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From: "Evert Meijers - OTB" <[log in to unmask]>

(apologies for cross-posting)

Dear colleague,

I would like to draw your attention to an intensive two-day workshop on 
'Urban Systems 2.0' that will take place September 16-17 in Delft, The 
Netherlands.

The aims are:

-        to bring together an international group of researchers with an 
interest in the geography of contemporary urban systems;
-        to present and discuss research findings on the spatial 
organization and structure of cities, metro areas, countries and 
transnational regions and how these (may) affect their performance;
-        to explore opportunities for joint research by discusssing a future 
research agenda;
-        to select papers for a special issue of Regional Studies

Please see the attached CFP for more information. Abstract deadline: July 
31.

Kind regards,

Evert Meijers

This Workshop is organized by the Regional Studies Association Research 
Network on 'Regional Urban Systems and Performance'. Below you find a sketch 
of the themes addressed by this workshop.

The city is developing into a regional phenomenon. What is 'urban' spreads 
out over a larger regional space, way beyond the traditional city 
boundaries. The geographical scope of social and economic processes (such as 
commuting, leisure and social trips, inter-firm relations, and business to 
consumer relations) has increased, which leads not just to ever more complex 
urban- rural relations, but also to new functional linkages at higher 
spatial scales between historically distinct urban regions. A key message of 
recent concepts like 'megaregions', 'polycentric mega-city regions' or 
'polycentric urban regions' is that we are gradually moving away from 
monocentric cities to polycentric mega-city regions. Nevertheless, theories 
on cities and agglomeration, as well as empirical analyses of cities still 
often depart from conceptualisations of the city that hardly acknowledge 
this wider regional context. This means that we face major theoretical and 
empirical challenges in urban research.

At the same time, polycentricity and regional networking between cities have 
become major issues in strategic development strategies of many countries. 
These policies stress benefits of polycentric development, relating for 
instance to the improved exploitation of critical urban mass, 
complementarities, the presence of less agglomeration diseconomies and 
providing equal opportunities to inhabitants. However, the economic 
rationale behind polycentric development policies is still rather unclear 
and such policies so-far lack an empirical and theoretical base.

It is important to understand which economic and social mechanisms in cities 
are important for the development of the spatial layout and fabric of urban 
agglomerations and the 'regionalizing' of urbanity. Moreover, there is a 
need to critically discuss and evaluate the conceptual mechanisms and 
theories behind polycentric development strategies before implementing such 
policies.

You are warmly invited to participate in this workshop. To participate, 
simply send an e-mail with abstract to [log in to unmask] before July 
31. Also contact this e-mail address with any questions.

Dr. E.J. Meijers | Delft University of Technology | OTB Research Institute 
for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies |
P.O. Box 5030 | 2600 GA Delft | The Netherlands | T +31 15 2787892 | F +31 
15 2783450 | [log in to unmask]