RSA Membership Research Grant Scheme (MeRSA)

Previous and Current Grant Holders

Understanding Brexit and Trump in Post-Industrial, Peripheral Areas: Implications for Regional Development

The rise in anti-establishment populism across Western nations is understood to be symbolic of the gulf that has opened up between wealthy, apparently metropolitan, often urban ‘core’, regions; and peripheral localities in decline. As we have seen in recent elections in the UK, US, France, Germany, and Italy; the breadth and depth of disparities between core and peripheral regions indicates an urgent need to better understand what is going wrong, in order to figure out how to make things right. This has an important potential impact on the practice and measurement of economic development.
Current research into the efficacy of regional investment focuses on quantitative and qualitative factors around funding programmes, how they have been implemented, their impact on human capital and regional knowledge systems, and how they interact with the local environment (Rodriguez-Pose and Fratesi 2004; Rodriguez-Pose and Crescenzi, 2008; Crescenzi and Giua, 2016; Camagni and Capello, 2015; Barca et al. 2012). However to date, studies overlook how ordinary members of the public perceive, experience, and feel about the individual projects pursued under strategic development agenda’s, how these developments are fitted into local cultural schemae, and what impact this has on a general perception (and approval rating) of the funding agenda. This study aims to explore if there is a link between how development is perceived and experienced, and discontent with anti-establishment anger.
This research will explore these questions through a case study of Brexit voting Cornwall in the UK, and the Trump voting Mount Rogers area of Virginia, USA. Both are peripheral rural regions that have seen significant economic changes over recent decades, and have received development funding in order to try to help the regions mediate these changes. This study will explore the stories that are told about the case study regions, in order to understand the relationship between these stories, the intentions of strategic planners, and development policy outcomes.

Heike Mayer

Slow Innovation in Europe`s Peripheral Regions

Innovation processes are often conceptualized with an urban bias and are therefore theorized solely considering the perspective of the urban environment. As a result, innovation theories do not sufficiently consider the context of the periphery and how this context may foster or hinder the development of innovative products, technologies and services. Economic geographers started to conceptualize innovation processes in peripheral locations as `slow innovation` (Shearmur, 2015, 2017; Shearmur & Doloreux, 2016), but they have neither developed clear typologies nor differentiations between different forms of innovation (social, technological, product, process, etc.). This project examines innovation processes in different types of peripheral regions in the European Alps. Of interest are the ways in which these innovators utilize different forms of knowledge, how they are connected to their immediate environments but also to urban places (urban-rural linkages), and to what extent they can be considered as `slow innovators` in the sense Shearmur et al. describe. The particular relevance of this research lies in questions regarding the development potential of peripheral regions. As especially the unsuccessful peripheral regions suffer from outmigration, ageing of the population, structural economic change, it is important to not only focus on their deficiencies but also on their potential. Knowing more about innovation in the periphery will allow European policymakers to obtain a more differentiated and place-sensitive perspective (Iammarino, Rodríguez-Pose, & Storper, 2017; Rodríguez-Pose, 2018).

Elisa Giuliani

Rethinking regional development agendas: Human rights and economic growth into perspective
Business-related human rights (BHR) infringements are site-specific violations of universal human rights caused by companies as they pursue their economic goals. They include cases of child labor exploitation and modern slavery in global value chains; of damages to human health and right to life following manufacturing industry’s toxic emissions; violation of indigenous communities’ right to land or water in connection with extractive industry operations, among others. Because aggregate data about BHR infringements are alarming, international organizations like the United Nations and the OECD have taken steps to make companies accountable for their negative impacts on human rights. Yet, considerations about BHR infringements seldom enter into regional economic growth agendas and policies, which are still largely influenced by the contentious idea that economic growth will eventually improve human rights. Current policies are thus largely unprepared to deal with the human suffering caused by companies as they allegedly contribute to growth and do not contemplate the prevention of, and remedy for, BHR infringements. In this project we seek to change this conversation and spark new policy thinking around these topical issues.

James T. Murphy

Generative Urbanization in Emerging Africa? The Case of Konza Techno City

Africa is experiencing an urban transition that raises significant questions as to whether its economies are being transformed structurally. In Kenya, the prospects seem particularly high as the country has experienced steady growth and urbanization since the early 2000s. In response, the country’s leaders are constructing Konza Technopolis, a “smart” urban development project that aims to play a central role in Kenya’s industrial transformation (https://www.konzacity.go.ke/team/kotda/). The goal is to establish industrial clusters in the information-communication technology (ICT), life sciences, and engineering sectors that will foster innovation, attract FDI, and create knowledge spillovers and other externalities to position Kenya favorably in high-tech industries globally. The project is underway with key milestones targeted for 2020 when Phase 1 is complete. This research will examine the design and on-going development of Konza in order to assess whether such a project might spur industrial transformation in Kenya. I will examine the ideas, assumptions, models, strategies, and aspirations behind the initiative, track the project’s development (e.g., financing, media coverage, construction), identify key challenges facing its success, and assess critically whether/how the initiative might spur industrial diversification and upgrading in Kenya. Three central questions will be addressed: 1. How is the specific design of Konza meant to generate outcomes such as innovation, growth, employment, industrial diversification, and sustainability?; 2. How well does this design align with Kenya’s institutional, political, material, and socioeconomic realities and the needs/demands of relevant ICT, life science, and engineering firms/markets globally?; 3. Can, and how might, Konza spur economic transformation in Kenya through the establishment and expansion of diversified high-tech industries? To answer these questions, I deploy a socio-technical systems perspective that draws inspiration from recent calls for research on the interconnections between regional studies, economic geography, and sustainability transitions.

Andrea Morrison

The short and long-term impact of migration on regional innovation and technological diversification: An analysis of US cities during the ages of mass migration (1870-1930)

This project contributes to the literature on migration impact by focusing on the effects of immigration on innovation at city level. The main aim is to quantitatively assess the impact of immigration on the innovation performance and technological diversification of US cities in both the short and long term. I focus on the ‘’age of mass migration’’, when about 30 million people from many different countries migrated to the USA (1870-1930). The hypothesis to be tested is that the arrival of large and diverse communities of migrants allowed US cities tap into new skills, expand their capabilities and in turn develop new technological trajectories. Therefore I posit that immigration can represent an important driver of technological change at city/State level. More in details this project will add to the existing literature by (i) showing the contribution of immigration to both the quality and quantity of innovation; (ii) unveiling the heterogeneous impact of different ethnic communities on technological diversification; (iv) providing comprehensive quantitative evidence on historical immigration and innovation in US cities.

Xabier Gainza

The electoral bias: distributive politics and local development in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia

This research seeks to address the existence of an electoral bias in the distribution of investment in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia, and its implications for territorial cohesion. The aim is to determine if electoral concerns drive the allocation of investment from the central or state government to the local level, rather than efficiency or spatial equity goals. My recent research has focused on this topic in Chile and now I would like to extend it to other Latin American countries. Although the importance of electoral motifs for fund allocations has been widely studied by political scientists, it has not deserved enough attention by economic geographers, despite having significant implications for local development. Investment funds are aimed to pursue spatial equity or, conversely, efficiency, but these two objectives are certainly limited if they are mediated by political favouritism. Thus, this research seeks not only to determine the existence of political distortions in these four countries, but to see their impact on local development and governance. By considering socio-demographic and economic data, I will analyze if investment is concentrated on the relatively better-off areas or, on the contrary, is a tool for spatial equity. Relatedly, one last major contribution is discussing the mechanisms to reduce the margin for arbitrary allocations of funds. The study would be based on a panel dataset from each country’s statistical office and it would consider the main investment transfer from the central to the local level along with political, socio-demographic and economic variables.

Carolyn Cartier

Read the article by Carolyn Cartier, University of Technology Sydney and Hu De, East China Normal University. Carolyn Cartier and Hu De, discuss China’s plan for national urbanization. Focusing on Chongqing, they reveal a pattern small city urbanization that is closely tied to local market economies. Read the full article here: https://regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/article/building-relationships-between-cities-and-towns-in-china-the-emerging-city-system-in-chongqing/

‘State-led Urbanization of Towns in China’
In 2014 the Chinese government issued the ‘New-type Urbanization Plan’ based on ‘the great significance of urbanization for economic and social development’. Urbanization and the industrial production and consumption on which it depends constitute the basis of China’s contemporary domestic growth. Most translations of the 2014 plan shorten its name to ‘New Urbanization Plan’ but ‘new-type’ indicates a qualitative shift to ‘city-town-ization’ (chengzhenhua). The plan makes urbanization of towns a new national priority. Will the 2014 Urban Plan drive the next round of urban-economic growth in China?
The urbanization of towns raises questions about relations of scale in the Chinese governing hierarchy as well as transformation of historical economies and populations. How are towns being developed and integrated with emerging city-regions? In China’s hierarchical system of administrative divisions, towns exist at the lowest of four main levels. In addition, the state periodically changes the administrative divisions to suit urban plans and goals. This project conceptualizes dynamics between cities and towns through these administrative-territorial relationships. The research design incorporates a state-market analysis to assess to what degree the state is leading urbanization in less-developed areas by merging and rescaling towns to establish larger governing areas for urban growth. In the context of the spatio-temporality of planning in China, in which national plans generalize successful changes taking place in one or more regions, the empirical analysis targets Chongqing, a province-level city in central-western China where town mergers took place in 2006. The project develops new qualitative and quantitative on Chongqing for the decade to 2017, including housing, economic zones, and conditions of historical markets, to document how territorial change sets the stage for economic growth while identifying differences and contingencies between state and market-led urbanization.

Judit Kalman

How well they cope? Gender Differences in Effects of Labor Market Status and Education on Subjective Well-Being across European welfare states – before and after the crisis

In high-income countries, women report a higher level of life satisfaction than men on average, but score lower on short-term positive and negative emotions and suffer from higher levels of depression – and the picture gets complicated with age, life cycle,employment, income, family status etc. This positive gender gap in subjective life satisfaction is a puzzle,as women would have several objective reasons to be less satisfied with their life and their professional situation through persistent disadvantages in the labour market (lower wages,more part-time, glass-ceiling), access to education, access to power etc. Moreover ample evidence exist about the strong role of institutions, norms, social context and thus spatial/country or region-specific differences in terms of how objective aspects of wellbeing are perceived subjectively . E.g. OECD 2015 states that, as well as having low levels of income inequality Nordic countries tend to have much smaller differences in quality of life outcomes – including gender and age-related differences .
This research will investigate what determines gender differences in subjective well-being across old and new EU member states and also across different welfare regimes. One goal is to estimate individual specific effects of labor market status, education level , family status/parenthood , household structure, work-life balance, household distribution of tasks over perceptions of their own well-being as well as trying to identify differences before and after the crisis. However, the major focus of this research is to check whether country-specificities in some macroeconomic factors and institutional arrangements( labor market/unemployment benefit, maternity leave, child care and social policy schemes) have any effect on gender aspects of subjective well-being – thereby allowing a comparison of not only countries belonging to Western and Eastern Europe (EU15 vs EU12) but also along different welfare state regimes in EU (expanded Esping-Andersen typology etc.) of Nordic, Continental EU, Southern EU, Anglo-Saxon and CEE countries.
Further details on this research can be found at: https://regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/article/gender-in-effects-of-labor-market-status-on-subjective-wellbeing-across-european-welfare-regimes/?doi=10.1080/13673882.2018.00001027

Yannis Psycharis

Title of the research project

“Public investment, economic crisis and austerity: evidence from the Greek regions”

Summary

This aim of this research project is to provide statistically supported evidence on the evolution of public investment in Greece during the current economic crisis and to indicate how regions of the country have been affected by spending cuts. Public investment has been the core research topic of the author. However, this research project expands on his previous work and aims at the study of the regional distribution of public investment in times of economic crisis. There are very important reasons to look at public investment during the economic crisis. Public investment is the most appropriate tool for counter-cyclical policy, and thus it would be very important for theory and policy to examine empirically how this tool has been used in public policy during the recent economic crisis. In addition, the evolution of public investment would promote an understanding of how austerity policy has impacted up on the economy of regions and on regional resilience. Finally, the disaggregation of total public investment into different types will provide the opportunity to examine the geography of spending cuts for different categories of public investment such as transport infrastructure, education, health and welfare, environment etc. This study will be based on a unique dataset containing public investment along with socio-demographic and economic data regarding the NUTS III regions in Greece during the period 2009-2015.

Rüdiger Wink

Regional governance and institutional learning processes and their impact on regional labour markets’ resilience to shocks of refugee immigration: Four urban case studies in Sweden and Germany

My research will look at learning experiences in Swedish and German regions after the arrival of a relatively high share of war refugees from former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the relevance of these learning experiences for strategies to integrate the relatively high share of refugee immigrants from Syria and other countries arriving during the last two years. Sweden and Germany became preferred destinations for refugee immigrants to the EU last year and face similar challenges for their labour markets. Many studies on the experiences with immigrants from former Yugoslavia revealed severe problems in both countries to integrate the immigrants in labour markets, particularly to avoid a dependence of the immigrants on low-qualified job segments. We will analyse, how Swedish and German institutions dealt and deal with issues of traumatisation, qualification and integration, the role of the regional dimension for these strategies and adaptation strategies to increase the adaptability of regional labour markets to “shocks” of refugee immigration waves.
The grant will allow the organisation of field research in Sweden and workshops to discuss and disseminate research results. Furthermore, it shall serve as a basis to extend research network links for the organisation of longitudinal studies on the link between refugee immigration, institutional structures and regional economic resilience.
Further details on this research can be found at: https://blog.regionalstudies.org/regional-governance-and-institutional-learning-processes-and-their-impact-on-regional-labour-markets-resilience-to-shocks-of-refugee-immigration-four-case-studies-in-sweden-and-germany/

Grants

This grant aims to reward excellence and support outstanding individual researchers on a topic related to regional studies and regional science. It is intended primarily to provide opportunities for scholars who have already published in the field of regional studies and/or regional science and who are currently individual members of the RSA. The value of the award is up to £5,000 (c. $6,300; c. €5,600). The award has a maximum time span of 18 months and reporting conditions apply. The full Terms and Conditions governing the grant are available in the MeRSA Handbook.

The MeRSA Grant operates a two stage application and assessment process. In the first round, applicants submit an expression of interest. Shortlisted applicants from the first round will then be asked to complete an application form and submit their full proposal as part of the final selection round.

Please send your Expression of Interest application and queries to mersa@regionalstudies.org.

Forthcoming deadline: 14th May 2020

First selection round: The Expression of Interest should include the following (see details in the handbook):

Applicant information details: title, name, surname, RSA membership number, postal address, telephone number, email, name of Higher Education Institution (HEI), details of previously awarded RSA Grants
Title of the research project
Timings of the research
Summary including details of research and the advances it is hoped that it will make (Max 500 words)
Brief overview of costs and budget
1-3 page CV