I hope people will be interested in the following conference which will take
place in Aix en Provence in May next year.
Sarah Batterbury
University of Glamorgan
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CALL FOR PAPERS
EVALUATION AND EU REGIONAL POLICY:
NEW QUESTIONS AND NEW CHALLENGES
Regional Studies Association International Conference
Centre d'Economie Régionale, de l'Emploi et des Firmes Internationales
(CEREFI),
Université d'Aix - Marseille III, Aix en Provence, France
31st May and 1st June 2002
Following the success of the first EU Regional Policy conference in Aix en
Provence, France, last year, the forthcoming Regional Studies Association
international conference gives specific attention to the theme of evaluation
as an integral component of European Regional Policy. The conference has
been designed as part of a series of innovative initiatives by the
Association to build capacity in the area of evaluation research. It will be
the first of a series of conferences that addresses the evaluation theme
leading to a large practitioner focused and academic conference in 2004.
The conference themes have been selected to reflect contemporary issues in
European regional policy and their links with important issues and debates
in policy evaluation. Many of the ideas in this call for papers are also
innovative and new to the conference circuit. We hope these themes will
excite considerable interest from the evaluation community as well as those
with expertise in regional policy. Bringing together those working in the
related fields of evaluation and regional policy creates opportunities for
dialogue and exchange of best practice ideas. The target audience includes
policy-makers, researchers/academics and consultants.
The working languages of the conference will be English and French with, we
hope, simultaneous interpretation provided for plenary sessions and round
table discussions.
The conference is organised around a number of key themes outlined below. It
is planned to have three plenary sessions linking the themes of the
workshops and round table discussion groups.
Key Themes
1) The process of policy formulation - engaging the stakeholders
Papers will focus on issues of inclusion and exclusion of Europe's citizens
from the policy making process. Notions of cultural diversity, subsidiarity
and citizenship are becoming increasingly important in today's policy
environment which is characterised by increasingly large groups of citizens
feeling disenfranchised by and excluded from the policy process.
This theme links very clearly into debates about the role of stakeholders in
the evaluation process. Running through this session will be a focus on ways
of better integrating policy formulation and evaluation as part of a
coherent and integrated policy process.
2) Accession of new member states: building capacity
This theme will address the issue of the prospective enlargement of the EU,
and it's implications for regional policy. There will be a focus on capacity
enhancement and the contribution which regional development strategies and
their evaluation can make to facilitating the accession of the new Member
States.
3) The Structural Funds: appraisal, review and impact
This session will focus on the evaluation of the Structural Funds - past,
present and future. It is hoped that there will be some discussion of
findings from the existing large-scale ex-ante, mid term and the current
ex-post evaluations of the Structural Funds. The session will focus on
important methodological approaches to the evaluation of the Structural
Funds and discuss innovative ways of improving evaluation strategies for
this important area of regional policy.
4) Evidence based evaluation: roundtable/chat room
Evidence based evaluation and research has become common currency in
contemporary social science today. This round table will discuss key issues
surrounding the meaning of evidence and seek to address issues of both
process focused and quantitative methodological approaches to evaluation. We
anticipate a lively debate that will seek to reconcile the different
approaches to evaluation design.
5) Innovation and the information society: learning and reflexivity
The Information Society has become central to all activities in modern
society, according to some claims. The rapid rise and fall of the dotcom
phenomena and its ramifications for claims to a 'weightless society' suggest
a more measured response. This session focuses on the role of the
information society in fostering innovation, reflexivity and the emergence
of the learning society as key elements of regional development. Learning
and reflexivity are essential components of the evaluation process. As a
result, the link between evaluation and learning will be examined in this
context.
6) The Euro: issues of regional policy and accountability
The current problems with the weak Euro represent a major challenge to the
ECB and national governments within the Euro zone. The regional
implications of these problems and the desire by national governments to
preserve some degree of fiscal independence within the constraints of the
Growth and Stability Pact (for example Ireland), in order to manage economic
shocks, continue to pose serious problems for completing EMU.
This theme also raises new issues of accountability and subsidiarity. The
centralisation of decision making within the Euro zone for monetary policy
and national discretion over fiscal policy within centrally defined limits,
has important implications for structuring evaluations in such a way that
accountability ensues for Europe's citizens, on whom these new macroeconomic
institutions and policies impinge.
7) Regulation: towards greater harmonisation - the regional implications?
The introduction of the SEM and EMU in the European Union has brought with
it a need to harmonise the regulatory frameworks governing the individual
citizens of the EU 15/11. However, such legislative "smoothing" has not
been without some tensions. For example, to what extent does greater
harmonisation of individual employment rights conflict with other
objectives, for example competition and growth, of EU Member States at
sub-national and supra-national levels? One focus for this debate will be
the role of the evaluator in stressing the importance of contextual
differences which determine and shape differential policy outcomes across EU
territories
8) The Euro-Mediterranean region: implications for EU expansion?
The Euro-Mediterranean region continues to play an important role in the
development of the EU. Although formally excluded from the process of
European Integration the citizens of the Mahgreb continue to contribute to
large net migratory flows to the EU. Migration has been going on for most
of the post-war period and raises important issues about the notion of
inclusion and exclusion, not only about access to EU markets but at the
level of the itinerant worker. For those without official residency or the
right to be formally consulted within the EU, their exclusion from decision
making over issues, which materially affect their lives is key. In the
context of stakeholder evaluation, critical issues are raised about the
degree to which policy evaluations can and should be inclusive.
Those interested in contributing to the conference are invited to submit an
abstract in English or French (no more than 1000 words in length) directly
related to the themes of the conference by 31st December 2001 to the address
given below.
Indicative fees* The fee for the conference (including morning tea/coffee,
lunch, afternoon tea/coffee for the full conference period, the evening
social programme and a copy of the abstract book and papers will be in the
region of £250.00. *Fees will be confirmed at the point of acceptance of
papers.
Hotel accommodation will be the responsibility of each participant. However,
there will be a central hotel booking service operated through the Tourist
Office of Aix en Provence who have block booked rooms in a range of hotels
at a discounted rate for conference participants. Details of this service
will be provided to each participant.
Conference Officer, Evaluation & EU Regional Policy Conference, Regional
Studies Association,
PO Box 2058, Seaford BN25 4QU, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1323 899 698, Fax: +44 (0)1323 899 798
Email: [log in to unmask], Web: www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk
(The Regional Studies Association is a registered charity No. 1084165 and a
company registered by guarantee No. 4116288)
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