The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a huge shock for tourism regions across Europe. National borders were closed, effectively reducing international tourism to zero, and in many countries national or regional lock downs closed tourism and hospitality businesses for long periods of time. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a great deal of discussion among […]
The countries of the Western Balkan region – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*[1], North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – share a common aspiration for a future within the European Union, despite their diversity and idiosyncrasies[2]. That said, the territorial and political complexities of this region of nearly 20 million inhabitants, render the translation of EU […]
We are delighted that a Best Paper Award for the RSA Blog has been established. We are happy to announce, for the very first time, the winners for the Best Paper for a Blog submitted in 2020; and the Best Paper Award for a Blog in our 2021 Student Summer Series. Best RSA Blog 2020 […]
This blog follows the launch of the new book: Handbook on Human Security, Borders and Migration. Follow this link for additional promotional material for the book – passcode: &J04F*Gd Drawing on the concept of the “politics of compassion”, the Handbook on Human Security, Borders and Migration interrogates the political, geopolitical, social and anthropological processes […]
Whether we call it cohesion, levelling up, lagging regions, or place-based policy; regional inequality has been a long-term persistent problem. I started to become really interested in how places adapt, and what we would find if we begin from the starting point of adaptation – particularly using the Deleuzian Assemblage and the complex adaptive […]
One of the most striking features of the COVID-19 pandemic is the marked spatial difference in the spread of the virus. Initially, urban areas were hit hardest by Covid-19, followed by smaller cities, rural towns and small hamlets. Differences in population density and occupational concentration have been proposed as key factors explaining the urban-rural difference […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted our daily lives and lead to the disruption of global value chains and cross-border mobility. International higher education has also been profoundly affected by these shifts, as international students have been unable to travel to their overseas campus locations and university campuses in many countries have shifted to online […]
The aim of smart specialization is to support regions in building on their existing strengths to develop competitiveness in related, but more complex, new activities. So why do regions often target other types of activities in their smart specialization strategies? The full paper on which this blog is based on is available here. Since […]
Corfu is the birthplace of great poets, writers and people of art and culture. Its historical background is linked to the acceptance of the principles of French and English town planning and Italian architecture in historic buildings. The appearance of capitalism in the regions were associated with the development of a new urban environment. First […]
The approval of the UN Urban Agenda and the European Urban Agenda in 2016 reveal the growing importance of cities all around the world. Moreover, at the international level, cities are speaking up for themselves and by themselves. It is clear in the different COPs and even more inside the European institutions. © A “quintessential […]
When thinking of China’s primary economic prowess, the country is often thought of as ‘the factory of the world’ – global products such as clothes and electronics have labels of ‘made in China’. What is perhaps much less known is that China has produced numerous world-leading infrastructure projects, including the world’s fastest passenger trains, longest […]
“What do you do here?” is a common question we get asked as islanders from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Visitors from cities may regard remote, rural, and island places as backward – at times seeking such places out as empty ‘wilderness’ that is devoid of people. But we ask to what extent does such […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Cohesion Policy is the EU’s largest investment policy aimed at reducing economic, social and territorial disparities across Member States and regions. The financial resources allocated to Cohesion Policy […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Population loss in regions has gained attention internationally. This phenomenon is referred to as regional shrinkage in academic literature. A European Parliament report defined shrinking regions as regions […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Choose a strategically located area, provide reliable infrastructure, fiscal, and regulatory incentives – and the investors will come, leading to regional development and industrialization. This is the recipe for […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures – Little did I know what influence the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic would have on my plans of conducting a case study to […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Studying the farming history in the UK I realised there had been inflexion points where farming’s fortunes have changed dramatically. For example, the 1920’s agricultural crisis (for the […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Exiting the intense stages of pandemic restrictions will be seen as a welcome sight around Europe. Societies, individuals, and economies are positioned to benefit as we envision a […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. The right to adequate housing is considered a controversial topic, with many people globally lacking this basic human right. In Canada, Bill-C-97 containing the “National Housing Strategy Act” […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Inequality is a broad concept. Over the last few decades, different disciplines and research fields have come up with distinct interpretations and concepts to reveal, track, explain, and […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Iceland’s remote communities are experiencing the combined impact of declining fisheries, de-population and socio-economic instability. Having spent twenty years working on industrial heritage conservation in a professional capacity I […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. In line with global trends, Ireland has seen greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase with economic growth. As of 2016, road transport accounted for 95% of all transport related […]
This blog was written for the RSA Blog Student Summer Series that will highlight graduate student success in regional studies across the globe throughout the summer. Our relationship with food is complex. Food consumption may be one of the few experiences that involves all of our senses at the same time. Add to that […]
Regions are more than the terrestrial or the aquatic for Indigenous and First Peoples; Indigenous regions comprise the more-than-human spaces of night skies and ancestral beings and the cultural practices that imbue them with knowledge and wisdom. Regions encompass so much more than just Western thoughts and processes, yet Indigenous regions are not visible in […]