Relational regions 'in the making': institutionalizing new regional geographies of higher education. Issue 7 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harrison, John; Smith, Darren P.; Kinton, Chloe
• Is Part Of: Regional studies. Volume 51:Issue 7(2017)
• Page Start: 1020
• Page End: 1034
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: relational regionalism -- constellatory regionalism -- higher education -- university alliances -- doctoral training; 关系性区域主义 -- 群聚区域主义 -- 高等教育 -- 大学联盟 -- 博士训练; régionalisme relationnel -- régionalisme à constellation -- éducation supérieure -- alliances universitaires -- formation doctorale; relationaler Regionalismus -- konstellatorischer Regionalismus -- höhere Bildung -- Bündnisse zwischen Hochschulen -- Doktorandenausbildung; regionalismo relacional -- regionalismo constelatorio -- estudios superiores -- alianzas entre universidades -- formación doctoral; O18; Regional planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 307.14
• DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2017.1301663
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0034-3404

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Relational regions 'in the making': institutionalizing new regional geographies of higher education. Regional Studies . This paper advances current debates on relational regions and higher education through a unique focus on the rise of transregional university alliances. It examines the formation of university research and training consortia to make a series of wider arguments about the new spatialities of higher education praxis, the construction of new regional identities and processes of institutionalizing relational regions. Our research shows new partnership working between universities to be conducive to the weakening of fixed regional territories. The paper then illustrates how and why some relational imaginaries are beginning to crystallize into harder institutional forms, before revealing significant political–economic and societal implications arising from new institutional geographies of higher education. Furthermore, our research reveals the concerted theoretical and empirical attention required to develop vocabulary and frameworks better able to comprehend emergent regional worlds. For our part, we distinguish between territorial, archipelagic, de facto and constellatory regionalism to exact more precise interpretations of unfolding configurations of relational regions and a new conceptual perspective on the increasingly complex spatialities characterizing and shaping our globalizing world.