: 4/10/2015 
Refer to: PVL# C15078
REVIEW BEGINS: 5/18/2015
View Complete Position Description

Overview
Continuing fiscal strain is transforming the dynamics of finance at all levels of local government. Applied research and outreach education is needed to better understand the impacts of these changes. Local Government Center faculty and staff provide support to elected and appointed officials, as well as professionals working for Wisconsin counties, cities, villages and towns. This education helps Wisconsin communities and those that serve those communities make the best-informed decisions about the quality of life for all residents.

This position provides leadership, direction, and coordination of University of Wisconsin-Extension applied research and outreach education efforts focused on local finance and budgeting. These efforts include planning and delivery of research-based educational programs, directly and through county, tribal and regional Cooperative Extension faculty and staff, using a variety of traditional and innovative means. This position will also endeavor to meet local needs and interests by effectively collaborating with local government organizations, associations, and other interest groups. This position will maintain a programmatic relationship that is centered in and directed by the Local Government Center and will work collaboratively with other Cooperative Extension program areas, as well as faculty and staff at other University of Wisconsin System campuses.

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/hr/listing.cfm?PVL=C15078

The Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo invites applications for an Assistant Professor (tenure track) position in medical/health geography. Start date is August, 2015 (with option of January 2016). This faculty member will be expected to contribute to the BA Geography, MA Geography and PhD Spatially Integrated Social Sciences programs, and to actively collaborate with colleagues across disciplines. The research specialty and teaching focus will be medical/health geography with special interests in spatial aspects of environmental issues, preferably with a focus on water, including public health, disease and contaminants. Evidence of ability to secure external research grant funding is expected. Experience and ability to teach courses in geographic information sciences, quantitative methods, and medical/health geography topics is required. A Ph.D. in Geography or related field is required; ABD candidates a with defense date before January 1, 2016, are welcome to apply.

The department currently has nine full-time faculty members and approximately 50 undergraduate majors and graduate students. The University of Toledo is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V. Applications from women and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged. Applications must be submitted athttps://jobs.utoledo.edu and must include a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, graduate transcripts, writing sample, and evidence of teaching effectiveness. Please arrange to have three letters of recommendation submitted directly to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or if necessary, letters may be sent by mail to Dr. Patrick Lawrence, Chair, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toledo, MS 140, 2801 Bancroft Street, Toledo, Ohio 43606. Review of applications will begin immediately, but the position will remain open until filled. Questions should be addressed to Dr. Patrick Lawrence, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..