The session, titled ‘Creating Rural-Urban Synergies in Public Infrastructure and Social Services’, will showcase practical research and provocative ideas from ROBUST and beyond. Topics may include, for example: mobility, physical and digital infrastructure, renewable energy, recreation facilities, and health and social care.

Both members of ROBUST’s Living Lab network and fellow researchers who broadly share our interests are warmly invited to contribute.

Abstract submission will be open until the 31st of January. (Scroll down for how to submit.)

Theresia Oedl-Wieser, leader of ROBUST’s public infrastructures and social services community of practice (CoP), and Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, from the Mid Wales Living Lab, will jointly convene the session.

In an interview to mark the CoP launch, Theresia Oedl-Wieser urged that we “coordinate and bring together existing offers of public infrastructures and social services in urban areas and the surrounding rural areas so that accessibility of services for all groups is increased.”

The conference session will provide an opportunity to share progress towards this goal.

How to submit a paper

The conference call for papers is open until the 31st of January. More information about the conference, and a full list of special sessions, can be found on the Regional Studies Association website. To submit an abstract for the ROBUST special session, follow the link below and choose special session number 10: https://members.regionalstudies.org/lounge/Meetings/Meeting?ID=248