Dear list members,
Please find below a call for papers for a special session at the Regional Studies Association Annual Conference in Lugano (Switzerland), June 3-6, 2018. Apologies for cross-posting SS16. Exploring the Co-Evolution Between Industries and Institutions from a Multi-Scalar Perspective Session organiser(s) Huiwen Gong, Department of Geography, Kiel University, Germany (g...@geographie.uni-kiel.de <mailto:g...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> ) Robert Hassink, Department of Geography, Kiel University, Germany (hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de <mailto:hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> ) Over the past decades or so, many economic geographers and regional studies scholars started to notice the power of evolutionary theories in understanding and explaining economic geographical phenomena (Boschma & Frenken, 2018). Co-evolution (Schamp, 2010) is one of the several theoretical concepts used in this evolutionary economic geography, next to path dependence and lock-ins (Martin & Sunley, 2006), related/unrelated variety (Content & Frenken, 2016), and resilience (Gong & Hassink, 2017). Co-evolution can be broadly defined as the development of reciprocal, causal relationships between distinguishable industrial and institutional populations through time, embedded in a multi-scalar context (regional, national, global). In our view, co-evolution, although less studied than the other evolutionary concepts, bears great potential and relevance in understanding and explaining regional economic evolution for three reasons. First, co-evolution stresses the importance of studying institutions, that is organizations and formal and informal rules, from an evolutionary perspective, which have been threatened to be relegated in the evolutionary economic geography literature (Hassink et al., 2014). Secondly, exploring and understanding co-evolution is a key precondition for achieving the badly needed deep contextualization in economic geography and regional studies (Martin & Sunley, 2015). Finally, co-evolution and the related deep contextualization are essential for being able to develop tailor-made policy recommendations. In our session, we welcome theoretical or empirical contributions focusing on co-evolution in regional innovation systems, clusters, smart specialization, sustainability transitions, path dependence and path creation, or any other topic related to the co-evolution of industries and institutions. We expect the contributions to deal with one or more of the following three areas. First, the multi-scalar nature of both industries and institutions and how they influence each other, which also includes analyses of tensions, conflicts, complementarities and complexities. Secondly, the nature of changes; although incremental and radical changes might seem to be a dual and exclusive typology of evolutionary possibilities, in reality there are many varieties between these two patterns influenced by different kinds of critical moments and events (Sanz-Ibáñez et al., 2017). How incremental and radical changes impact the co-evolution of industrial and institutional populations need to be further explored. Thirdly, we welcome contributions that carefully and critically analyze the positive and negative, and partially unintended impacts of co-evolution for different individual interest groups. Based on the presentations, we aim at publishing a special issue in a journal and/or an edited book with a prominent publisher. Please submit proposals for papers in the form of a 250-word abstract through the RSA conference portal <http://www.regionalstudies.org/conferences/conference/rsa-lugano-2018> http://www.regionalstudies.org/conferences/conference/rsa-lugano-2018 by Friday 23rd February 2018. Any questions to <mailto:hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de or g...@geographie.uni-kiel.de <mailto:g...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> . References * Boschma, R., & Frenken, K. (2018). Evolutionary Economic Geography. In: Clark, G., Gertler, M., Feldman, M. P., & Wójcik, D. (eds.) The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming). * Content, J., & Frenken, K. (2016). Related variety and economic development: a literature review. European Planning Studies, 24(12), 2097-2112. * Gong, H., & Hassink, R. (2017). Regional Resilience: the Critique Revisited. In: Williams, N. & Vorley, T. (eds.) Creating Resilient Economies: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Development in Uncertain Times, pp. 206-216. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. * Hassink, R., Klaerding, C., & Marques, P. (2014). Advancing evolutionary economic geography by engaged pluralism. Regional Studies, 48(7), 1295-1307. * Martin, R., & Sunley, P. (2006). Path dependence and regional economic evolution. Journal of Economic Geography, 6(4), 395-437. * Martin, R., & Sunley, P. (2015). Towards a developmental turn in evolutionary economic geography? Regional Studies, 49(5), 712-732. * Sanz-Ibáñez C., Wilson J., & Clavé, S. A. (2017). Moments as catalysts for change in the evolutionary paths of tourism destinations. In: Brouder P., Clavé S. A., Gill A., & Ioannides, D. (eds.) Tourism destination evolution, pp. 81-102. London: Routledge. * Schamp, E. W. (2010). On the notion of co-evolution in economic geography. In: Boschma, R., & Martin, R. (eds.) Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, pp. 431-449. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Robert Hassink Professor of Economic Geography Dept. of Geography, Kiel University Hermann-Rodewald-Str. 9 24098 Kiel, Germany tel. 0049-431-880-2951 fax 0049-431-880-5290 e-mail: hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de <mailto:hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> <http://www.wigeo.uni-kiel.de/en/People/robert-hassink> http://www.wigeo.uni-kiel.de/en/People/robert-hassink Visiting Professor in the School of Geography, Politics & Sociology (Centre for Urban & Regional Development Studies (CURDS)), Newcastle University, UK http://www.ncl.ac.uk/curds/people/visiting.htm ResearchGate Profile: Robert Hassink https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Hassink Google Scholar Profile: Robert Hassink <http://scholar.google.de/citations?user=FtyhWG0AAAAJ&hl=de&oi=ao> http://scholar.google.de/citations?user=FtyhWG0AAAAJ&hl=de&oi=ao Publons Profile: Robert Hassink https://publons.com/author/1231174/robert-hassink#profile P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
