ABSTRACT
Regional studies are at a vibrant conjuncture. ‘Regions’ continue to provide a conceptual and analytical focus for often overlapping concerns with economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological change. In the context of increased interest in inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, ‘regions’ remain an arena in which synthesis across disciplines — including economics, geography, planning, politics, and sociology — can take place. Indeed, this cross-disciplinary ethos has long been integral to the Regional Studies Association and its journal, Regional Studies (Pike et al., 2007a). The regional studies field remains distinctive in its strong empirical grounding upon which contributors have built a sophisticated literature encompassing a range of research from a variety of disciplinary angles. Yet, regional studies is a far from static entity with clearly or simply defined and rigidly demarcated boundaries. Sharing common concerns across and through multi- and interdisciplinary and empirically focused approaches to the sub-national, regional studies remains a broad sphere shaped by the interplay of its contributors and debates unfolding in their specific disciplines, evolving empirical phenomena and their regional manifestations, and the internationalizing foci of research and the geographies of contributors (Pike et al., 2007a).
