Professor Frank Moulaert will discuss his paper titled Analysing regional development and policy: A structural-realist approach, which he co-authored with Abid Mehmood. The paper gives an overview of theories and models which can be used to analyse regional development as well as to design policies and strategies for the future of regions and localities. It evaluates the analytical and policy relevance of these models, and as it moves towards analytical synthesis, makes some recommendations for a structural realist approach to spatial development analysis.
About the speaker
Professor Frank Moulaert (frankmoulaert.net) is Professor of Spatial Planning, Head of the Planning and Development Unit and Chairman of the Leuven Research Centre on Space and Society at the Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium. He was the Academic Coordinator of the Policy Research Centre ‘Spatial Planning and Housing’ of the Flemish Region (2007-2011). His research covers urban and regional development, social science theories and methods, but especially social innovation. He has coordinated six Framework projects (SOCIAL POLIS, KATARSIS, DEMOLOGOS, SINGOCOM, VALICORES, URSPIC) and has worked on a number of regional, national and international research platforms in the course of his academic career. Ongoing research includes: governance of socio-ecological systems (role of social innovation); and, operationalizing sustainable lifestyles through social innovation; transdisciplinary research on spatial quality, governance systems and food webs. Before coming to Leuven he was a Professor at USTL (Lille, France) and Newcastle University (UK).