Call for papers 2022
The main goal of WG IV "Inter-regional Cooperation and Development" for the 30th Annual NISPAcee conference is focused on the broad themes concerning the process, effects and outcomes of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, relating to the decisions for the recovery of the Inter-regional and Cross-border Cooperation and Development Process in EU and beyond. We will focus on inter-regional impact of COVID-19, approaches for managing the recovery from the crisis across different countries and levels of government. Special attention will be paid to the recovery processes in public governance systems in the EU and beyond, due to uncertainty, caused by the pandemic and different crises that it brought - health, social, economic, and political.
For the NISPAcee Conference in 2022, WG IV concentrates on the broad topics relating to the changing role of Inter-regional and Cross-border Cooperation, Development and Recovery processes under the Covid-19 pandemic, such as:
• The role of the crisis in the Inter-regional and Cross-border Cooperation and Development Process;
• Covid-19 effects in public governance systems in the Inter-regional and Cross-border Cooperation in the EU and beyond.
• Covid-19 aspects in inter-regional resilience and development;
• New challenges in inter-regional resilience and the development process in the EU and beyond;
• Recovery from Covid-19 – approaches for governance to the crisis across different countries and levels of government;
• Good practices in inter-regional and cross-border cooperation and resilience process.
We are expecting papers/abstracts which address those topics and have both theoretical and practical relevance. Requirements for the structure of the proposed abstract:
• The names of the authors and their affiliation,
• The problem description,
• The relevance of the paper for WG IV,
• The objective or the research question(s),
• The case(s), data and methodology,
• Expected findings.
Activities in 2021
Meeting of the Working Group on Local Government
WG Programme Coordinators:
Alexey Barabashev, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Lyubimka Andreeva, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria,
Annika Jaansoo, University of Twente, Netherlands
Stefan Okruch, Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary
Place: 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Date: October 21-23, 2021
Main theme of the conference: "Citizens' Engagement and Empowerment - The Era of Collaborative Innovation in Governance"
9 papers were presented in the frame of 3 working group sessions:
Two on-line WG-4 sections and one session with physical presence were devoted to the broad spectrum of issues concerning inter-regional cooperation and development.
Nine speakers from 7 countries of the NISPAcee region discussed topics such as:
•The Law and Economics of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), i.e. its governance structures, ownership rights, decision-making and information rights, as well as conflict resolution mechanisms. The analysis was enriched by an exploration of the ‘economics of atmosphere’ within EGTCs;
•Effects of and problems related to the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Transport Programme (2014-2019) with special emphasis on transport investments in Eastern Central Europe;
•Inter-regional cooperation during the epoch of the Covid pandemic (triggered by Covid closing of the borders between countries of the EU due to their cultural differences and levels of trust in governments), and during Cold War times (system of travel restrictions for professional trips in East Germany);
•Relations and cooperation among different actors of the energy market that are shaping the energy policy (energy associations in Bulgaria) with special emphasis on citizen engagement and empowerment;
•Decentralisation, as some kind of controversial cooperation between the regions of one country and between the authorities of the regions, and how it is reflected in legislation (the case of Russia);
•Terminating countries’ participation in international organisations (typology, reasons, consequences, cases);
•Cooperation between neighbouring regions in waste management, different schemes of reforms in waste management (metropolitan regions, in the case of the comparative study of Moscow, Seoul, and San Francisco);
•Best practices of sub-regional cooperation (in the case of the Vologda region in Russia).
And one physical session with two speakers was held during the conference, discussing the topics:
•European Transport Investment in Eastern Central Europe within the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Transport Program, 2014-2019;
•Management, Governance and the Economics of Atmosphere of Territorial Cooperation within EGTCs: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
The problems that were the focus of the WG-4 sessions, reflected entirely the new situation with governance during the last two years, which can be described briefly as a destruction of stability in long-range regional cooperation, due to the new challenges caused by overlapping events: Covid pandemic; energy crisis; necessity to react on the shifting of the structures of international treaties, unions and agreements; spreading of pollution and the necessity to guarantee sustainable development; necessity to concentrate resources in some selected cooperative regional projects; and the risks for the basic level of any regional cooperation, such as human contacts and travels. With the new conditions of governance, the problematics of WG-4 - the participants believed - became the centre of public administration and governance transformations and the group would like to continue its activity during the next year.
Call for papers 2020
WG
Programme Coordinators:
Barabashev, Alexey, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Andreeva, Lyubimka - Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria, [email protected]
Annika Jaansoo, University of Twente, The Netherlands, [email protected]
The main focus is the concept of inter-regional cooperation and regional development caused by cooperation, its definitions and its rationale.
The aims of WG are to provide an analysis of history and contemporary practice of inter-regional cooperation, its management, its forms and administrative procedures, its social and cultural peculiarities, and the impact of inter-regional cooperation on the development of regions (including within the borders of one state, and international cooperation) that are involved in cooperative processes. The theories of regional development that is caused by inter-regional cooperative processes, according to the aims of WG IV, should be specified as theories of inter-regional development, which take into account the benefits, challenges, outputs and outcomes of cooperation.
One of the topics of WG is dedicated to opportunities and challenges of transport policy and infrastructure cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. The common regional transport policy and common infrastructure cooperation are still under-evaluated today. Specifically, the development of transnational cooperation should act as a catalyst for the realisation of intelligent solutions that respond to the regional challenges in the area of transport.
The broad themes for abstracts/proposals and key shifts which we are keen to facilitate discussion around, include, but are not limited to:
• Administrative governance in inter-regional cooperation and development at European, national or International level;
• The role of the different stakeholders (national, regional and local governments; civil societies) in inter-regional cooperation and the development process;
• Strategies of inter-regional cooperation and development both within the EU and beyond;
• Sectoral inter-regional cooperation and development in the NISPAcee region;
• Transport management and management issues, driving forces of trans-regional and inter-regional cooperation in the regions. Monitoring, systematisation and grounding of EU directives and objectives for the development of transport systems;
• Situation analysis of opportunities, possibilities and challenges for transport policy and infrastructure cooperation, the regional transport network establishing, financing of the regional transport systems;
• Implementation of inter-regional cooperation and development, its challenges and outcomes, and evaluations;
• Best practices of inter-regional cooperation and development;
• Theories of inter-regional cooperation and development.
The above mentioned fields of research and practices require participants to contribute to the theories and practice of the "Inter-regional Cooperation and Development" by including a variety of theoretical and practical data concerning the present and future development of inter-regional cooperation and development at all levels of governance (transnational, national, regional and local).
We are expecting final papers based on abstracts which address one or several of the above mentioned issues and have both theoretical and practical relevance, i.e. applicants should take into account and include in their papers, recommendations for better shaping of inter-regional cooperation and development, including points for practitioners and points relating to the EU and neighbouring countries and regions of NISPAcee, in relation to theoretic issues. Papers which are highly innovative, collaborative, international or multi-disciplinary are especially welcome.
Papers will be considered by the coordinators of WG against the criteria of originality, subject balance and geographical (NISPAcee area) spread. Papers should include:
- The names of the authors and their affiliation,
- Introduction, which clearly states the objectives of the paper,
- Description of the problem studied,
- The research question to be answered in the paper,
- The way in which the research question is going to be answered,
- Information about the case(s)/data to be analysed,
- Evaluation and policy implications,
- Conclusions and discussion about the results, and the recommendations for practitioners (this part needs to result from the previous parts of the paper).