*** Deadline for submission of papers: 15 December 2015 ***

This special issue will focus on strategic knowledge-based development frontiers in employment, migration, health, food security and climate change, and cultural engagement. These global issues pose problems at every level, down to micro-districts. They are strategic because what happens will determine the kind of cities and regions in which we will live. They are on the frontier because they generate conflict or could lead to greater co-operation. And they are critical to knowledge-based development because we do not know how to solve them; indeed, we do not even know how to cope with them very well, unsolved.

Progress on the strategic frontier means improving the knowledge that can be used in decision-making. Universities are critical because they are the places where ideas and knowledge advance and are diffused; cities are critical because they provide the problems that researchers can study, and the arena where innovative solutions can be tested. Finally, networks between cities and universities will help us understand learning in city-regions for knowledge-based development.

Prospective papers may focus on theoretical and conceptual issues, or empirical analyses. This special issue should reach academics and practitioners alike, in the unique combination that is the touchstone of the PASCAL International Observatory, whose 12th conference, in October 2015, was devoted to this theme.

Papers on employment should focus on the nature of work in the future, the role of the university in meeting the demands for skills, training and entrepreneurship, the respective roles of the private and public sectors in learning in future cities, and on the globalisation of universities. Migration covers the challenges of new immigrant populations and to emigration as a matter of choice, the revitalisation of urban districts, and strategies to improve opportunities in rural areas threatened with decline and out- migration. How can relations between city-regions and universities be improved? How are problems for collaboration identified, and solutions co-designed, including with community participation?  Health and questions of food security are tied together.

Approaches that enhance local production and better use of natural resources, and learning interventions that enhance the capability of cities to act effectively, are all of interest. Culture is at the heart of cities and communities, and of universities. The financial crisis has had a major impact on the agenda of arts and culture worldwide, and the same shock has also led to an upsurge of nationalism, especially in its extreme and exclusive forms, threatening international solutions to global problems and impeding the kind of inclusive pattern of development which our societies need.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the  12th PASCAL International Observatory conference, but we are also inviting other experts to submit articles for this call.

Subject Coverage

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Knowledge city-regions
• Creating and securing local jobs for future regions
• The challenges of (e)migration
• Engaging communities and universities for the public good
• Sustainable and healthy city development
• Cultural engagement
• Case-based solutions for local knowledge economies
• Comparative urban development studies
• Knowledge markets and urban enterpreneurship
• Local lessons of KBD initiatives
• Conceptual elaborations of KBD and spatial aspects
  
  

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. Please read our Submitting articles page.

For more information on the special issue, please contact the Guest Editor, Professor Josef Konvitz, directly: [email protected]

Important Dates

Submission of full paper: 15 December, 2015

Notification of review results: 15 February, 2016

Final paper submissions: 15 March, 2016

Further information is featured below and attached.