Regional Studies, Regional Science 

About: Regional Studies, Regional Science is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & European union. It has an ISSN identifier of 2168-1376. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 407 publications have been published receiving 4567 citations. The journal is also known as: RSRS.

Knowing and governing cities through urban indicators, city benchmarking and real-time dashboards

Abstract: Since the mid-1990s a plethora of indicator projects have been developed and adopted by cities seeking to measure and monitor various aspects of urban systems. These have been accompanied by city benchmarking endeavours that seek to compare intra- and inter-urban performance. More recently, the data underpinning such projects have started to become more open to citizens, more real-time in nature generated through sensors and locative/social media, and displayed via interactive visualisations and dashboards that can be accessed via the internet. In this paper, we examine such initiatives arguing that they advance a narrowly conceived but powerful realist epistemology – the city as visualised facts – that is reshaping how managers and citizens come to know and govern cities. We set out how and to what ends indicator, benchmarking and dashboard initiatives are being employed by cities. We argue that whilst these initiatives often seek to make urban processes and performance more transparent and to improve de...

The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities

Abstract: Over 1 billion people currently live in slums, with the number of slum dwellers only expected to grow in the coming decades. The vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres in the less economically developed countries, which are also experiencing greater rates of urbanization compared with more developed countries. This rapid rate of urbanization is cause for significant concern given that many of these countries often lack the ability to provide the infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable housing) and basic services (e.g., water and sanitation) to provide adequately for the increasing influx of people into cities. While research on slums has been ongoing, such work has mainly focused on one of three constructs: exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, those modelling slums. This paper reviews these lines of research and argues that while each is valuable, there is a need for a more holistic approach for studying slu...

Co-working spaces for promoting entrepreneurship in sparse regions: the case of South Wales

Abstract: Co-working spaces are creative and energetic places where small firms, freelancers and start-ups, who have become tired of the isolation of their home offices and the distractions of their local coffee shops, can interact, share, build and co-create. Based on the existing literature and under the wider definition of co-working spaces, IndyCube and the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise (Welsh ICE) can be identified as such in South Wales. These spaces provide support (moral, emotional, professional, financial) and facilities (infrastructure) to enable entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. This paper aims to provide an empirical exploration of whether co-working spaces can promote entrepreneurship in regions with sparse entrepreneurial environments by creating the hard infrastructure particularly designed in such a way that the soft infrastructure necessary for entrepreneurship can also emerge.

Mobilizing leadership in cities and regions

Abstract: Increasing attention has been given to the role of leadership as an important determinant of growth at the regional or local scale (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), [2010]. Regions matter. Paris: OECD, [2012]. Growth in all regions. Paris: OECD). Scholarship on the leadership of places, however, remains an under-developed field, with much research either overly reliant upon perspectives drawn from management disciplines or limited to case study analysis of ‘success’ stories. While there have been significant exceptions (Stimson, Stough, with Salazar, [2009]. Leadership and institutions in regional endogenous development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar), too little attention has been paid to developing a systematic approach to understanding place leadership. This paper reviews the literature on the leadership of places and argues there is now a sufficient body of scholarship to enable the development of more analytically rigorous approaches. It also posits that effective leadership ...

The role of place branding in local and regional economic development: bridging the gap between policy and practicality

Abstract: Place branding has become an increasingly integral part of local and regional economic development strategies in the global competition for business investment. Professional and academic understanding remains limited, however, regarding whether place branding can be classified as a ‘high-road’ policy with substantive and effective merits or a ‘low-road’ policy that is generally inefficient and ineffective at fostering sustainable economic growth. Through the context of business attraction, this study examines whether place branding represents ‘high-road’ policy by comparing what economic development practitioners are doing to create and support their brands against the needs and desires of businesses considering relocation. The research goal is achieved through a series of in-depth interviews with economic development practitioners (n = 25) and private-sector site selectors (n = 10) in the province of Ontario, Canada. Gaps between policy and practicality are identified by comparing the responses of the tw...