RSPP Call for Papers

Special Issue on

Territorial dimensions of green and digital transitions

The European Green Deal (EGD) is a growth strategy aiming at transforming the European Union into a climate-neutral space by 2050. Aware of its major social side-effects, the EU is launching special funds to support the mitigation of expected inequalities generated by the green transition in order to keep it also a just transition. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global digital transformation is envisaged as an enabler background for the green transition, despite the lack of consensus regarding the environmental footprint of this transformation (Itten et al., 2020). An effective coordination between green and digital transitions is currently seen as crucial to the European recovery, which must be based on principles such as solidarity, convergence and cohesion in order to be fair and inclusive. The topicality of the theme is evident in the motto for the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union: “for a fair, green and digital recovery” (2021PORTUGAL.EU, 2021).

Studies on sustainable transitions contribute to a growing interdisciplinary research field which have produced, particularly in the last decade, theoretical and methodological advances, alongside with empirical evidence, on how to understand the rise and development of sustainable transitions in different areas, such as energy, mobility, or agri-food systems. The spatial dimensions of sustainability transitions is the focus of the emergent field of geography of sustainable transitions. However, the design of a macro-level green growth strategy, such as the EGD, pulled by a social and political demand for major transformations in the global economy, require a major effort of research from multidisciplinary fields. It is crucial to understand and support in-depth change processes that are or should be undertook by institutions, firms, and value chains, alongside with the assessment of their effects on people and places.

The aim of this special issue is thus to bring together research contributions from different fields, helping to enlighten how these major changes in global systems, such as the energy, mobility, heritage, tourism, agri-food, services, and manufacturing industry, will shape the transitions at the micro and meso-levels and affect people and places, namely territorial inequalities and social exclusion phenomena. Consequently, we welcome innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as empirical evidence, focused on responding to those questions, encompassing multiple topics driven by a focus on the territorial specificities - rural and peripheral regions, sparsely populated areas, small and medium size towns, urban-rural interfaces - , spillovers, exclusions and inequalities raised by green and digital transitions driven by technological disruptive innovation, consumption trends, citizens’ claims, natural resources and ecosystems depletion, public policies, or firm strategies.

These are some examples of topics relevant for the special issue on the territorial dimensions of green and digital transitions:

• Mapping and describing of underway transitions
• Identifying determinants of transitions’ unlock
• Understanding how transitions affect people and places
• Assessing spatial patterns of transitions’ and respective impacts
• Uncovering costs, benefits, side-effects and spillovers of green and digital megatrends
• Discussing territorial competitiveness, fairness and inclusiveness of policy-led transitions
• Evaluating policy-led transitions

Planning

There are alternative ways to pre-select papers for this special issue:

• A selection of extended abstracts submitted to the RSAI World Congress​ will be invited to deliver a full paper (please refer to this page with instructions to select RSPP for post-conference publication).
• A selection of extended abstracts submitted to the Special Session S29 of the ERSA Conference will be invited to deliver a full paper (please refer to this page with instructions to submit the extended abstract).
• A selection of extended abstracts submitted to the Regional Helix 2021 Conference will be invited to deliver a full paper (please refer to this page with instructions to select RSPP for post-conference publication).
• Authors not attending the conferences above mentioned may send an extended abstract (1,200-2,000 words) to the editors until June 30, 2021

Please note that the full paper must be submitted to RSPP by October 15, 2021.

Editors

• Lívia Madureira, CETRAD – The Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, UTAD – University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Carlos Peixeira Marques, CETRAD – The Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, UTAD – University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Giuseppina Cassalia, Department of Heritage, Architecture, Urban Planning, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

References                                                                                                          

• 2021PORTUGAL.EU. (2021). Programme for the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union (https://www.2021portugal.eu/media/e0rjnvdj/programme-for-the-portuguese-presidency-of-the-council-of-the-european-union-en.pdf
• Itten, R., Hischier, R., Andrae, A. S. G., Bieser, J. C. T., Cabernard, L., Falke, A., Ferreboeuf, H., Hilty, L. M., Keller, R. L., Lees-Perasso, E., Preist, C., & Stucki, M. (2020). Digital transformation — life cycle assessment of digital services, multifunctional devices and cloud computing. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 25(10), 2093-2098. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01801-0