Makers project at RSA Conference

From the 3rd to the 6th of June Erica Santini and Simona Ciappei, secondees of Horizon2020 MAKERS  project, attended to the yearly Regional Studies Association (RSA) Conference in Lugano, Switzerland, entitled “A World of Flows: Labour Mobility, Capital and Knowledge in an Age of Global Reversal and Regional Revival”. Download the program here.

Every year the conference collects contributes of academics, researchers and policy makers related to the economic development at regional and urban level, through presentations and round tables. The key theme of 2018 edition was the new possible role of Regions within global economy, where new political and technological trends are sensibly modifying the path of capital, work and knowledge flows.

Erica and Simona presented two research projects that the Foundation for Research and Innovation is conducting in collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham, Lund and Florence. The name of the session was “The Impact of Technological Change on Regional Innovation Dynamics and Governance Structures”. At the heart of both research, Tuscany Region and the transformation processes of the regional manufacturing sectors.

Erica’s presentation “Path Renewal and Creation in Specialized Regional Innovation Systems. A Comparative Analysis of Two Textile Districts in Italy and Sweden” aimed at analyzing and comparing the different evolution of two European textile districts in Prato, Italy, and in Boras, Sweden. Simona instead presented some preliminary results of an ongoing analysis related to the adoption paths of new digital technologies in three Tuscan technological districts: life science, yacht, fashion (“The Digital Transformation of Traditional Manufacturing Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Different Upgrading Paths”).