Jani Kozina

Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts | ZRC SAZU · Anton Melik Geographical Institute

Dear colleagues, there is a growing recognition that traditional development strategies and EU policies have often failed to address the challenges faced by industrial towns and regions (Capello & Cerisola, 2022), which are increasingly framed as sites of socio-economic marginalisation and political discontent (Rodríguez-Pose 2018). Oddly enough, the concept of ‘exclusion’ is often applied to whole ‘regions’, regardless of who (of its inhabitants) is excluded and in which way (MacKinnon et al. 2022). Much in line with this observation, most of recent literature on the transformation processes of old industrialised regions has focused on the role of leadership and ‘agents of change’, identifying and analysing network processes of key decision-makers and their (top-down) influence on such processes (e.g. Beer et al, 2019; Grillisch & Sotarauta, 2020). It thereby ignores to a great extent the needs and challenges of different groups within the transformation processes, from which different views, perspectives and values emerge that form the core of the under-researched informal institutions (Rodríguez-Pose, 2020). In this session, we would like to broaden the perspective of firm- and system-level ‘agents of change’ by inviting contributions formulating a ‘people-centred approach’, investigating the role and perspective of civil society, everyday activism and ‘ordinary people’ including vulnerable and marginalised groups, such as women, elderly, youth, NEET, minorities, and migrants (e.g. Nayak, 2006; Helgesen et al., 2013; Nared et al., 2013). These groups are normally ignored and under-represented in the academic debate on transformation processes (Hadjimichalis & Hudson, 2006), albeit they are usually affected most by processes of economic and social transformation and play a particularly important role in making industrial towns ‘better places’ to work, live, and play in. By fostering this ‘bottom-up’ perspective on urban and regional development, the session strives to for better understanding of the social and cultural sphere of industrial towns and regions, which form the basis of economic development (Hadjimichalis & Hudson,2016). Papers addressing the following questions are welcome: – What ‘people-centred approaches’ exist in analysing development trajectories of industrial towns and regions? – What concepts exist in regard to the role of civil society and ‘ordinary people’ in the transformation of industrial towns and regions? – Which methodological approaches exist to map out perspectives of vulnerable and marginalised groups in the transformation of industrial towns and regions? – What are the perspectives and narratives of ‘ordinary people’ and marginalised groups on transformation processes of industrial towns and regions? – How do ‘ordinary people’ and marginalised groups shape and contribute to socio-economic development in industrial towns and regions? – What kind of policies are designed and needed in for the participation of marginalised groups in industrial towns and regions? – How do and could ‘ordinary people’ and marginalised groups contribute to different path creations and path renewals in industrial towns and regions? These are just some examples of the questions that could be addressed in this session. The session invites contributions from the field of urban and regional planning, inclusive planning approaches, participation studies, governance and urban and regional development. Any other papers addressing socio-cultural notion of industrial towns and regions in connection to marginalised groups are also welcome. Please submit proposals for papers in the form of a 250-word abstract (text only) through the RSA conference portal by 28st February 2023. Proposals will be considered by the Conference Program Committee against the criteria of originality, interest and subject balance. Hope to see you in Ljubljana, Jani Kozina (ZRC-SAZU) and Jörn Harfst (University of Graz)

The industrial sector accounts for a large share of employment in small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) (see Kotzeva et al., 2016). The academic literature tends, however, to focus on industrial transformation in well-performing regions and large urban centres; making policy recommendations derived from such “best-practice models” ill-adapted to SMSTs’ contexts (see Florida et al., 2017; Miörner & Trippl, 2019). Researchers are increasingly interested in SMSTs to provide policymakers with contextualised place-based policies (see Servillo et al., 2014). Additional research must be conducted to understand how industrial and socio-institutional transformation plays out in SMSTs. Using a comparative approach, we examine industrial and socio-institutional transformation in six industrial towns in Switzerland and Slovenia. The research methodology is based on in-depth comparative case-study approaches and participatory workshops to identify the processes behind industrial and socio-institutional transformation in SMSTs. The research project will attempt to provide an explanation to favour community-level responses when tackling industrial and socio-institutional transformation and mitigate increasing populist resentment from citizens in SMSTs who “feel that they don’t matter” compared with citizens in large urban centres (Rodríguez-Pose, 2018).

YOUIND deals with the issue of youth outmigration from peripheral industrial towns and regions from an industrial-cultural perspective. Central Europe is characterized by a relatively large number of industrial enterprises, which are often located in small and medium-sized towns. These places are facing new challenges, as new trends (e.g. Industry 4.0), increasingly demand for new, highly skilled workers. Nevertheless, especially younger people do not see these regions as attractive and leave, rarely to return. These developments do not only threaten industry, but also the socio-economic development of entire regions. To address this largely neglected issue, the YOUIND partnership combines academic and regional knowledge to raise institutional capacities. The project seeks to use this specific industrial culture of place as a potential for strengthening the institutional capacity on youth outmigration in order to link young people closer to their region. The aim is to promote social innovation and improve institutional capacities through pilot actions and long-term action planning. The partnership will also translate project findings to transnational policy recommendations, distributing knowledge on emerging topic. The YOUIND project is co-financed by ERDF via the SI-AT-crossborder programme of the European Union (INTERREG A, SI-AT, 2013-2020).