During the Special Session "Cohesion Policy and European Identity" of the ERSA Conference in Cork, PERCEIVE's team will present together with the Cohesify Project's researchers the results achieved so far. Can regional policies enhance European Identity? This and other related topics will be addressed! Read further to find out more. 

What is the ERSA Conference?

The European Regional Science Association (ERSA) is the supranational grouping of national regional science associations across Europe. Its objectives include enhancing regional science across Europe, stimulating research and the implementation of solutions, supporting young scientists and fostering valuable exchanges at an international level.

ERSA gathers academics, policy professionals and researchers interested in spatial economics and planning, regional and local development and related issues: In total, ERSA has some 3,500 members from 20 active associations organized on linguistic groupings and covering more than one country.

With approximately 800 participants every year from all continents, the ERSA congresses have become the largest academic conferences in regional science worldwide. They are the best place to present research results, expand networks and find out about new developments in the field.

What are our researchers going to present?

The 58th ERSA Congress is taking place in Cork, Ireland, from tomorrow August the 28th until Friday the 31st. Researchers from PERCEIVE are well acquainted with the ERSA events, and some of the preliminary results of the project had already been shared with the academic community at the 2017 congress in Groningen, the Netherlands. This time, however, the PERCEIVE participation in the Congress has grown in both size and relevance.

“Places for People: Innovative, Inclusive and Liveable Regions”: the title of the Congress puts people back at the heart of regional and urban development, in order to examine how regional analysis can work to improve people’s lives. “Cohesion Policy and European Identity” is the title of the Special Session that has been organized by Vicente Royuela, leader of PERCEIVE’s unit from the University of Barcelona and member of ERSA’s European Organizing Committee, and his colleague Enrique Lopez-Bazo in joint collaboration with Roberta Capello and Giovanni Perucca from the COHESIFY Project.  

In a period of resurgence of nationalism and anti-European positions, can regional policies be the channel through which European identity can be enhanced? This Special Session will be the place to discuss results from the PERCEIVE and COHESIFY projects, as well as from other works dealing with aspects such as perceptions of the EU and Cohesion Policy, communication of Cohesion Policy, the interplay between European regions with different contexts and political frameworks and so on.

Along with the organizers, other partners of the PERCEIVE Project will be presenting their work: Pawel Chmielinski from IAFE-NRI, Alan Leonard from the University of Portsmouth, Monica Tudor from IEA, and Cristina Brasili, Valentina Aiello, Pinuccia Calia and Pierre Maurice Reverberi from the University of Bologna.

Read the programme on the ERSA website here

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