Powering Development? Solar Energy, Poverty Alleviation and Just Transition in Rural China Yunpeng Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. His research interests lie at the intersection of social geography, political economy and development studies, with a focus on urbanisation, […]
Small Grant Scheme on Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry: Imaging Housing Hierarchy: Mapping Landlords’ Responses to COVID for German versus Migrant Renters in Berlin — Case of Spandau versus Wedding This project examined how landlords in two contrasting Berlin districts—Spandau and Wedding—responded to tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on differences between German and […]
Lonely Teleworkers Remote work has become easier in the past years. For some employees, working fewer days at the office means fewer days of travelling, and they choose a longer travelling distance and settle in cheaper, greener, more spacious peripheral locations. However, there is a drawback to that spatial reorganization. Living away from the bustle […]
Preparing the welcome mat: Regional climate migrant projections and regional policy Supported by the FeRSA Grant, this project takes the case of a particular region in Western New York State, USA, proclaimed by local politicians to be a “climate refuge,” to form a focused review of the existing claims and potential around this idea. Among the […]
Name of event: 7th Global Conference on Economic Geography The Global Conference on Economic Geography (GCEG) is one of the largest international conferences in the field, providing an excellent forum for knowledge exchange and discussion of today’s great challenges. This year, it took place from June 4 to 8, 2025, in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Organized […]
“Tigress” or “Cat”? Women Entrepreneurs in Emerging Entrepreneurial Ecosystems This research project responds to recent calls for greater attention to differences in entrepreneurial networking behaviour and processes among women. Existing literature has not fully unveiled the dynamic and evolving nature of their strategic network formation within the compressed timeframe of entrepreneurial support organisation (ESO) programs. […]
Policy Solutions to Emerging Renewable Energy Development Conflicts The goal of the project is to examine the conflicts associated with solar, onshore wind, and offshore wind development and to identify legal, regulatory, legislative, and related approaches to resolving them in three countries—the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden. Finding solutions to conflicts is essential to […]
Women’s Entrepreneurship and Rural Regional Revitalisation – Comparative Study Women’s Entrepreneurship and Rural Regional Revitalisation – Comparative Study addresses the persistent policy challenge of how to stimulate economic revitalisation in ‘left behind’ rural regions. This comparative, exploratory ethnographic study examines the extent to which locally led entrepreneurial ventures by less-visible social actors (rural women) are contributing […]
Mapping Remittance Resilience: A Regional Analysis of US-Mexico Flows During and After the COVID-19 Crisis This research proposes analyzing US-Mexico remittance flows by creating an Origin-Destination Remittance Flows Matrix, mapping remittance volumes from US states to Mexican states. A dependence analysis will determine Mexican states’ reliance on specific US states. The study will model the […]
Leaving No One Behind? Navigating Regional Socio-Economic and Employment Impacts in the Context of Just Transition Transitioning to a low-carbon economy is crucial for sustainability and climate resilience, but it requires significant transformation, particularly in vulnerable regions with economic and social disadvantages. The purpose of this project is to analyse the socio-economic impacts of transitioning […]
Supporting Regions towards Net-Zero Journeys: Alignment of Strategies and Transformation between Universities and their Places Supported by the FeRSA Grant, this project aims to investigate dynamic relationships between universities and places throughout their journeys to net-zero solutions. Universities can be engines of societal transformation of their regions. They can play an important role as anchor institutions, […]
Do rural banks help women’s microenterprises? [A case from Indonesia] The low value and number of loans extended to women entrepreneurs in micro sectors is often associated with societal gender inequality. Previous studies have shown that in patriarchal societies, where gender bias against women is stronger, women tend not to apply for loans, relying instead […]
Governing Diverse Polities: How Regional Language Shapes Political Attitudes Research on democratization, state-building and community formation stresses the importance of language and identity for building cohesive polities and fostering democratic legitimacy; and research shown that regionalism and regional identity have consequences for people’s political behavior and attitudes, including anti-democratic sentiment. Language is a major aspect of […]
Effective Project Appraisal and Regional Development In some countries EU Cohesion Policy (ECP) serves as the main source of policy investment for regional development. Consequently, the Project Appraisal effectiveness of ECP is crucial to fostering their regional development trends. However, our experience in analysing wide sets of ECP approved projects’ databases, in countries such as […]
Geographies of Refugee Resettlement and Post-industrial Urban Renewal in Rust Belt Cities Refugees are active agents of urban change. According to the United Nations, 60 percent of the world’s refugees are in cities and as such, cities of today are uniquely positioned to seek solutions that address refugee concerns alongside interrelated urban social justice and […]
Name of event: 29th International Input-Output Conference Participation in the conference was very high: over four days, 288 IIOA members from 36 countries presented 252 papers. Along with plenary sessions, there were specialized parallel sessions, normally with six sessions running simultaneously. This arrangement maximized the number of possible presentations, yet it was often very […]
Name of event: Annual Congress of Association of European School of Planning (AESOP) The AESOP Annual Congress is a wide platform of exchange in the fields of research, education, and practice in planning. This year the central theme was the current challenges for a sustainable future. The ongoing global turbulence scenario raises the question […]
International Migration, Climate Change and Network Effects: A Worldwide Study The goal of this project is twofold. First, develop a comprehensive database of international mobility among countries. Second, at a macro level, investigate the determinants of this mobility, focusing on the interlinkages among the environmental, socio-economic, and political factors characterizing countries. To do this, I […]
Small Grant Scheme on Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry: Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Implementation of Digital Public Policy in Six Local Administrations in the Colombian Meta Department This exploratory research project seeks to furnish academics in regional studies and broader audiences with crucial insights into the Covid-19 pandemic and how this has impacted […]
Logistics City-Regions in Transition. New Spatial Imaginary? Over the last few years, the goods distribution system in European cities has suffered a strong fragmentation. City-regions are substituting cities in the global economic and political setting and their roles in the world economy related to logistics. Understanding the policy and governance dimension of logistics and freight […]
(Re)Setting the Agenda: Investigating the Gendered Power-relations in the Leadership of Regional Development and Policy-making This project will challenge the masculine-coded forms of place-leadership in regional development by closely examining the different approaches to leadership that exist within regions, and ways in which different conceptualisations of power are enacted and shape policy-making and development visions. “I […]
Staying in or Moving out? – Quality of Life, Interregional Migration Decisions and Covid-19 Although COVID-19 is a global health emergency, it is experienced in local contexts, which may not all be equally equipped to offer good quality of life in pandemic conditions. Exogenous shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and associated “lockdown” policies, may […]
Small Grant Scheme on Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry: Understanding Urban Differences in the Spread of Covid-19 and Socio-economic Inequalities: Bogotá, Colombia vs Chenai, India This exploratory study seeks to understand the impacts of Covid-19, considering urban socio-spatial patterns and the context of socio-economic inequalities in the two boroughs of Colombian capital city of Bogotá […]
Small Grant Scheme on Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry: Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Green Patents in the Eurozone The project presented here looks at several highly relevant issues that are interrelated and require a joint approach: innovation, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, innovative investment is considered a particularly relevant topic, since […]