Looking for a job in academia? Itching to teach some of the brightest students in the world? LSE Geography & #Environment is hiring in Economic #Geography & Urban #Planning — where teaching leads, not follows. But rush, deadline 11 Jan, or spend another year wondering. jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

The digital divide is an institutional design, not a technical glitch. @dbreznitz.bsky.social, Jane Gingrich & Amos Zehavi argue in Industrial and Corporate Change that #innovation-driven equity lies in the dull detail of #governance, not in the novelty of the tool. doi.org/10.1093/icc/...

Prosperity and neglect are equally potent politically radicalising agents. As Adamiak, Churski, thers & I show in @rsa-tpg.bsky.social, #Poland’s spatial duel means that the ‘places that matter’ have mobilised to shield their interests from the 'places that don't matter'. doi.org/10.1080/2162...

#Publish or perish? Not quite. In TIBG, Leiboyu Xiang, @neillee.bsky.social & I argue the real divide isn’t who prints the most article pages, but who produces high-impact, elite #research. Four wold hubs dominate when quantity meets influence in scientific production. doi.org/10.1111/tran...

We treat #innovation as a self-sustaining engine, forgetting it requires the ballast of good #instititutions. Borsekova, Korony, Styk, Westlund & me show in our new PiRS paper that in CEE, #governance deficits are a hard ceiling on technical talent. doi.org/10.1016/j.pi...

Urban life needn’t be a binary choice between #metropolitan sclerosis & provincial stagnation. As Searle, @annforsythplan.bsky.social, Gurran & Darcy argue in #Cities, the intermediate city offers a Goldilocks third way: vibrancy without the punishing #urban diseconomies. doi.org/10.1016/j.ci...

Governments cannot "message" their way out of a geography of #discontent. Writing in Regional Science Policy & Practice, Torre and @bourdinseb.bsky.social suggest that only territorial justice can repair the symbolic hierarchies that treat certain #regions as obsolete. doi.org/10.1016/j.rs...

The creative economy is less a series of spontaneous eruptions and more a matter of historical plumbing. Büyükyazıcı & @evacoll8.bsky.social show in @regionalstudies.bsky.social that hubs are built on latent skills, not conjured from thin air. #Culture by habit, not miracle. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

#EU green spending can, some times, actually raise emissions, according to Marco Dueñas & Antoine Mandel in their brand new @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper. Where #institutions are weak, #green budgets dissolve into near-term, high-emission expansion. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

One cannot simply import a #Bordeaux blueprint into #Canada. As De Fuentes, Doloreux & Quilley show when mapping Nova Scotia’s rise to a vintage of the periphery (Journal of Rural Studies), it requires local grit & external support in equal measure. doi.org/10.1016/j.jr...

#Brussels considers investment a universal solvent. It isn’t. In Economic Modelling, Alvarez, Barbero, Orea & I show that local #institutions shape the returns of #investment. Where they are brittle, better invest in skills than in concrete. doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...

British #Universities fashion themselves as global engines of excellence. However, as Chaytor and Tomaney argue in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social, locally, they increasingly look like extractive #industries: educating young people for jobs that exist elsewhere. doi.org/10.1111/1467...

“Devolve, devolve, devolve.” Devolution is less a lifeline than a psychological permission slip. As Hermelin shows in her new Planning Practice & Research paper, with #devolution, #Sweden’s outposts are turning from service desks to brokers by necessity, not wealth. doi.org/10.1080/0269...

Drop the #Christmas socks. The real crisis isn't your gift list; it's the #DevelopmentTrap. Balland & @ronboschma.bsky.social show in @regionalstudies.bsky.social how regions lacking #complexity become haunted by their own history. Hard work won't save them—innovation will. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

Abbiamo trattato il #declino come assistenza anziché #sviluppo, pagando il solo esodo ai giovani migliori. Su Avvenire con Pietro Saccò spiego perché —come scritto nel mio libro di Donzelli, nato dall'energia di Filippo Barbera— serve un cambio di rotta. www.avvenire.it/economia/vi-...

And help make Leiboyu a star scientist in the process! 😉

Did you know 12% of the world’s top #researchers cluster in just four #cities? In our brand new paper (with Xiang & @neillee.bsky.social) in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, the “flat world” is a gated archipelago. The #GlobalSouth remains excluded. doi.org/10.1111/tran...

The paradox of the #SEZ: its greatest strength—its distinctness—is frequently its fatal flaw. As Kimura (@oecdlocal.bsky.social) argues, to be transformative rather than an expensive vanity, zones must shed their insularity and link fortunes to the broader regional economy. doi.org/10.1787/4373...

Economic decline doesn’t always lead to #populism. The local political climate acts as a filter. As Deppisch & @andreasklaerner.bsky.social argue in @regionalstudies.bsky.social, in some rural areas discontent leads to civic engagement. In others, it is a vehicle for revenge. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

In #Ireland, the “Key #Town” is often presented in policy as a uniform strategic unit. Yet, new research by Ji, @niamhmcherry.bsky.social & @dfkogler.bsky.social in Geoforum uses PCA to reveal a complex typology of urban life that defies tidy, one-size-fits-all narratives. doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

Can all places be saved? To save a shrinking #town or manage its decline? In @cjres.bsky.social, Dijkstra warns against fighting history, while Pike, Mackinnon, Tomaney & Velthuis claim that no prosperous #city is an island. doi.org/10.1093/cjre... doi.org/10.1093/cjre...

Brussels’ volte-face on #petrol engines— @financialtimes.com (www.ft.com/content/0e16...) —show our lack of capacity to implement #carbon neutrality. Bartalucci & I argue in @cjres.bsky.social that the costs of #green compliance begin to chafe against democratic patience. doi.org/10.1093/cjre...

Diagnosing the 'fallen-below' can be an elegant exercise; organising them is harder. Martin Jones warns in @dialogueshg.bsky.social against a liveability politics that curdles into cosy localism. We need a strategy for scaling —not just measuring— economic despair. doi.org/10.1177/2043...

For #green #innovation to happen, distance from the capital can be a catalyst. As Qua, Riandita & Solheim show in Business Strategy and the Environment, isolation breeds a need for global outreach that is a lifeline for all types of innovation. doi.org/10.1002/bse....

The long quarrel over #inequality usually boils down to two weak orthodoxies: let the winners win or redistribute until it stops. Wang, Gong & Mao reveal in @economyandspace.bsky.social, a third, #China way: equality through state entrepreneurialism & resource-sharing. doi.org/10.1177/0308...

There is a difference between missing the train and being tied to the tracks. In the Journal of Economic Geography, Phelps, Atienza & @mariasloyola.bsky.social outline "sacrificed" regions, where harm is a function of the sytem, not an accident of the invisible hand. doi.org/10.1093/jeg/...

Economic geography has long obsessed over industrial variety while ignoring #demography. In the Journal of Economic Geography, Barbara Martini proves that the "what" of regional growth matters less than the "who." #Gender diversity is the engine of economic change. doi.org/10.1093/jeg/...

The siren call of centralised 'efficiency' in #EU Cohesion Policy masks the peril of trading #democracy for bureaucratic fiat. Creating national pots marginalises the voices driving #development. A Union that silences its #regions will pay in political trust. doi.org/10.1177/0969...

The true happiness divide isn't the chasm between the city & rural areas, but the gulf within #city gates. @crhistianjoel.bsky.social, @pfaggy.bsky.social & Veneri argue in @urbanstudiesjournal.com we are consumed by losing the race against our neighbours, not a rival city. doi.org/10.1177/0042...

The failure of the #Netherlands to disperse jobs beyond the #Randstad was more sociological than economic. Resistance —as @michielvanmeeteren.bsky.social & @martijnjsmit.bsky.social argue in @tesg-journal.bsky.social— came from civil servant’s deep-seated space preferences. doi.org/10.1111/tesg...

It is easy to #green an old model; it is much harder to admit the model is broken. Sedita, @larscoenen.bsky.social & @dfkogler.bsky.social argue in @regionalstudies.bsky.social for a fundamental rethinking the policy scaffolding. #Innovation must serve a #sustainable future. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

You can’t transfuse vitality into a region stripped of its #ecosystem anchors overnight. As @christina-wolf.bsky.social shows in her new JoEG article, gutting East German #cities & #regions of their local anchor firms reduced them to highly-vulnerable 'Satellite Platforms'. doi.org/10.1093/jeg/...

#Green agenda success in #city cores may breed resentment in the periphery. As @havardhaarstad.bsky.social & @mahiryazar.bsky.social argue in @rsa-tpg.bsky.social, a moral hierarchy that punishes car-dependent suburbanites —often on lower incomes— is a recipe for #populism. doi.org/10.1080/2162...

Reports of the death of #industrial #policy have been greatly exaggerated. In #Ireland, as Clifford, @frankgcrowley.bsky.social, Doran & Jordan show in @regionalstudies.bsky.social, targeted state investment in tech parks has delivered sustained #employment #growth. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

To find a #job in #London where the stakes are high yet the environment is warm is a rare luxury. @LSEGeography team is looking for a Graduate Programmes Administrator to guide students from first query to final mark. Details: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... Deadline 8 Dec 2025.

When places are ignored, #democracy falters. In "The revenge of the places that don’t matter," territorial malaise takes centre stage & resentment reveals its geographic roots. Thanks to Filippo Barbera, the force behind the scenes. www.donzelli.it/libro/978885... www.amazon.co.uk/vendetta-con...

Quando i luoghi sono ignorati, la #democrazia vacilla. In "La vendetta dei luoghi che non contano", il disagio dei territori è protagonista e il risentimento ha radici geografiche. Grazie a Filippo Barbera, artefice dietro le quinte. www.donzelli.it/libro/978885... www.amazon.it/dp/8855227815

#Brussels keeps learning the same lesson over and over again: money can build bridges but not love. @mbayerlein.bsky.social & Diermeier show in the Journal of Comparative Economics that people back #Brussels not when it expects loyalty but when it delivers #progress. doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...

History is a resource, not a refuge. As Valdaliso, Suarez, Mayor & Magro show in @cjres.bsky.social, regions that revere their past but look to the future —like the #BasqueCountry— turned #industrial decline into growth. #Asturias, by contrast, clung to a long lost past. doi.org/10.1093/cjre...

#Democracy thins at the edges when the state withdraws from places. #Hospitals closed, courthouses moved, what begins as an efficiency drive ends in alienation. Fregoni & Leonardi's @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper links institutional retreat to #populism. doi.org/10.1080/0034...

@pervencheberes.bsky.social reminded #Brussels that #cohesion isn’t a pot of money but a pact including all Europeans. Strip it into national envelopes and the #EU forfeits the politics that sustain it. Europe works best when every citizen participates. multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/fr/webstream...

Local government, cast as the frail limb of the federal body, proved startlingly resilient throughout #austerity. Xu & Warner show in @urbanstudiesjournal.com how #local #government pragmatism trumped #ideology, revealing a #geography of strain and stamina. doi.org/10.1177/0042...

Recognition, like #citations, is an imperfect mirror but a flattering one. To be listed among @Clarivate's 260 #HighlyCited Researchers across all Social Sciences for the sixth time is a nod to shared labour, intellectual kinship & ideas that still matter. clarivate.com/highly-cited...

Europe’s cohesion falters less from funding gaps than from uneven competence and weak institutions. As Wajid Ali, Brasili and Calia argue in @jcms-eu.bsky.social, European investment lifts the economy only where #institutions can carry it. doi.org/10.1111/jcms...

#Euroscepticism is sold as cost-free dissent, yet its price is paid in slower #growth & #jobs & dimmer prospects. As highlighted in @voxeu.org, voters’ grievances are real but the remedy prescribed carries its own economic harm. cepr.org/voxeu/column... publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...

#Europe’s prosperity hinges less on shiny sectors than on building on its #skills & potential base. As Tessarin, @ronboschma.bsky.social, @lideyu.bsky.social & Petralia show in @cjres.bsky.social, #regions thrive when dense, high-skill ecosystems reinforce themselves. doi.org/10.1093/cjre...

#Europe’s future won’t be forged in #capitals alone. It lies in Mainz, Skellefteå or Arteixo. Yet, these places are falling through the cracks: too rich for cohesion, too dull for #innovation strategies. Centralisation is not the #EU’s best strategy doi.org/10.1177/0969... doi.org/10.1080/0034...

Turns out #governance matters more than growth when Russian tanks arrive. In a fascinating new @econgeog-journal.bsky.social of two occupied towns in #Ukraine, Grillitsch, Cabral Cobos & Horvat show that transparency & civic engagement are the key to recovery & #resilience. doi.org/10.1080/0013...

A continent that once bound regions together, tethering Brussels to its citizens, may soon devolve into national silos. As @profgviesti.bsky.social warns, #cohesion is slow and imperfect, but it is shared & democratic. eticaeconomia.it/una-scompars... doi.org/10.1177/0969... doi.org/10.1080/0034...

Read my commentary in European Urban and Regional Studies on the EU budget proposal. #Brussels sells centralisation as “efficiency.” But it risks silencing the very local voices that make Europe whole, turning European #citizens from shapers of #Europe into mere spectators. doi.org/10.1177/0969...