Arnoud Lagendijk, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands: [log in to unmask]
John Harrison, Loughborough University, UK: [log in to unmask]
Relational perspectives have greatly advanced our thinking on urban and regional development. Cities and regions are now more considered as relationally constituted and positioned. Their boundaries are conceived as heterogeneous constructs and outcomes of political and identity work rather than geometrical givens. Relational thinking has also inspired new intriguing views on policy mobility and territorial responsibilities. This session focuses on two major challenges. First, the way theoretical work in the field stands to benefit from recent work on spatialities (Mol, Law …) and topology (Massey, Allen ….), amongst others. Second, the challenge to develop research practices, such as comparative studies, that probe and unravel urban and regional relationality meeting the conceptual depth and versatility of relational perspectives. This session invites papers making theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to the debate.
Potential themes of interest might include, but are not limited to:
Please contact the session organisers if you have further questions on the session and potential contributions.
Please submit proposals for papers in the form of a 250 word abstract (text only) through the Regional Studies Association conference portal by Friday 24th February 2017
http://www.regionalstudies.org
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