November 2015

In search of a discipline: envisioning and framing aregional science roadmapby Peter Nijkamp PAGE 03Challenges for Regional Science: institutionalprospectsby Antoine Bailly, Lay James Gibson PAGE 0Future challenges for Regional Science: scientificprospectsby Roberta Capello PAGE 09Regional Science as a radical science innovationby Ana Maria Bonomi Barufi, Karima Kourtit, Elizabeth Mack,

Peter Nijkamp PAGE 13

Meet the FellowsGordon MulliganPAGE 10

2016 World RSAI Congress PAGE 02

Centres of Regional Science:The Research Centre for Macroeconomic andRegional Forecasting (PROMAR)PAGE 16

1. Introduction to the SpecialIssue: the future of Regional

Science

1.1. Welcome from the Presidentby Andrés Rodríguez­Pose

Dear friends and colleagues, readersof the RSAI newsletter,Welcome to the latest edition of theofficial RSAI newsletter, edited byAndrea Caragliu and Graham Clarke.This newsletter will probably reach themajority of you at one of the two

forthcoming large Regional Science congresses. Early inNovember NARSC will hold its very successful annualCongress in Portland, USA, while in April 2016 the 11thRSAI World Congress will take place in the beautiful city ofIstanbul, Turkey. These two events will bring together thewhole world of regional science and will provide vibrantplatforms for the development, diffusion, and exchange ofnew ideas. I wish all congress participants excellent staysin Portland and Istanbul and would encourage you to useboth conferences not only to take advantage of thescientific highlights and exchanges, but also to build onyour social networking and to benefit from the excellentopportunities both cities have to offer. For those of youreading this newsletter online, please check out our futureconferences. The regional science community is poorerwithout you and we will all welcome your participation inthe future!There are some stimulating developments within the RSAIto report. First, given their success during 2015, the RSAICouncil has recently renewed the two programmes thatwere launched at the beginning of this year: ‘buildingbridges’ and ‘nurturing new talent’. ‘Building bridges’ aimsat encouraging the presence of researchers from thoseareas of the world where Regional Science lacks strongorganisational structures at established Regional Sciencecongresses. ‘Nurturing new talent’ grants support for thepromotion of institutes and workshops aimed at bringing

together and training young researchers. These twoinitiatives are already advertised on the RSAI’s website.Please take a look at them, paying special attention to thedeadlines. Second, from next year the RSAI will makeseed funds available for the preparation of high­riskresearch projects by young researchers. The call will beadvertised at the beginning of 2016. Please continue tomake these initiatives a success.The RSAI will go on building bridges in order to promoteand sponsor regional science. It is therefore fitting that thenext World Congress will take place in Istanbul, a city atthe crossroads of history, bridging not just Europe andAsia, but also cultures and religions. This will be a uniqueexperience and I very much look forward to seeing andreaching as many of you as possible in such an amazingcity. Your presence in Istanbul will help increase thevisibility of Regional Science across the world.With best wishes,Andrés Rodríguez­Pose, London School of Economics(A.Rodriguez­Pose@lse.ac.uk)

1.2. Welcome to the 2015 NARSCCongressby Neil Reid, University of Toledo and Rachel Franklin,Brown University

On behalf of the North American Regional Science Counciland the Western Regional Science Association it gives usgreat pleasure to welcome you to Portland, Oregon for the62nd Annual North American Meetings of the RegionalScience Association International. With more than 650regional scientists from across the world in attendance

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Neil ReidUniversity of ToledoExecutive Director

North American RegionalScience Council

(neil.reid@utoledo.edu)

Rachel FranklinBrown University

NARSC 2015 Program ChairExecutive Director Western

Regional Science Association(Rachel_Franklin@brown.edu)

these meetings provide an excellent opportunity to learnabout cutting edge research being undertaken by yourcolleagues. The meetings are also about networking andso we hope that you enjoy not only catching up with oldfriends but also making new professional acquaintances.Hopefully, these conversations during a coffee break, overa drink at the bar, or over dinner will stimulate new ideasfor professional collaborations.While here please take the opportunity to explore the cityof Portland. Portland is known as the “City of Roses” as itsclimate is ideal for growing this particular flower. The city isalso noted for its progressive land use planning andinvestment in a user­friendly public transportation system.If you happen to be a beer drinker you should also enjoythe city. Portland has been at the epi­center of America’scraft beer revolution and is home to over one hundredcraft breweries. So please enjoy the conference and yourvisit to Portland.

1.3. Welcome to the 2016 World RSAICongressby Tüzin Baycan, Istanbul Technical University ­ Chair ofthe LOC (tbaycan@itu.edu.tr)

Dear Colleagues and Friends,The 11th World Congress of theRegional Science AssociationInternational (RSAI) will be held fromApril 25­28, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.The Turkish Regional ScienceAssociation will host the congress,and we expect the congress to attract hundreds ofparticipants from the fields of economics, geography,planning and public policy, from different parts of theworld.On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 11th WorldCongress of the RSAI, I have the honour and pleasure toinvite you to Istanbul where the two continents of Europeand Asia meet.Istanbul is one of the most magical and enchanting citiesand is a UNESCO World heritage site. It is endowed with

unrivalled beautycomplimented by uniqueharmony of ancient andcontemporary, oriental andoccidental. The city is locatedat the crossroads ofcivilizations and is the onlymajor city in the world builtacross two continents. Itbridges Europe and Asiageographically and culturally.The history of the city datesback 8,000 years, andhaving been the capital forthree successive greatempires, Eastern Roman,Byzantine, and Ottoman, ithas been a melting point forvarious cultures andreligions.The conference promises animpressive venue in theheart of Istanbul, a broadrange of topics pertaining toregional science and regional policy issues and a diverseaudience comprising academics, policy makers andpractitioners from around the world. We aim to organize ahigh quality conference that is academically rigorous,professionally relevant and socially entertaining. We thusaim to make this congress a memorable and rewardingexperience for all participants.The participants will have the opportunity of taking pre­and post­congress tours to Aegean and Central AnatolianRegions of Turkey. On the web pagewww.2016worldcongress.regionalscience.org, we providelots of information about the venue, means oftransportation and the city itself. We are looking forward toseeing you in Istanbul to enjoy the famous Turkishhospitality.With warmest regards,Tüzin Baycan

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1.4. Welcome from the Editorsby Andrea Caragliu (andrea.caragliu@polimi.it) andGraham Clarke (G.P.Clarke@leeds.ac.uk)

Andrea Caragliu Graham ClarkeWe are pleased to welcome you to the Autumn 2015 issueof the RSAI Newsletter. The first Congress of ourAssociation was held in 1954. It is safe to say that, sincethe discipline has turned 60, it is an appropriate time torevisit where we are, and where we are heading. Majorpolicy and academic challenges lie ahead as arediscussed by many colleagues below. We begin with PeterNijkamp, who challenges our vision of Regional Scienceas a coherent and independent discipline; his articlesuggests that course curricula need to be updated with thelatest advancements in Regional Science, which, as alsowitnessed by previous Newsletter issues, develops at avery fast rate.Institutional perspectives on the future of our discipline arepresented by Antoine Bailly and Lay James Gibson; intheir article they provide a wealth of suggestions for furtherdeveloping our discipline both in the academic world aswell as in the policymaking arena; Roberta Capello thenoffers her insight into some of the main research issuesthat need to be tackled by Regional Scientists over thenext years.After a fun and interesting interlude, where GordonMulligan describes his career’s highlights in the usual“Meet the Fellows” column, we get back to the topic of thisSpecial issue with Ana Maria Bonomi Barufi, KarimaKourtit, Elizabeth Mack, and Peter Nijkamp, who talk usthrough the proposal for a Regional Science Academy totackle the challenges lying ahead of our discipline.Finally, for the usual “Centres of Regional Science”column, we travel to Bucharest, where our host, Daniela

Constantin, describes the PROMAR research unit atBucharest University of Economic Studies.We believe the challenges that lie ahead of RegionalScience should be addressed, with the aim to provide newinsights into how space influences our everyday activities.We also do hope this Special Issue will offer a usefulperspective on how to deal more effectively with them.We wish you a pleasant and entertaining read, and if youhave any comments or suggestions do let us know by e­mail to andrea.caragliu@polimi.it and/orG.P.Clarke@leeds.ac.uk

2. In search of a discipline:envisioning and framing a

regional science roadmapby Peter Nijkamp, Free University Amsterdam(p.nijkamp@vu.nl)

More than 50 years ago, the foundingfather of Ekistics, Doxiadis, wrote thefollowing historical words which have notyet lost a single piece of actuality: “Wecome from different nations, from

different cultural backgrounds. Our politics differ, ourprofessions are various. But we believe that the problemof human settlements is a general and fundamentalproblem in our new dynamic world and that it must beviewed and studied in such a way that it will, in commonwith all great scientific disciplines, transcend our localdifferences” (Newsletter Ekistics Association, DelosSymposium Declaration, 1963, p. 22). This statement sawits light in the early days of regional science, but shows amissionary drive that is comparable to the first publicationsof the late Walter Isard in the 1950s, which heralded thebirth of regional science.Regional science is usually conceived of as an organizedmultidisciplinary endeavour to study and understand theregional (including urban, rural and transportation)dimensions of the space economy and to shape a rationalscientific foundation for regional policy. Right from theoutset in the 1950s, the question was raised as to whether

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regional science would have to be regarded as a distinctscientific discipline – with its own distinct subject matterincluding an appropriate theoretical and methodologicalframework ­ , or as an amalgam bringing together ideas,concepts, theoretical frameworks, methodologies andapplication domains from a variety of existing disciplinesthat are addressing the spatial or geographical aspects ofour earth, such as economic and social geography,demography, regional and urban economics,transportation economics, political science, land­useplanning, urban architecture, rural sociology,environmental science etc. Even the appropriateness andvalidity of the name ‘regional science’ has sometimesbeen questioned. Also until today, the name ‘spatialscience(s)’ has also been used as a label.Clearly, despite many efforts and heated debates, thecherished ideal of many colleagues for regional science tobe a recognized discipline adopted by major universities inthe world has never materialized. For some of us, thisobservation may sound disappointing. But at the sametime the good news is that world­wide we can observemany curricula in regional science, sometimesaccompanied and supported by centres, institutes ordepartments of regional science. Furthermore, we witnessthe existence and emergence of many complementaryeducational and institutional initiatives, such as in urbanand regional planning, urban and regional economics,land­use policy, and so forth. As long as such initiativesare intellectually powerful enough and driven by an openmind to get to grips with the complexity of the modernspace economy, one may expect that through ‘bondingand bridging’ of various disciplinary approaches a regionalscience family will (continue to) exist that acts as a supportmechanism and an intellectual umbrella for the spatialsciences in a broad sense.A broad analysis framework for regional science is indeedpertinent, as it does not only incorporate many disciplinaryapproaches, but also has seen an extension of its scopeand coverage. I offer here a few examples:• A shift from tangible spatial interactions (e.g., people,goods) to intangible and cognitive interwovenness (e.g.,

ideas, information, big data), which has prompted theemergence of new types of proximity analysis (witness thepath­breaking research of Andre Torre).• The re­interpretation of the scientific and mental map ofthe space­economy, through the awareness of fast andslow spatial dynamic processes, including the emergenceof catastrophe, chaos and resilience theory (witness thefundamental works of Aura Reggiani) or the risingpopularity of evolutionary geography (inspired by theseminal contributions of Ron Boschma).• The increasing recognition of interdependent micro­meso­macro processes in complex spatial systems, whichhave led to advanced innovative studies on spatialstatistics and econometrics (as witnessed in thefundamental research by Manfred Fischer, Arthur Getisand others), a development which forces regional scienceto be even more open­minded than it already is.Meanwhile, regional science educational programmes andcurricula are faced with ever increasing demands on thecontents and specification of master and Ph.D. courses. Isthere a single and unambiguous recipe to give anundisputed and recognized quality to a regional sciencecourse? This question becomes even more relevant, sincein the past years – as part of a rational quality control andaccreditation process of universities, faculties anddepartments all over the world ­ the claims on scientificcurricula have significantly risen, to the extent that invarious universities there is no place anymore for a non­officially accredited and tested curriculum. It is therefore,pertinent that regional scientists – and in a broader contextspatial scientists ­ join hands in formulating testablecriteria for assessing courses and curricula in the domainof regional science. Whether such a course is coinedregional science, urban or regional planning, or spatialeconomics seems to me less relevant at this moment. It isa matter of survival for regional scientists to roll up theirsleeves and share responsibility in formulating what is toexpected by clients from the intellectual baggage of thenext generation of regional scientists. This missionary taskdoes not only apply to the ‘old’ heartlands of regionalscience, but also to emerging and developing economics.

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I wish to add that the above mentioned strategic tasksdeserve full­scale attention by the worldwide regionalscience community. It is also noteworthy that such ideasare explicitly recognized as belonging to the remit of theRegional Science Academy, a novel initiative that aims toserve as a wake­up call for spatial scientists in order todevelop forward­looking ideas on theory, methodology,education, smart cooperation and science­policyinteractions in regional science.

3. Challenges for RegionalScience: institutional prospects

by Antoine Bailly, University of Geneva(antoine.bailly@unige.ch) and Lay James Gibson,University of Arizona, Tucson, USA(ljgibson@comcast.net)

We are cautiously optimisticthat regional scientists willfocus on appropriate topicsincluding cutting edge onesbut other changes such asthose proposed here will probably be painfully slow incoming. Our concerns are with the institutional frameworksthat support regional science.When regional science is found in universities it is likely tobe a program within a formal department but not an entitywith its own budget or with a dedicated faculty. The sameis true of regional science in industry or government. Verycompetent regional scientists may be found in thesesettings but their titles rarely if ever contain the words"regional science." Nor do the units to which they areassigned.This is not to suggest that regional science performspoorly but it does suggest that regional science might be afragile enterprise and one with limited prospects. What apity!!We have been concerned with the prospects of regionalscience as a generally recognized "brand" since at leastthe mid­1990s. Others have shared our concern. Thefounder of regional science, Walter Isard was tireless

when it came to spreading the gospel of regional science.Progress in making regional science a fixture onacademic, civic, and corporate landscapes has beenmixed. On the bright side we have seen growth in thenumber and quality of regional science associations andgrowth in their membership. We have also seen growth inthe number of regional science scientific journals, in thenumber of pages that they publish and in the number anddiversity of citations that they generate. On the downsidewe have already noted the scarcity of academicdepartments and the paucity of academic, corporate, orgovernmental job titles that carry the words "regionalscientist" or something of the sort.We do not think that all is lost but we do think that weneed to renew the conversation on how we should moveforward to secure regional science's place as a scientificfield or, even, as a core discipline.To revive this discussion we published a paper titled"Securing the Future of Regional Science; Conditions for aCore Discipline." (Studies in Regional Science, 2015,forthcoming). In this paper we present 14 items that wethink will help secure the future of regional science and weoffer five recommendations that might serve as aframework for future initiatives.Specifically we would like to see workshop­type sessionsorganized at future conferences to consider these generalrecommendations and to develop appropriate actionplans. The first of our recommendations could benefit fromthe formation of a new RSAI Education Committee.Recommendations 2­5 could be the focus of an RSAIMarketing Committee.Each committee might have 2­3 senior scholars, perhapsfrom the Long Range Planning Committee, and 2­3 mid­career scholars who show promise for joining RSAI'sleadership ranks.1.) Design Instructional CoursesThe proliferation of courses at the undergraduate andgraduate levels will broaden awareness of the regionalscience "brand" and will build appreciation for regionalscience as a useful applied field.Ideally, perhaps, the introductory course would be aimed

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at first­year students but the lack of regional sciencedepartments makes it more likely that the introductorycourse will be offered as an elective by departments ofeconomics, planning, or geography and that it will beaimed at more advanced undergraduates. In a perfectworld there would be a second, more advanced course, tobetter prepare students for graduate study in regionalscience.2.) Make Recognition of Regional Science ExplicitIt is essential to make recognition of regional science andthe work of regional scientists explicit, not just implicit, partof the instructional package. Regional science per seneeds to be recognized for its leadership in the search forsolutions to significant research problems.3.) Develop NetworksBy strengthening existing networks and building new onesregional scientists will have expanded access to, andmore regular contact with, professional planners,consultancies, government agencies, and the privateresearch sector. Improved access to the research staffand management and administration of such organizationsand agencies should result in expanded opportunities forregional scientists.4.) Create an Academic Culture that Values ExtramuralFundingCuriosity driven research will always be valued but clientdriven research carries with it the fact that its value ismore explicitly recognized. And it provides expandedopportunities for research scientists. The mostsustainable academic enterprises are those which forgeappropriate partnerships with government agencies,private firms, GSEs, and NGOs.5.) Be Aggressive in Cultivating the MediaThe media can encourage public awareness andrecognition of the contributions of regional scientists tosolving problems facing government, private firms, GSEs,and NGOs. And we must also be aware that mediapressure can be helpful when it comes to building newdepartments and to attracting students and researchfunding. The media can help build the image of regionalscience and build the regional science brand.

4. News from the RSAI

4.1. Book series Advances in SpatialScience: Call for book proposals

On the occasion of the 20th anniversaryof the book series Advances in SpatialScience, we would like to invite scholarsin the fields of regional and spatialscience to submit book proposals forconsideration in the series.This series contains scientific studies focusing on spatialphenomena, utilising theoretical frameworks, analyticalmethods, and empirical procedures specifically designedfor spatial analysis. Advances in Spatial Science bringstogether innovative spatial research utilising concepts,perspectives, and methods relevant to both basic scienceand policy making. The aim is to present advances inspatial science to an informed readership in universities,research organisations, and policy­making institutionsthroughout the world.Over the last two decades, the series has published asteady flow of four books per year contributed by some ofthe best known and most influential regional scientistsfrom around the world. In 2015 alone, the books in thisseries have had more than 70.000 digital downloads onSpringerlink.com. It has become a lighthouse of thoughtand the most comprehensive collection of published booksin the field.The book series publishes monographs and contributedvolumes of theoretical and applied research in Regionaland Spatial Science, as well as edited handbookscovering fundamental research. The series encouragesnew volumes on innovative theories and methods inRegional Science, and also edited books from speciallyorganized research seminars and workshops.For more information on the series please visit:http://www.springer.com/series/3302If you want to submit a book proposal please contact:Hans Westlund (Hans.Westlund@abe.kth.se) or Jean­Claude Thill (Jean­Claude.Thill@uncc.edu).

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Sincerely,Manfred M. Fischer, Jean­Claude Thill, Jouke van Dijk,and Hans WestlundSeries Editors Advances in Spatial Science

4.2. 2016 ERSA Summer School

The European Regional Science Association is pleased toannounce, in collaboration with RSAI, AISRe and thePolitecnico di Milano, the opportunity for Ph.D. students toparticipate in the 29th ERSA Summer School which will beheld from the 3rd July to 10th July, 2016 in Milan, Italy, atthe Politecnico di Milano.The theme is “Space, Territory and Growth. Advances inRegional Science”.

The aim of the SummerSchool is to provide Ph.D.students with the mostupdated advances inRegional Science fromboth theoretical and

methodological points of view.Lectures will be given by internationally recognizedscientists in the field. Participants will also be given thepossibility to present their own Ph.D. work, provided thatthis is sufficiently advanced to be presented and to getuseful feedback.More information can be found on the ERSA web site:http://www.ersa.org/events/summer­schools/2016­summer­school/

4.3. 2015 ERSA Summer School

The 28th ERSA summer school held in 2015 wasorganized jointly with the European Real Estate Society(ERES) between July 5th and July 14th at WU in Vienna,Austria. Fifteen students from all over the world attendedthe program entitled “Developers, Planners, and the City”.In a series of lectures, site visits, and studentpresentations the relationship between profit­oriented realestate developers on the one hand, and public sector

based urban plannerson the other hand wasexplored.Lecturers came fromAustria (ChristophSchremmer, VerenaMadner, PhilippKaufmann, Gunther Maier) and from abroad (PaulCheshire, Daniel Czamanski) and they covered variousaspects of the summer school program. Theoreticalpresentations and discussions were complemented by aseries of visits to development sites in Vienna withpresentations by, and discussions with, representatives ofdevelopers, investors, and planning authorities. The sitesvisited covered a range of characteristics from establishedto very new, private or public initiatives, central orperipheral in the city, moderately sized to large.The highlight of the social program was a trip to theWachau. There, participants also visited the monastery ofMelk, the picturesque village of Dürnstein, and ended theday at a traditional wine tavern.

4.4. 2015 ERSA Congress – Lisbon

The European Regional Science Association Congressthat took place in Lisbon in August 2015 registered a greatattendance with 852 participants from 46 countries aroundthe world. According to the survey filled in by 40% of theparticipants the quality of the logistics and the content ofthe plenary and parallel sessions were very good and theparticipation in the plenary sessions, although with lessparticipation, filled the main rooms available.

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Key Facts828 Presentations; 177 Parallel sessions; 65 Topics; 3Plenary sessions (including Parliament session (Sciencevs Policy)); 3 Semi­Plenary Sessions (OECD Session and2 round tables: EIB and Espon/ERC/ Bank of Portugal); 2Technical Visits; 4 Publishers and 5 Prizes.

4.5. Invited plenary address by BobStimson at the annual ANZRSAIcongress

The Australia and New Zealand RegionalScience Association International(ANZRSAI) annual conference will be heldin Sydney in December 2015. A highlight ofthe conference will be an invited plenaryaddress by Professor Bob Stimson followinghis retirement in July after 50 years of distinguishedresearch. His topic will be “Challenges and Opportunitiesfor Regional Science Research to be More PolicyRelevant”.Bob Stimson continues to be an Honorary Professor ofGeography at the University of Melbourne and anEmeritus Professor in Geography at the University ofQueensland. He is a past President of the RegionalScience Association International, an elected Fellow ofRSAI and the sixth recipient of the prestigious HirotadoKohno Award presented by RSAI for outstanding serviceto the regional science community.

4.6. RSAI/ERSA 2015 BarcelonaWorkshop on Regional and UrbanEconomics: Spatial Perspectives ofHuman Capital

The “RSAI/ERSA 2015 Barcelona Workshop on Regionaland Urban Economics: Spatial Perspectives of HumanCapital” will be held in Barcelona on November 26th­27th2015 (http://www.ub.edu/aqr/anterior/workshop2015/?RSAI%2F

ERSA_2015_BARCELONA_WORKSHOP_ON_REGIONAL_AN

D%0AURBAN_ECONOMICS). The AQR­IREA ResearchGroup of the University of Barcelona is in charge of theworkshop’s organization, with the support of the RegionalScience Association International (RSAI) and theEuropean Regional Science Association (ERSA).The workshop will be focused on Spatial Perspectives onHuman Capital. Its aim is to bring together researchers inurban and regional economics, as well as in other

Parliament SessionWith Corina Cretu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy

Martin Beckmann RSAI Award 2015Johan Klaesson, Martin Andersson and Johan P Larsson

awarded for the best paper published in Papers in RegionalScience in 2014, Volume 94, Issue 4

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interrelated disciplines such as labour and educationeconomics, who are working in topics where the broadconcept of human capital and its interrelations with spaceplay a fundamental role.

The schedule is quiteexciting: twelve papers byresearchers from severalcountries will be presentedover two days, which will becomplemented by a keynotelecture by Stephen Gibbons(Department of Geographyand Environment, SERCand CEP, LSE), who willcontribute to the workshop

with his worldwide recognized expertise on the topic.AQR­IREA charges no fees for attending the workshopand covers accommodation and travel costs for all thepresenters of accepted papers. This year, among thepresenters, we have the pleasure to host up to six PhDstudents from different European Institutions, who will beable to present and discuss their works with seniorresearchers in the field. This has been possible thanks tothe financial support of the RSAI’s “Nurturing New Talent”initiative, which is specifically aimed at fosteringparticipation of talented young researchers in internationalscientific meetings.You are all invited to attend the “RSAI/ERSA 2015Barcelona Workshop on Regional and Urban Economics:Spatial Perspectives of Human Capital”!

5. Future challenges for RegionalScience: scientific prospectse

by Roberta Capello, ABC Department, Politecnico diMilano (roberta.capello@polimi.it)

More than sixty years have passedsince the publication of the volume“Location and Space”, by WalterIsard. This book marked thebeginning of Regional Science. Since

then, we have all contributed a great deal to thedevelopment of our scientific field. We have worked indifferent directions, but the most fascinating one is in myopinion the increasingly complex and intriguing ways inwhich economic growth models treat space. The simple(and in certain respects trivial) interpretation of space asuniform­abstract and straightforwardly relatable toadministrative units – a space conceived as internallyhomogeneous and uniform, and which can therefore besynthesised into a vector of aggregate socio­economic­demographic features – has in recent years been replacedby a notion of diversified­relational space which restores totheories of regional development some of the foundingprinciples of location theory: i.e. agglomeration economiesand spatial interaction.After sixty years, the major mistake we could make is toclaim that we have nothing new to work on. Retrospectiveanalyses are satisfactory, but prospective views are evenmore interesting to be explored. Each of us has for surehis/her research agenda, rich in fertile ideas waiting to bedeveloped, enriched by the recent provocative idea PeterNijkamp launched to our international scientific community,i.e. that Regional Science requires a new scientificparadigm to avoid entropic death.I do not know if Peter is right or not, but I feel that we stillhave much to do. In the new edition of my “RegionalEconomics” textbook, I envisage important futurechallenges ahead of us.The most urgent one, in my opinion, relates to the need tomerge macroeconomic elements with local ones inregional growth models. Modern theories of localdevelopment have stressed (with evidence) that regionaldevelopment trajectories today depend on endogenouselements, and it is on these elements that regionalcompetitiveness relies. However, in the period of crisis asthe one we have just gone through, we have discoveredthat our theoretical toolbox in regional growth modellinghas not been able to interpret the spatial effects of thecrisis. In a period of economic downturn, we all becameaware that one cannot ignore macroeconomic, aggregatedemand elements, since these decisively influence the

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destinies of the single national economies and theirregions. Conditions of public debt and deficit, deflation,country reliability, trends in public and private consumptionand investment determine a country’s growth trajectories,and of all regions belonging to that country.New growth theories have made commendable efforts toinclude space in strictly economic models. Also to becommended is the implicit merging in its theoreticalstructure of the various conceptions of space put forwardover the years: the merging, that is, of the physical­metricspace represented by transport costs with the diversifiedspace which assumes the hypothesis of the existence ofcertain territorial polarities where growth cumulates.However, this approach is still unable to combine themacro­economic laws and mechanisms that explaingrowth with territorial factors springing from the intrinsicrelationality present at the local level. An approach that didso would represent the maximum cross­fertilization amonglocation theory, development theory and macroeconomicgrowth theory; a synthesis which would bring out theterritorial micro­foundations of macroeconomic growthmodels.What is still needed, therefore, is a convincing macro­economic model which comprises the micro­territorial,micro­behavioural and intangible elements of thedevelopment process. This is not a simple step forward.Required for this purpose is the definition of patterns,indicators, and analytical solutions to be incorporated intoformalized models necessarily more abstract and syntheticin terms of their explanatory variables. A step in thisdirection can start from quantitative sociology thatembraces the paradigm of methodological individualismand seeks to ‘measure’ the social capital of localcommunities. All this calls for the identification of territorialspecificities within a macroeconomic model. Or, in otherwords, it calls for the identification of the territorial micro­foundations of macroeconomic growth models. This is thechallenge facing regional economists in the years to come.

6. Meet the Fellows: GordonMulligan

by Gordon Mulligan

Imagine if you can an AllanSillitoe novel set on a Norwegianfjord and you might have someidea about my childhood years. Iwas raised in a company milltown on the west coast ofCanada where, until the late1950s, marine transportation wasthe sole means of reaching theoutside world. In many ways,though, this isolated communitywas a socialist utopia—workersearned the same wages, families paid the same rents,crime did not exist, and social capital was very high. Allthis radically changed when both a railway and a highwaywere completed to Vancouver. Soon thereafter thecommunity experienced a lot of turnover and the town sitewas eventually closed down—then all families movedelsewhere and workers had to commute. This disruptionwas much more drastic than what William Garrison andBrian Berry had recently chronicled in nearby Marysville,Washington, where that community’s social and businessfabric was severely strained by the new Interstate highwaysystem.I started classes at the University of British Columbia inthe mid­1960s and I enjoyed the student lifestyle so muchthat I remained at UBC for a decade. This was the mostcarefree period of my life—my studies were well supportedby the government, I lived in vibrant neighborhoods likebohemian Kitsilano Beach, I often cycled to school, I reada lot of Dostoevsky and Pynchon, I became veryinterested in film noir, and I made numerous friendshipsthat have lasted a lifetime. My undergraduate studies weremostly devoted to mathematics where I was exposed tomost aspects of the discipline. Later, in graduate school, Ispecialized in human geography and economics butdabbled in several other disciplines. During graduate

Enjoying his retirementparty in Sedona at the

WRSA (2010)

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school I also spent many evenings imbibing at the Cecilhotel, a pub whose regulars included left­leaning universityfaculty, union leaders, and the founders of Greenpeace.My first university course in geography focused onEurope’s regions and I can recall writing a historicalaccount of the continent’s shifting iron and steel industry.While researching for this paper I encountered Weber’sleast­cost analysis and also came to appreciate howtransportation improvements can significantly change landuses and entire patterns of industry. The following year,my first in graduate school, I took a series of informativecourses on regional analysis, urban geography, andeconomic development. It was all very exciting and, for thefirst time, I was carefully reading journals instead of gettingoriginal ideas filtered through textbooks. My MA thesis,which combined some analysis with a lengthy literaturereview, addressed city­size distributions—separatechapters were devoted to central place theory, stochasticprocesses, historical studies, and issues related toprimacy. I find it interesting that this has become such ahot topic in regional science during the past fifteen yearsor so.While studying for my PhD I was given a lot of freedomand, as a consequence, I made a number of false startson a dissertation. In fact, I still have notes from thisexperimental period and have revisited some of the half­baked ideas I formulated about location theory at thattime. Eventually, though, I focused again on central placetheory and wrote a somewhat unremarkable treatise onstructure and process in Christaller’s system. MartinBeckmann was my external examiner and he was verygenerous in his evaluation.Throughout this period Ken Denike served as my advisorand much of my thinking was influenced by what Ken hadalready learned from people like Walter Isard and WilliamAlonso at the University of Pennsylvania. Curt Eaton alsoserved on my committee and his perspectives on agentbehavior continue to influence how I view decision­makingproblems that involve space or location. Clearly one of thehighlights of this period was meeting John Parr and he,Ken, and I wrote a paper that was published in the mid­

1970s addressingthe relationshipbetween a city’spopulation size andthe formation of itseconomic base.After leaving UBC,where I had beenfar too long, I wasvery fortunate to get visiting positions, first at theUniversity of Washington and then at Queen’s University. Ihad many lunches with Dick Morrill in Seattle and hemanaged to dispel much of my skepticism about the valueof government policy, at least with regard to locating publicfacilities. Maurice Yeates in Kingston made me think a lotmore about rent theory, and perhaps I should haveaccepted his advice (and data) to study how newtransportation investments were reshaping the land valuesurface of Toronto. Later in my career I accepted othervisiting positions, in North America and Australia, andalways found these very productive times given thereduction in paperwork and committee assignments.By the late­1970s I was looking for a more permanentresidence. I had been talking a lot with Michael Dacey inGeography at Northwestern University and was veryfortunate to avoid the personnel fiasco that was justbrewing there. Instead I moved to the University of Arizonain Tucson, which in many ways turned out to be a verygood choice. At that time both Geography and Economicswere located in the Business College so the Geographyfaculty received a lot of exposure to undergraduates whowere interested in either real estate or local development.We also encountered students who were keen on enteringthe university’s graduate Planning program, where theywould be greeted by Penn graduate Art Silvers. Eventhough the department was eventually moved to anothercollege, we slowly put together a very solid program inRegional Development that attracted up to 300 majors peryear and produced some of most distinguishedundergraduates across the entire university. Unfortunately,though, departmental politics trumped this success story

Having lunch in Squamish with pastWRSA president Warren Gill (2010)

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and several of my colleagues eventually left in frustrationover the department’s new direction.While I was finishing up a number of papers onmultipurpose shopping and central place populations Ibecame intrigued by the work being done on small townsby several of my colleagues, including Lay Gibson. Muchof this was applied research, funded by the Arizonagovernment, and involved the collection of employmentdata in the field. Here the economic bases of many townsin the US Southwest were summarized in a series ofmonographs that were published over a twenty­yearperiod. I thought the results could be usefully generalizedby collapsing the results into one data set and this led tomy work on estimating small­area economic basemultipliers. Once micropolitan places were recognized bythe U.S. Census Bureau in the 1990s I was able to usethis earlier work to establish another shortcut method forestimating multipliers in towns and less populous counties.One of the most important contributions here was showinghow non­earnings income and other factors, including theincidence of natural amenities, can affect both the sizeand job composition of those multipliers.While at Arizona, which I eventually left in 2006, I wasfortunate to supervise some very good graduate students,but had special relationships with Timothy Fik andAlexander Vias. Tim’s enthusiasm for all problemsinvolving geographic clustering and spatial contiguity wasinfectious and he was largely responsible for my rethinkingof various analytical matters, including how conjecturalvariations might affect both price and location in spatialcompetition models. We enjoyed a good division of laborwhere one of us would design the mathematical modelswhile the other would write programs for the numericalsolutions. Alternatively, Alex’s interests were along thelines of rural economic development and we became veryinterested in unpacking “chicken or egg” issues, especiallytrying to detect whether population growth was leading orlagging employment growth across the American West.This demo­economic work was nicely informed by theinsightful ideas on interregional compensating differentialsthat had been pioneered by other regional scientists.

Productive relationships were also formed with manyothers, including Meagan Cahill, who worked on urbancrime; Sang­Yool Lee, who studied the role of uncertaintyin agriculture; and Chris Bitter, whose remains interestedin all aspects of housing. I particularly enjoyed workingwith those graduate students whose interests did notcoincide with my ownas they challenged meto read new literaturesand grasp differentmethodologies.Dave Plane joined usat Arizona in the early1980s and we later co­edited the Journal ofRegional Science fornearly a decade. Even though Dave and I both enjoyedsome prior editorial experience, we were a little anxiouswhen we assumed this responsibility because Ron Millerhad done such an exceptional job with the journal at Penn.Dave is one of the most organized scholars around andwe soon agreed to meet once a week to keep on top ofthe steady flow of submissions and reviews. I like to thinkwe broadened the audience of the journal although wewere never in favor of publishing special issues, a trendthat seems so popular today. It is not common knowledgethat the JRS was once owned by the Regional ScienceResearch Corporation and that it was during our tenurethat all production matters were transferred to Blackwell.Basically Ben Stevens was the RSRC and I can still recallthe lengthy (and expensive) telephone discussionsbetween Ben and myself—where he talked and Ilistened—that addressed the journal’s direction, impact,and readership.Over the years several other well­knownpeople—including Adrian Esparza, Brigitte Waldorf, andJohn Carruthers—joined our core group at Arizona so that,during the 1990s, we had a very strong regional scienceprogram. My exposure to John proved to be especiallyfruitful as we went on to do a number of projects togetherafter we had both left Arizona for other climes. Our earliest

Hiking with Dave Boyce and CurtEaton in Glacier Park; photo by Jay

Allen (2011)

restrict myself to those having fewer participants, like theBritish­Irish meetings. On the other hand it is encouragingto see so many younger people at the larger meetings,including the WRSA where former Arizona student RachelFranklin has been active in recruitment. So if you happento spot me at one of those meetings please feelcomfortable about coming up and introducing yourself.

7. Regional Science as a radicalscience innovation

In the past months various discussions among spatialscientists have taken place on the idea to create aRegional Science Academy. The Regional ScienceAcademy is meant to be an independent network ofrecognized scholars in Regional Science who seek tostudy and to promote sustainable regional developmentaround the world through innovative and forward­lookinginitiatives and intellectual contributions to scientificresearch and higher education in the spatial sciences. Itsmission is to enhance awareness and to stimulatemultidisciplinary and translational research in RegionalScience, addressing both local and global challenges, withthe involvement of parties from both the science andpolicy communities.The concept of the Regional Science Academy wasinspired by various brainstorm meetings with both juniorand senior scholars in Regional Science, who felt that timehad come for a radical innovation in the field, in terms of

interactions led me to reconsider the issue of amenityvaluation and this topic has remained on my active listever since. John also persuaded me of the greatimportance of land­use issues, whose neglect has seriousimplications for quality of life in both metropolitan andnonmetropolitan settings.Without doubt the two highlights of my academic careerwere my regional science retirement party and my Fellowsselection. In conjunction with the 2010 meetings of theWestern Regional Science Association, John Carruthersarranged a sumptuous dinner in the Sedona hills thatbrought together a large international crowd of friends andwell wishers. The highlights included some dubious storiesby Bob Stimson and a clever roasting of myaccomplishments by Kingsley Haynes—both close friendsand past RSAI presidents. Using some of the diversepapers that were given at that meeting, a special issue ofthe Annals of Regional Science was then dedicated in myhonor. I have mixed emotions when I think back on thisspecial occasion because two of the participants, whowere especially good friends, passed away soonthereafter. Being notified of my Fellows selection later thatyear was an equally satisfying event. Now, though, Isought something a bit more intimate so I requested thatthe award ceremony be delayed until the summer of 2011when I would be hiking with friends in Glacier Park. Thisprestigious RSAI award was presented to me by DaveBoyce on a lovely day at a lodge overlooking SwiftcurrentLake and the event was photographed by Curt Eaton, whohad served on my PhD committee so many years earlier.These days I’m living in Squamish, British Columbia, fivemiles from where I started, where I stay active hiking in thesummer months and curling during the winter. I still remaininvolved in research and continue to enjoy working withyounger regional scientists on a variety of different topics.In fact I believe I have now published with more than 40co­authors over the years. Many of these people havebeen students of mine—either undergraduate orgraduate—and that has been one of the most satisfyingaspects of my career. I try to make it out to one or tworegional science conferences each year but generally

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Ana MariaBonomi Barufi1

Karima Kourtit2 Elizabeth Mack3 Peter Nijkamp4

1 Department of Economics, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil,ana.barufi@gmail.com2 KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; A. MickiewiczUniversity, Poznan, Poland, karima.kourtit@abe.kth.se3 4909 W. Joshua Blvd. Unit #119, Chandler, AZ 85226, Arizona StateUniversity, USA, eamack1@asu.edu4 VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; A.Mickiewicz University,Poznan, Poland, p.nijkamp@vu.nl

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both theory/methodology and new mindsets, as well as ofa harmonization and certified upgrading of RegionalScience curricula worldwide. In other words, a new modusoperandi of Regional Science would be needed. TheRegional Science Academy is a strategic spatialknowledge catalyst: it acts as a global intellectualpowerhouse for new knowledge network initiatives andscholarly views on regions and cities as vital centerpiecesof interconnected spatial systems all over the world.The strategic roles of the Regional Science Academywould be as follows:• Find new (and possibly revolutionary) directions ofresearch, rank research priorities and propose guidelinesfor novel future research;• Act as a scholarly and dynamic think­tank for all scholarsin the spatial sciences;• Review critically whether prevailing concepts andmethodologies in Regional Science are still valid forunderstanding current and emerging issues, which oftenrepresent new application contexts;• Become an effective vehicle for the birth of new policyinitiatives in Regional Science and to explore newtheorectical and practical realities using new analyticalframeworks;• Bring practitioners and researchers closer by leveragingcommon needs and questions that also result in thedevelopment of novel analytical strategies.The Regional Science Academy should ensure theinjection of new blood into Regional Science, bybroadening its frontiers and focussing on new horizons(both widening and deepening). It should also be relativelyindependent of other organizations, such as the RSAI, yetwork cooperatively with them at the same time. Clearly, itshould avoid repeating pre­existing activities andpractices.In the light of the previous ideas and ambitions, there is aneed for appropriate new techniques, methods andtheories that can address and better explain the dynamicnature of the real world. The Regional Science Academywould act as a vital vehicle for the birth of new concepts inthe spatial sciences, especially if this initiative could also

reach out to ‘new’ places (e.g. Africa), where new realitieswill likely result in new scientific challenges. The RegionalScience Academy has the mission of translating andsharing regional research in different environments, and ofbeing open to, and fostering openness amongst, all spatialscientists, while reducing its proximity to other disciplines.Moreover, it will also engage practitioners and researchersby focusing on new needs and soliciting urgent questionsin need of new analytical support.The Regional Science Academy would be active on fourdomains: a think­tank function, curriculum development,information and data warehousing, and general serviceprovision to spatial scientists.Think­TankOn the ‘think­tank’ role of the Regional Science Academy,a series of challenging and intriguing scientific issuesought to be put in perspective, such as:• What is the relevant concept of space in the context ofboth global and local human mobility and regional andurban development?• Why are transformative changes (i.e. population ageing)path dependent instead of an intrinsic function of theregional environment? For example, what are the spatial­economic impacts of the ageing process?• How does climate change affect the physicalenvironment, economic growth and competitiveness?• What is the relationship between investment in globalfinancial markets and location decisions in the realeconomy without migration barriers for business andpeople?• What will happen to the distribution of wealth in aglobalising economy? How can we describe the process ofadjustment of the regional­economic system afterexogenous shocks?• Why does the natural science based gravity formulationfit so well to data related to spatial interaction? Or shouldthere be a general theory of human interaction that goesbeyond what we have learned so far?• How will information and communications technologies(ICTs) like the Internet and other new technologies affectwork­life balance and the spatial dynamics of labour

­ 15 ­

markets?• How will spatial connectivity structures influenceindividual/aggregate well­being and related choicemodels? How will people behave and respond to newspatial connectivity structures (both physical and non­physical)?• What is the role of science in general ­ and RegionalScience in particular ­ given emerging and foreseeabledrastic economic­political changes? Can aninterdisciplinary approach help to discuss the role offormally bounded regions, space, and place under theconditions of this new world?• How do spatial disparities in health­care access impacthuman health, urban quality of life, justice and socialcohesion?• How has the outcome of historical events (includingcultural heritage and cultural political history) impacted thespatial distribution of welfare and well­being?Against the background of these I intriguing researchchallenges, the issue of policy is at stake. Smartgovernance should be a main topic, and demonstrate thatRegional Science can be an effective tool for public policypractitioners. In this sense, there should be a discussion,for instance, on what kind of regional policy, where, forwhom (including the role of cities, regions, nations andinstitutions embedded in the best governance structurepossible), and how can we plan for spatially orientedoutcomes under unstable and informal economicrelations?In conclusion, the Regional Science Academy would haveto adopt an operational approach through which it couldpromote consistency between techniques, methods,models and theories, promote effective interaction withstudents and society, and produce sound scientificresponses to urgent territorial problems of our planet.Curriculum DevelopmentThe future of Regional Science depends on the quality ofits education. The Regional Science Academy shouldpursue leadership to create a formal curriculum to befollowed by schools to become recognised via acertification in Regional Science. In this sense, Regional

Science still lacks official accreditation, and the RegionalScience Academy may promote it by designing andcreating a system for certificates. Training students in aninternational accredited program will improve the valueadded and the academic recognition of the discipline,which will likely have the long term effect of increasingresources for education and research, and bringing more‘cache’ for both teachers and institutions involved in thediscipline.The educational system proposed must be complementedby the promotion of workshops, textbook series, andcurriculum development, among others. In this context, theRegional Science Academy needs to encourage effectiveinteraction with students and society at large. It can alsocreate a network of Regional Science schools, wherepeople from other places can join and credits can berecognized for relevant courses (for example sandwichprograms at the Master and Ph.D. levels could be a goodway to start, as well as the engagement of visitingscholars). The Regional Science Academy could also workas a bridge between different actors in Regional Science,especially in relation to job openings and post­docopportunities, and potential candidates. This network hasto be a living entity, with its own demography, and anopenness to participation by new schools. As mentionedpreviously, the Regional Science Academy may supportexisting institutions in Regional Science already promotingeducation (such as the RSAI). In this line, there is alreadya list of Regional Science schools5 where education ofRegional Science is taking place (for instance, the currentcriterion is to have 3 PhDs in Regional Science in recentyears).Moreover, the Regional Science Academy shouldstrengthen the field of Regional Science in a worldwidecontext, and based on that, it could create an internationalqualification system for recognised Regional Sciencecourses all over the world. This system could thencontribute to the recognition of classical and traditionaldepartments (and their curricula) in universities. Such

5 http://www.regionalscience.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task=category&id=156&Itemid=735

­ 16 ­

curricula should favour an interdisciplinary spirit in thespatial sciences.In addition, the Regional Science Academy itself couldprovide professional training in very specific skills for theresearch community, such as how to fundraise fornetworking and collaborative opportunities (i.e. workshops,conferences, etc). Its online platform could provide anenvironment to exchange experiences, and articulate thedemand of different actors from different backgrounds.Data WarehouseAnother main element of the Regional Science Academyconcerns the modern trend in science dynamics which iscentered on the development of coherent research fields,driven by infrastructure facilities and large data. In manyways it would further recent research calls for OpenRegional Science6. This calls for new ideas on commondata infrastructures and software, based on smart datawarehousing for learning, observing and analysing theregional and urban dynamics around the world. Aneffectively coordinated exchange vehicle in the form of avirtual data hub is needed to provide and to facilitateinformation (e.g., by developing ‘Spatial Big Data’ softwarefor information and knowledge initiatives and users). Thiswould be a challenging issue that falls within the ambit ofthe Academy, for both the scientific community and theusers at large. It will help to stimulate a wide variety of(multi) disciplinary orientations and domains, byaddressing emerging relevant phenomena and analysingspatial patterns within the worldwide Regional Sciencecommunity, (and spatial scientists in a more generalsense). Furthermore, it will yield new insights and willsimultaneously highlight a variety of ways to exploreroadmaps for future Regional Science research and tocreate possibilities for discovering and for estimating‘unknowns’, in combination with powerful analysis tools.General Service ProvisionThe Regional Science Academy may also be seen as ageneral facilitator for emerging new activities. Examples ofsuch novel activities are:• Strategies for better knowledge dissemination (e.g. e­platforms);

• Inclusion of Regional Science as one of the descriptorsin the OECD database7;• Development of transformative ideas (e.g. scenarios) onthe new spatial structure of our planet;• Enhancement of liaisons with international bodies (WorldBank, UN, OECD, EU, NGOs, etc.);• Formulation of a ‘code of conduct’ for regional scienceresearch;• Systematic fund raising from donors;• Marketing of Regional Science in a global knowledgesociety, through externally­oriented websites.Where does the development of the Regional ScienceAcademy stand at this moment? First, there appears to beoverwhelming international support for this new concept.Second, various Regional Science councils (e.g., ERSAC,RSAIC) have already indicated they will endorse andwelcome this initiative as a major strategic vehicle for avibrant Regional Science community. Third, at theforthcoming NARSC conference in Portland (November2015), the final steps will be taken towards a formalisationof all these ideas. And finally, last but not least, theAcademy’s work plan is in full swing and will includeshortly some path­breaking new initiatives, e.g., ‘SpatialBig Data’, ‘Science of the City’, ‘It’s a Small World’ and‘Homo Mobilis’. More information can soon be found onthe Regional Science Academy website (shortlyoperational).

8. Centres of Regional Science:The Research Centre for

Macroeconomic and RegionalForecasting (PROMAR), BucharestUniversity of Economic Studiesby Prof. Dr. Daniela L. Constantin, Director of PROMAR(daniela.constantin@ase.ro)

The Research Centre for Macroeconomic and Regional6 Western Regional Science Association (WRSA) Presidential address bySergio J Rey. See “Open regional science” in the Annals of RegionalScience (2014) Issue 52, 825­837.7 See website: http://ipscience­help.thomsonreuters.com/incitesLive/globalComparisonsGroup/globalComparisons/subjAreaSchemesGroup/oecd.html

The Centre’s researchers have been actively involved inorganizing the Romanian Regional Science Associationconferences and the 2012 RSAI World Congress inTimisoara and have also participated in numerous ERSAand RSAI meetings.The PROMAR Centre has established collaborativepartnerships with other research centres within theBucharest University of Economic Studies as well as withresearch institutes of the Romanian Academy, with theNational Commission of Forecasting, the National Instituteof Statistics, the Ministry of Regional Development andPublic Administration. At international level, co­operationagreements have been established with the RegionalEconomics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana­Champaign –US, theResearch Centre for Regulatory Science of the GeorgeMason University, US, Department of EconomicGeography and Geoinformatics of WirtschaftsuniversitaetVienna, Austria.In the next few years the PROMAR Centre aims to attractnew promising young researchers among its membersand to enlarge and consolidate the research networksestablished with Romanian and foreign partners so as tohave further successful participations in nationally and EU­funded projects.

Forecasting (PROMAR) was set upwithin the Bucharest University ofEconomic Studies at the beginning of2007. It covers a large research area inthe field of macroeconomic analysis andforecasting (sustainable economicgrowth, macroeconomic correlations, sectorialcorrelations, international flows, European integration,etc.) as well as in the field of regional economics andforecasting (regional growth, convergence –competitiveness – territorial cooperation, regionalemployment, internal and external migration, investmentimpact, environmental sustainability, institutional issues,etc.), employing as the main tools empirical analysis,econometric modelling, scenario­based methods,international comparisons, etc.Its members are academics with top reputations inscientific research at the national level and with importantvisibility at the international scale. PhD students and MScstudents are also involved in the Centre’s activities. In totalit counts 20 members, involved in many internationalprojects (including the FP7 project “Growth – Innovation –Competitiveness: Fostering Cohesion in Central andEastern Europe/GRINCOH”, the ESPON project“Indicators and Perspectives for Services of GeneralInterest in Territorial Cohesion and Development/SeGI”,the DG REGIO project “The Objective of Economic andSocial Cohesion in the Economic Policies of MemberStates”, and the World Bank project “Geography of Crisisin Central and East European Countries”). The group alsofrequently joins national projects funded by the NationalPlan of Scientific Research and the National Council forScientific Research in Higher Education (e.g. “Diminishingregional disparities as a basic condition for the economicand social cohesion. The quality of European integration”,“Research regarding the involvement of Romanianuniversities in urban restructuring and regionaldevelopment”, “Economic and social analyses forunderlying the spatial plans”, “Inter­disciplinary approachregarding the improvement of living conditions via largehousing estates rehabilitation in Romania” and so on).

PROMAR members at a project meeting

­ 17 ­

Regional Science Policy & Practice

Edited By: Michael Carroll

Online ISSN: 1757­7802

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111

/(ISSN)1757­7802

Papers in Regional Science

Edited By: Roberta Capello

Online ISSN: 1435­5957

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journ

al/10.1111/(ISSN)1435­5957

­ 18 ­

JOURNALS OF THE REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL

All RSAI members have online access to the Papers in Regional Science (PiRS) and to the Regional Science Policy

and Practice (RSPP): Journals of the Regional Science Association International. Members will need to log in to access full

text articles Online.

RSAI NEWSLETTER, the newsletter of the Association, appears two times a year and contains information about upcoming

conferences and meetings, recent publications and a periodic guide to graduate programs in regional science. Please send

all electronic submissions of material for the RSAI Newsletter directly to andrea.caragliu@polimi.it and/or

G.P.Clarke@leeds.ac.uk.

Participation in national and international meetings is encouraged; over twenty international, national and regional meetings

are held each year. Two of the Association's superregional organizations, the North American Regional Science Council

(NARSC) and the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) hold annual meetings in November and August. The

third superregional organization, the Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization (PRSCO), holds a meeting every

two years.

Each year, the Association conducts a competition for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of regional science. Winners

are encouraged to present their work at one of the major international meetings.

In addition to the RSAI publications, members are offered an opportunity to purchase other regional science journals at

reduced rates and participate in the national and international conferences at reduced rates.

RSAI membership has its benefits and privileges, including:

­ Right to vote for representation of the Council of the Regional Science Association International

­ Eligibility for awards of RSAI

­ Discounted registration fees at conferences organized by RSAI, NARSC, ERSA, PRSCO, and RSAmericas

­ RSAI newsletter

­ Participation in and access to a worldwide network of 4500 regional scientists

­ Complimentary electronic access to the two journals of RSAI, Papers in Regional Science, and Regional Science Policy

and Practice. Access to these journals is possible through your RSAI member access portal.

­ Complimentary electronic access to the following journals, Journal of Regional Science, Growth and Change, Geographical

Analysis and International Journal of Urban and regional Research. Access to these journals is possible through your RSAI

member access portal.

For details on how to become a member, contact the Executive Director at rsai@apdr.pt or visit www.regionalscience.org.

RSAI MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

1. Introduction to the Special Issue: the future of Regional Science 01

1.1 Welcome from the President 011.2 Welcome to the 2015 NARSC Congress 011.3 Welcome to the 2016 World RSAI Congress 021.4 Welcome from the Editors 03

2. In search of a discipline: envisioning and framing a regional science roadmap 03

3.Challenges for Regional Science: institutional prospects 05

4. News from the RSAI 06

4.1 Book series Advances in Spatial Science: Call for book proposals 064.2 2016 ERSA Summer School 074.3 2015 ERSA Summer School 074.4 2015 ERSA Congress ­ Lisbon 074.5 Invited plenary address by Bob Stimson at the annual ANZRSAI congress 084.6. RSAI/ERSA 2015 Barcelona Workshop on Regional and Urban Economics: SpatialPerspectives of Human Capital 08

5. Future challenges for Regional Science 09

6. Meet the Fellows: Gordon Mulligan 10

7. Regional Science as a radical science innovation 13

8. Centres of Regional Science: The Research Centre for Macroeconomic and RegionalForecasting (PROMAR), Bucharest University of Economic Studies 16