Tackling with societal, technological and climate changes in peripheral territories

The Spanish and Valencian Regional Science Associations have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in both the XLV Regional Studies Meeting (XLV Reunión de Estudios Regionales) and the VI Valencian Regional Studies Conference (VI Jornades Valencianes d’Estudis Regionals). They will take place at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló on the 20th, 21st and 22nd November 2019, and will count with the support of the Interuniversity Institute of  Local Development (IIDL, Institut Interuniversitari de Desenvolupament Local).

As it has happened in previous editions, the Reunión de Estudios Regionales represents a multidisciplinary meeting that allows an overview of regional science and the analysis of the territory as a starting point, being the main annual event that takes place in Spain in what refers to the presentation and discussion of academic papers on territorial and regional concepts. On this occasion we will have the presence as lecturers of Professor Raquel Ortega Argilés (University of Birmingham) and Professor Jérôme Vicente (Université de Toulouse).

For this XLV edition, we have chosen the theme “Tackling with societal, technological and climate changes in peripheral territories”. With this theme, we intend to incorporate into the regional debate the problems that affect the peripheral territories, understood as those border areas or borders between regions. Thus we find the outer peripheries, especially in the European Union, where the migratory pressure is quite evident, in contrast to the so-called inner peripheries, where depopulation is a challenge of vast dimensions that calls into question the very survival of some of these regions.

As organisers of this XLV edition, from the Interuniversity Institute of Local Development (IIDL), we understand regional science as a point of confluence of multiple approaches. Although it is usual to interpret the evolution of the regions in terms of their economic development, placing the economy at the core of territorial policy decisions, it is also necessary to introduce other approaches to territorial development. Issues such as demographic evolution are decisive in a society like ours, increasingly ageing, and with a lower rate of generational renewal. On the other hand, the problem of depopulation, widespread in many of the Spanish regions, has highlighted the need to address the demographic challenge from multiple points of view.

The need to provide the territories with opportunities to develop is to cover the gap between these peripheral regions and the central regions while guaranteeing the differential elements of both. Regional science must provide compatible and respectful solutions with the use of endogenous resources of all kinds. For this, the XLV Reunión de Estudios Regionales aims to provide a broad, sensible and constructive debate on the different issues that are part of the regional scope.

As Organizing Committee, we reiterate the invitation to participate in the XLV Reunión de Estudios Regionales on November 20, 21 and 22, 2019 at the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló, and to enjoy our small city within the great provincial environment bounded by the mountainous interior and the Mediterranean Sea.

We are looking forward to welcoming you then.

The Organising Committee of the XLV Reunión de Estudios Regionales, Castelló 2019

ISBN: 978-84-09-15158-5