Hi there 

Apologies for cross-posting.

I'm not certain that this will be to every CGF-er's taste, but the last
one was very critical and very geographical (report available on
request).  Overseas (to the UK) participants of course welcome on a
self-funding basis.

Regards
Paul.

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS


FINANCING REGIONAL ECONOMIES 

Regional Studies Working Group/ESRC Urban and Regional Economic Seminar
Group




Thursday 12 May 2005 at Paisley Business School, University of Paisley




Following the successful first meeting of the RSA/ESRC working group
held at CURDS, University of Newcastle in December 2004 we are pleased
to announce the details of the second finance group meeting and call for
papers to be held in Paisley on May 12th  2005.  The working group has
been set up in response to recent economic and geographical debates that
have highlighted the crucial role of finance in facilitating regional
economic development. Consequently there is now a growing agenda to
situate issues of finance more centrally in our understandings of uneven
regional development and to open up the 'black box' of finance in order
to unveil some of the complexities and subtleties involved in financing
regional economies. 

  

      The first meeting sought to put the workshop into a context with a
range of papers summarizing recent debates. These debates concerned the
increasing centralization of a particular intersection of the finance
system - the venture capital industry. One paper sought to understand
the financing of the regional economy by examining the interplay and
spatial unevenness between finance capital and the property market which
is perpetuated by, and dependent on the investment preferences and
practices of investors. Other papers focused on the spatial distribution
of the different intermediaries involved in the IPO process in
Switzerland while also focusing on analysing local institutional
thickness for early stage companies. Further papers highlighted issues
surrounding the demand and supply of finance from both private and
public within peripheral economies for economic development.




            Following on from the first meeting a number of common
themes clearly emerged. One theme in particular was the notion that
finance issues and financial decisions are strongly embedded in place
specific, cultural and social contexts.  Specifically, many of the
papers that were presented highlighted in one form or another how
dominant perceptions and views that are held by a wide range of finance
actors are translated into tangible and even measurable economic
activity. The strength and reoccurrence of this theme has meant that we
would particularly welcome papers for the next meeting that continue to
open up finance to a finer grained and closer reading. In particular
papers that attempt to get beneath the flows of money and finance in
order to unveil the networks of financial knowledges, institutions,
actors and linkages that are mediating and influencing the uneven flows
of finance across the economy and the impacts this has for uneven
regional development are particularly encouraged.  




However we would still like to reiterate our previous call which
highlighted the following topics that we would also welcome papers on:


The establishment of co-investment funds

The availability, supply and demand of finance for small firms in
'lagging' regions i.e via the informal venture capital market, or the
RVCF's

The specific funding issues for the key innovation and hitechnology
sector

Role of PFI/PPP in financing infrastructure projects

The role and future of regional capital/stock markets

Lyons Review / Community Reinvestment/micro credit/LETS

Ethnic Minority Banking - i.e. the growth of and issues surrounding







Attendance at the conference is open to all which includes postgraduates
and new researchers for whom a limited number of travel bursaries are
available. There is no charge to attend the conference, but places will
be issued on first come first served basis and places are restricted in
order to facilitate discussion and debate.

Abstracts should be sent as soon as possible and received no later than
Friday 22nd April 2005 to either Geoff Whittam, Felicity Wray or Ron
Martin .

For further information please contact either Geoff Whittam 

[log in to unmask], 0141 848 3368 or

[log in to unmask], 0191 222 8510 

or Ron Martin  [log in to unmask], 01223 338316

--------------------------------------------
Dr. Paul Benneworth
Senior Research Associate
Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

From 21.04.05 Research Councils UK Academic Fellow, Institute of Policy
and Practice

Work: 0191 222 8015
Home: 0191 258 7437
Mobl: 07801 538 758
--------------------------------------------