Professor Dr. Karin Peschel, long standing director of the Institute for Regional Research at Kiel Univer-sity, passed away on 19 June 2020. She was aged 84. In the 1960s, Karin Peschel played an active role in the foundation of the “Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung”, the German Speaking Section of the Regional Science Association International, in which she remained active for over 50 years.

Born in Leipzig, Karin Peschel studied Economics at the University of Braunschweig. In 1963, she earned her Economics doctorate at the University of Münster. Her doctoral dissertation, conducted under the supervision of Andreas Predöhl, concerned itself with the market-based organisation of the transport sector. Having completed her doctoral studies, she decided to pursue an academic career in Econom-ics, an unusual step for a woman in the 1960s. She habilitated in 1970 under the supervision of Rolf Funck in Karlsruhe. In 1971, she was successful in securing a professorship at the Institute of Theoret-ical Economics at Kiel University. In 1973, she replaced Reimut Jochimsen, assuming the leadership of the Institute for Regional Research.

At the institute, Karin Peschel initiated a research programme, which focussed on the spatial effects and structures of integration processes and international trade, respectively. One of the Institute’s prominent areas of research concerned the European integration of the Scandinavian economies. In the course of these research activities, she forged research ties with many academics and practitioners in Scandinavia, her research network later widening to encompass the entire Baltic Sea Region. The wealth of joint publications and conferences testify to these very productive collaborations.

Karin Peschel was also a much sought-after advisor on matters relating to regional, structural and in-novation policy. She was active in numerous committees at the federal level. However, her home state of Schleswig-Holstein remained close to her heart, a commitment testified by her tireless and devoted efforts towards promoting economic prosperity in the region.

From 1992 to 1996, Karin Peschel occupied the position of Rector at Kiel University. It should be remembered, she was the first woman to hold this office since the university’s foundation. Additionally,
she remained one of the very few women ever appointed to this position. She made history as Rector when, in 1993, she annulled the politically motivated revocations of doctoral degrees by the National
Socialist regime. In so doing, she helped to make amends for an injustice that had lasted for over 50 years.

Karin's hobby was riding, but her passion remained the mountains, despite relocating to the Baltic lowlands. In her youth, she climbed and explored the Alps with a friend. Later, she was to discover her
love for the mountainous landscape of Norway, a passion she could indulge through her many Scandinavian connections.

The Institute for Environmental, Resource and Spatial Economics mourns the loss of a dedicated scientist, a revered teacher and a beloved colleague.

RETHINKING CLUSTERS

3RD INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON CLUSTER RESEARCH (online)

VALENCIA, SPAIN, NOVEMBER, 24th-25th, 2020

We are happy to announce the online RETHINKING CLUSTERS 2020 Conference for November, 24th-25th, 2020.

Due to Covid restrictions, the Conference migrates to an online version, to keep conversation among scholars alive!!

- The deadline for paper submission has been extended up to September, 1st, 2020.

- Remember to provide at least three key words when submitting, indicating the Track you prefer.

Please, see the new Call for Papers and visit: 

https://www.rethinkingclusters.org/

Those of you that already submitted, not necessarily submitting again. 

Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver and Rafael Boix, on behalf of the 3rd (online)  Rethinking Clusters Workshop Organizing Committee.

Prof. Geoffrey Hewings, Emeritus Director of REAL, has been awarded the 2020 Founder’s medal!

The proposal, made by the committee Mark Partridge (President); Lily Kiminami (PRSCO); Andrés Rodrigues-Pose and Philip McCann (ERSA); and Dan McMillen (NARSC), was approved as suggested by the award rules by the previous winners of the same award. The RSAI Council thanks all members of both groups for their professional service and dedication.

This award comes as no surprise, given Geoffrey’s outstanding career in Regional Science.

Prof. Hewings was the founding Director of REAL and served in this position until August 2016. He obtained a B.A. from the University of Birmingham (UK) and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle). Prior to coming to Illinois in 1974, he was on the faculty of the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK) and the University of Toronto (Canada).

He is also a recipient of the Fulbright and the Woodrow Wilson awards and, in 2003, he has also been nominated Fellow of the Regional Science Association International. He is also Fellow of the International Input-Output Association (since 2010) and the Western Regional Science Association (also since 2010). Geoffrey has also served as President of the North American Regional Science Council, the Regional Science Association International, the Western Regional Science Association and the International Input-Output Association.

The RSAI congratulates Geoffrey on this outstanding achievement!

Papers in Regional Science’s 2-year and 5-year Impact Factors each increased in 2019. Additionally, the journal’s rankings in Geography and Economics improved, and its rank in Regional & Urban Planning remained the same.  

The North American Regional Science Council is pleased to announce its 2020 Summer Speakers Series. Registration is free, but you must register for each presentation separately. The line-up of speakers and their presentation titles can be found below. For more detailed information, including presentation abstracts and presenter bios, please go to http://www.narsc.org/newsite/narsc-summer-speakers-series/.

SPEAKER 1

Title: Regional Science: Origins and Development – A Personal Perspective

Presenter: Luc Anselin, University of Chicago. 

Time: Tuesday, July 14, 2020 11:00am-1:00pm (EST)

Registration Link: https://uiowa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gtEBGbCGRPK518_Qs3gNxQ
 

SPEAKER 2

Title: Anticipating a World of Automated Vehicles: Cost, Energy, & Urban System Implications

Presenter: Kara Kockelman, University of Texas at Austin.

Time: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 11:00am-1:00pm (EST)

Registration Link: https://uiowa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mseS0EtnQZaIRZNaOvetMA

 

SPEAKER 3

Title: COVID-19 and Implosion of Regional Economies

Presenter: Mark Partridge, Ohio State University.

Time: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 11:00am-1:00pm (EST)

Registration Link: https://uiowa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6UG3FrJ3Rgmx8bVO57f6_A

Dear colleagues

The Annual Congress of the Portuguese Association for Regional Development (http://www.apdr.pt/congresso/2020) will be face to face and online, in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French.

Because there are urgent topics that need to be analyzed scientifically, we would like to extend participation to all regional scientists in the world who can communicate in these languages.

To make this more feasible, we postponed the abstract submission deadline to 3 July and reduced the cost of participation for participants from low- and middle-income countries.

Papers can easily be submitted to the Portuguese Journal of Regional Studies and the Regional Science Policy and Practice, in addition to being part of a well-structured edition of the proceedings of the Congress.

You are very much welcome to submit an abstract and present your thoughts.

The LOC

Tomaz Ponce Dentinho

Professor Emeritus Börje Johansson passed away in his home in Stockholm, Sweden, June 18, 2020, at the age of 74. Börje served as President of the European Regional Science Association 2000-2003. In 2013 he was awarded the EIB-ERSA Prize for his great contributions to regional science. From 1994 and 20 years onwards, he served as Editor for the Annals of Regional Science. He always stood out as a great beacon of regional science from the North.

Börje Johansson took his PhD in Economics at Gothenburg University 1978. 1982-1984 he was Acting Leader of the Integrated Regional & Urban Development Group (RUD) at IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria. 1985 he became Director of CERUM (Centre for Regional Science Research), University of Umeå. 1994 he was appointed Professor of Economics at JIBS (Jönköping International Business School), Jönköping, Sweden, a position that he kept until his retirement a few years ago. Börje also held positions as Professor in Economics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, and as Guest Professor in Infrastructure Economics at KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.

Börje’s research interests spanned over large areas of economics and regional science. He made important contributions to economic network theory and productivity analysis. He was an excellent teacher and fostered a new generation of PhD students wherever he was active. Börje also had an extraordinary ability to apply his theoretical knowledge to practical problems, and he had innumerable commissions for agencies and authorities at national and regional levels. He was always hard working and had an extraordinary scholarly and personal integrity combined with a terse sense of humour inherited from his family background in the coastal surroundings of Gothenburg.

Börje is mourned and missed by many colleagues and friends across the world, most of all by his children Eleanor, Eskil and Olof.

Hans Westlund                    Folke Snickars                    Charlie Karlsson

Professor                            Professor Emeritus              Professor Emeritus

Postdoc Opportunity: 

The Department of Social and Political Science at the University of Milan is looking to seeking to recruit a post-doctoral researcher. The position is fully funded for two years and can be renewed for a further two years.

The researcher will work directly with Professor Anne-Marie Jeannet on her ERC funded project DESPO “Deindustrializing Societies and the Political Consequences.” The aim of this project is to reveal how a person’s individual, family, and local community experiences of manufacturing decline transform the way they participate in politics and their political attitudes over the course of their life. DESPO will focus on the long-term consequences by five decades of manufacturing decline and its political aftermath (1965-2015).

The ideal applicant will be a skilled quantitative researcher that has demonstrated experience working with administrative data, managing large datasets, and data linking. He/she should also have a strong competence in geographic software (GIS), statistical software (STATA or R), and preparing documents in LaTeX. A preference will be giving to candidates who have demonstrated interest in working class politics, electoral realignment, or economic restructuring. The position is in English and knowledge of Italian is NOT required. 

The position is open to candidates with a PhD with various social science backgrounds such as: sociology, political science, geography, economics, history, or similar disciplines.

The application deadline is July 8, 2020.The starting date for the position is September 1 (negotiable). Application info is available here:  https://www.unimi.it/it/ricerca/ricerca-lastatale/fare-ricerca-da-noi/assegni-e-borse/bandi-assegni-di-ricerca/bando-di-tipo-b-prof-chiesi-dottssa-jeannet-id-4616

Please feel free to contact Anne-Marie Jeannet (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for any informal inquiries regarding the application process or the position.

Regional Science and Tourism in the Era of Global Uncertainty

(NECTAR Special Session in North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International RSAI 2020)

NECTAR Clusters 5-6 Special Session

San Diego, CA, USA November 11-14, 2020

Call for papers

As part of the Annual Meetings of 2020 North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) in San Diego, CA from November 11 to 14, 2020, we would like to invite you to special session(s) for “Tourism and Regional Science in the Era of Global Uncertainty” that Nectar clusters 5 and 6 are organizing jointly with the NARSC and RSAI.

The website for submission is now open in the User Area of NARSC website (https://www.narsc.org/newsite/userarea/UserArea.php). Short abstracts as well as full papers (also in draft format) will be accepted for the Special Session.

If you are interested in presenting your research in this special session, please submit an abstract (2,000 to 5,500 characters and spaces) through the conference portal. Information on how to do that can be found here. Upon submitting your abstract, you will receive an abstract ID number (e.g. P12345). Please send your abstract ID number and a copy of your abstract to Jaewon Lim, University of Nevada Las Vegas, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Juan Carlos Martin, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Luca Zamparini, University of Salento,   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than June 30, 2020.

Selected full papers will be invited for publication in a special issue of the Regional Science Policy & Practice Journal, following standard review/revision procedures. (https://rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17577802).

Main topic

Christaller (1964) was probably one of the first regional scientists who analysed, after the conference held in Lund during 1963, the patterns on geographical location of tourist activity. Christaller found that “It is typical for places of tourism to be on the periphery. In this way, regions economically benefit from factors which cannot be utilized otherwise: high mountain chains, barren, rocky landscapes, heather, unproductive dunes.” (p.86). Since then, the tourism industry has changed dramatically. It is not so much the activity to move away from each other but instead to be with each other visiting their places and new places, also being involved with tourists in our own places because the we, and the places we live, are nice. That is why regional science – the study of human interaction within space with sound methods – has a say that can change the scientific perspectives on tourism that often miss space and the relation with each other. Regional Science as a discipline needs to analyse multiple strategies, policies and trends that are critical for tourist destinations that aspire to position and to consolidate their image in the world-wide network of tourist destinations at different geographical levels, urban or rural, within a framework of tough global competition. However, as world is currently experiencing, the unexpected events including but not limited to pandemic contagious diseases, regional political instabilities, safety issues with terrorist attacks, make the future of tourism uncertain. Due to the increasing concerns for mobility across space with the growing global uncertainty, tourism activities are expected to get downward pressure, while the increasing demand for various types of experience in tourism destinations may boost the worldwide growth of tourism in the future.

For this reason, potential topics discussed at the Special Session include:

• How can tourism studies benefit from Regional Science?

• Quantitative methods of Regional Science applied to Tourism

• Pandemic Diseases and Tourism Industry

• Consumer Behavior & Tourism Analysis

• From Well-Being and Happiness of tourists to Quality of Life of host residents.

• New Directions and Paradigms in Regional Science applied to Tourism

• From Decision Making to Travel Behavior

• Regional Science and Hospitality Research. The notion of industrial clusters.

• Tourism Infrastructure. Natural and Cultural Endowments

• Tourism Flows. Place, Time and Activities

• National and Regional Tourism and Travel Competitiveness

• Tourism Trends. Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism

• Tourism Demand: Demographic, Behavioral and Social Changes.

The abstracts/papers will be reviewed by the Organizing Committee and the notification of paper acceptance will be distributed by July 15th, 2020.

Organizing committee. For more information or questions please contact Jaewon Lim, University of Nevada Las Vegas (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Tomaz Dentinho, University of the Azores (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.): Juan Carlos Martin, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Luca Zamparini, University of Salento, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NECTAR is a European-based scientific association. The primary objective is to foster research collaboration and exchange of information between experts in  the field  of transport, communication and mobility from all European countries and the rest of the world. It is a multidisciplinary social science network. It brings together a wide variety of perspectives on transport and communication problems and their impacts on society in an international perspective. For further information see: http://www.nectar-eu.eu