We are calling for papers for a Special Session on 'Exploring the Foundational Economy and Social Innovation in Industrial Regions' (SS22) in the context of the next Regional Studies Annual Conference in Ljubljana (Slovenia).
Call for papers Regional Studies Association, Annual Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia
We are calling for papers for a Special Session on 'Exploring the Foundational Economy and Social Innovation in Industrial Regions' (SS22) in the context of the next Regional Studies Annual Conference in Ljubljana (Slovenia).
Find the full session call below and via www.regionalstudies.org/news/2020-rsa-annual-conference-special-sessions/
The conference will take place in June 2020 - find all further details via www.regionalstudies.org/events/2020rsaannualconf/
The call for abstracts closes on January 31th. Please do follow the conference procedures for submitting papers to the special session - please don't post any abstracts directly to the session organisers!
The call is related to an InduCult2.0 follow-up project (YOUIND, INTERREG A, 2020-2022) of which details will be released at a later stage. The session will be organised jointly by the University of Graz, Department of Geography and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia.
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Call for SS22 - 'Exploring the Foundational Economy and Social Innovation in Industrial Regions'
Session organisers: Jani Kozina (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia), Jörn Harfst (University of Graz, Austria) and David Bole (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia)
There is a growing recognition that traditional development strategies and EU policies have often failed to address the challenges faced by industrial regions, which are increasingly framed as sites of socio-economic marginalisation and political discontent. Traditional industrial regions are characterised as having an ‘old’ productive economy in contrast to a ‘new’ creative economy, indicating that industrial regions are inherently vulnerable, with smaller towns lacking the knowledge base to compete with larger urban environments. The main economic activity in many peripheral and lagging regions is the ‘foundational economy’ –the essential goods and services of everyday life. Yet current innovation policy tends to focus upon a narrow set of advanced technology sectors, which largely reside in agglomeration regions. There is plenty of scope for the next EU funding cycle to support so-called ‘social innovation’ in foundational sectors such as housing, healthcare, education, mobility, and food. This will require greater community involvement in innovation projects to enhance ‘well-being’ at the local and regional level.
Papers addressing the following questions are welcome:
What kind of social innovation are designed and needed in industrial regions?
Which are the initiatives to promote social and institutional innovation in industrial regions?
What is the role of industrial culture, values and traditions to shape social innovation and foundational economy in industrial regions?
How can social innovation contribute to foundational economy?
What is the interplay between the two concepts?
What is the interlink between social innovation and industrial production in such regions?
How can social innovation and foundational economy contribute to different path creations and path renewals in industrial regions?
These are just some examples of the questions that could be addressed in this session. Any other papers addressing socio-cultural notion of industrial regions outside agglomerations are also welcome. The session is organised in the scope of the YOUIND project funded by the Cooperation Programme Interreg V-A Slovenia Austria. The project deals with the issue of youth outmigration from peripheral industrial towns from an industrial-cultural perspective and uses social innovation to improve institutional capacities and empowerment of young people.