The editors of Economy & Space invite submissions to the journal's Exchanges section that make distinctive and original interventions concerned with method, methodology, and the construction of explanations in economic geography (broadly defined) from a variety of perspectives and vantage points. Relatively short, focused, and 'methods positive' interventions are especially welcome, preferably in the region of 1,500-2,500 words in length.

Appel publié par Environment and Planning A Economy and Space. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Method and methodology in economic geography
• Construction of explanations in economic geography
• Innovative approaches to economic geography research
• Perspectives and vantage points on economic geography

Guendalina Anzolin, University of Cambridge

Simon Collinson, Zhejiang University

Federica Rossi, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Elvira Uyarra, University of Manchester

Regional innovation systems face significant challenges from digital transformation, decarbonization needs, and economic crises. Governments increasingly fund innovation intermediaries—organizations like research centres, incubators, and technology organizations—to coordinate stakeholders and bridge gaps in innovation cycles. These intermediaries shape regional development through knowledge transfer and institutional adaptation.

This special issue seeks contributions examining how innovation intermediaries interact with regional economic change and institutional evolution. The editors welcome conceptual, empirical, and policy-focused papers employing interdisciplinary approaches and diverse methodologies, spanning economic geography, innovation studies, and public policy. Contributions should address how intermediaries foster diversification, support sustainability transitions, facilitate skills development, and shape emerging markets within regional contexts.

Appel publié par Regional Studies. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Configurations of innovation intermediaries and their role in knowledge transfer, value chain upgrading, and regional diversification or resilience
• Structural conditions leading to the emergence of specific types of innovation intermediaries
• Relationship between innovation intermediaries and place-based, mission-oriented, or smart-specialisation policies
• Role of innovation intermediaries in supporting regional sustainability goals, decarbonization, and circular economy initiatives
• Innovation intermediaries as orchestrators of human-capital formation and labour-market transitions
• Adaptation of innovation intermediaries' activities, governance, and revenue structures to new technological waves and changing funding landscapes
• Impact of policy interventions on innovation intermediaries in specific or comparative regional ecosystems
• Sectoral and value-chain variations in innovation intermediaries' activities and functions
• Innovation intermediaries' contribution to market formation, including standards, certification schemes, and demand articulation
• Novel typologies and metrics for capturing dynamic functions of innovation intermediaries

Timeline

• June 30, 2026: Abstract deadline
• December 31, 2026: Manuscript deadline

Mariachiara Barzotto, University of Bath

Jennifer Clark, The Ohio State University

This special issue addresses the regional development implications of artificial intelligence as an emerging enabling technology. AI functions both as an independent industry and as infrastructure integrated across existing sectors, with potential to reshape production systems, innovation dynamics, regional governance, and spatial economic organisation. The issue recognises that understanding AI requires examining not only industrial transformation but also how it influences knowledge production and regional governance practices.

The special issue seeks to develop a coherent research agenda by bringing together fragmented discussions across different literatures and scales of analysis. It invites empirically grounded contributions that examine three interconnected dimensions: the spatial organisation of the AI industry itself, the effects of AI on regional development governance and planning, and how AI adoption across incumbent sectors reshapes patterns of regional economic concentration and dispersion.

Appel publié par Regional Studies. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• The economic geography of the AI industry: spatial organisation of AI production, agglomeration and dispersion patterns, factors determining spatial organisation (skills, capital, infrastructure, energy, regulatory regimes)
• AI and the governance of regional development: impact on administration and management, effects on decision-making processes and outcomes, new expectations or criteria for regional development and planning practices
• AI diffusion and the restructuring of incumbent industries: how adoption and diffusion of AI alter regional geography of incumbent sectors, changes to spatial logics, substitution effects with other technologies, new patterns of concentration or dispersion
• Conceptually robust and empirically grounded contributions examining regional development implications of AI as an emerging enabling technology

Timeline

• October 16, 2026: Abstract deadline
• December 1, 2026: Manuscript deadline