Is open the call for papers of the XXXIX edition of the Spanish Regional Studies Meting which is being organized in Asturias under the auspices of the Spanish Regional Science Association and will take place in Oviedo the 21st-22nd November, 2013.
The theme of this edition of the conference is Smart regions for a smarter growth strategy: new challenges of regional policy and potentials of cities to overcome a worldwide economic crisis, with the intention being that the conference provides a forum for discussion and debate between academics and professionals about the potential of cities and regions in national economic development. In the context of the present global crisis, studies at local, urban and regional levels become even more necessary and important. This is due not only to the fact that crises have effects that are heterogeneous across space but also to the possibility that regions and cities provide the initial impulse to dynamizing national economies.
The lines between “geographic” and “economic” approaches to regional issues have blurred and economists and geographers have come closer and closer together to contribute to the understanding and development of what is now denominated “economic geography.” Something similar is being experienced with urban issues, with urban science, urban sociology and urban economics becoming increasingly intertwined. Econometric modeling has also contributed to the analysis of spatial economic issues, with spatial econometrics providing researchers with an ever-expanding tool-kit. All in all, regional science is increasingly multidisciplinary in nature and meeting in the field necessarily bring together, among others, economists, geographers, urban scientists, sociologists and legal scientists.
- organizing committee comprises the members of the Regional Economic Analysis Laboratory of the University of Oviedo – REGIOlab, a group of researchers with an increasing presence in academic forums and which is working towards amplifying its international visibility. REGIOlab also shares a strong vocation for bringing its work at the Universidad to society at large and all these aims provide the motivation for organizing the XXXIX Conference of Regional Studies.
The Scientific Committee is responsible for selecting the contents (presentations, debates, round tables, etc) of the conference and guaranteeing their quality. It is presided by Prof. Rafael Myro and comprises academics from external universities and institutions.
- languages of the XXXIX Conference of Regional Studies are Spanish and English, and the conference will take place on the 21st-22nd November. TheConference Site is the Exhibition and Congress Centre “Ciudad de Oviedo”.
On behalf of the Asturian Regional Science Association, the Organizing Committee and the Scientific Committee, we would like to give special thanks to all the sponsors of this event. We would also like express our wish that this edition of the conference - which like its predecessors provides the opportunity to discuss the main issues in regional science in the presence of old and new colleagues - will prove to be a valuable forum from academic and professional perspectives and in terms of its social impact.