Main

Conference will discuss global-local interplay and new challenges for local and regional governance in the context of post-industrial and post-socialist transition in the Baltic Sea Region.

There have been four regional science forums on the Baltic Sea Region (BSR).
The main subjects of the previous Conferences were:

"Visions and Strategies in European Integration. A North European Perspective" (in Sonderborg, Denmark, 1992),
"Economic Perspectives Around the Baltic Sea" (in Kiel, Germany, 1993),
"Baltic-Nordic Europe is Restructuring: Looking for the Integration Fits" (in Sopot, Poland, 1994),
"Integration Risks, Barriers and Opportunities" (in Klaipeda, Lithuania, 1996).

The conferences have attracted academics and professionals from a wide variety of fields, including geography, economics, planning and business. All meetings have resulted in published volumes of conference papers.

The fifth conference will be held as a joint project of the Estonian Institute for Futures Studies and the Institute of Geography of the University of Tartu in collaboration with several academic, public and non-governmental organisations.

MAIN THEMES

The conference will focus on the following topics:

prospects of globalisation, localisation and regionalisation;
political and economic impact European integration on the Baltic Sea Region;
EU regional policies and regional development;
new local and regional identities, opportunities for indigenous development;
migratory and demographic processes in the Baltic Sea countries;
post-industrial and post-socialist urban and regional planning;

Baltic studies, futures studies.

The Baltic Sea Region is the focal point of profound changes such as globalisation, European integration and transition from the centrally planned to a market-oriented society, each of the above changes being an intricate mix of economic, political, social and cultural trends. This situation poses serious challenges to the competitiveness of BSR as an integral entity, and in particular in its peripheral areas, in view of the globalising economy in the informational society.

The 5th Nordic-Baltic Conference in Regional Science will explore the simultaneous impact of the above changes on the Baltic Sea Region. In particular, the Conference will highlight the interplay of global and international trends, on the one hand, and the local initiative, institutions and identity, on the other hand. The Conference will contribute to the understanding of broad international processes as they are manifested in specific regions and places. The Conference will also focus on complex and rapidly changing co-operation and competition linkages in BSR. It views the BSR as an internally integrated region, actively participating in larger EU structures and networks. The organisers hereby invite both theoretical and empirical contributions.