2024 RSA Annual Conference Plenary Sessions

More information to follow.

Rafael Boix is a Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Economic Structure of the University of Valencia. He is also a researcher at the Economics of Culture Research Unit (ECONCULT) and a member of the Program Committee of the DELoS PhD program in Development Economics and Local Systems at the University of Florence. Previously, he has held positions as a researcher and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has been a visiting researcher at Politecnico di Milano and a visiting professor at the University of Florence.

Rafael’s current research interests focus on the economic impacts of cultural and creative industries on places, the patterns of innovation in local production systems and clusters, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to regional analysis. He has published over a hundred articles in specialized journals and books and is the author of numerous policy reports. Furthermore, he is associate editor of the Journal of Regional Science.

Rafael possesses extensive experience in research projects funded by the European Union, national, and regional agencies. Additionally, he has been involved in consultancy projects for the OECD, the European Commission, as well as various national, regional, and local authorities.

More info to follow.

More info to follow.

Simona Iammarino is Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Economics and Business Sciences of the University of Cagliari; Lei visiting Professor at the Department of Geography & Environment of the London School of Economics & Political Science; LSE-Canada Blanch Center Board Member; affiliated with the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), L’Aquila. She was Professor of Economic Geography at LSE lei (2009-2022), where she served as Head of the Department of Geography and the Environment (2014-2017) and member of the LSE Council (2016-2020).

Simona’s main research areas are: Multinationals, processes of globalization and local economic development; economic geography of innovation and technological change; regional and local systems of innovation; policy for regional and local economic development. Simona has published more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 2 books as co-author, about 30 chapters, and numerous working papers, policy reports, etc.

Simona is co-editor of the Journal of Economic Geography, and member of the RSA Board and Chair of the RSA Journal Committee. She has extensive experience in research projects and international consultancies for various organizations (eg European Commission, OECD, United Nations, various government agencies).

Territory, Politics, Governance is an interdisciplinary journal from the Regional Studies Association.  It is committed to the development of theory and research in territorial politics and the governance of space.  The journal creates a platform on which to explore the interface between territory, politics, economy, identity and the organisation of political space. It confronts topical and emergent issues of world economic and political concern. The journal publishes original, high quality international scholarship from this growing, international and increasingly vibrant field directed at a worldwide academic audience and at policy makers, activists and other communities of practice.

The journal is indexed in Clarivate Analytics’ Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus and has a significant circulation footprint as it is distributed with its sister journals, Regional Studies, Spatial Economic Analysis and Area Development and Policy. It is essential reading for academics and practitioners alike. For more details on the journal, go to www.tandfonline.com/journals/rtep20.

Presentation: Contentious Territories: Revisiting the Center-Periphery Cleavage

In recent times, the many and overlapping crises have increased inequalities, triggering  social and political conflicts. In particular, the center-periphery cleavage has manifested itself in various ways: from the protest against the big infrastructures located at the borders of the big cities to the riots of the marginalised banlieus. In addition to these, struggles for national independence have interacted with claims for social justice. Building upon recent processuali developments in social movement studies and presenting some novel empirical evidences, this keynote will reflect on the emerging forms of territorial contention.

Professor Klaus Dodds is Executive Dean for the School of Life Sciences and Environment at Royal Holloway and Co-Director of the Living Sustainably research catalyst (with Professor Redell Olsen). He is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Warsaw Poland.

He researches in the areas of geopolitics and security, ice studies and the international governance of the Antarctic and the Arctic.