On September 3-5 the University Centre of the Westfjords will host an international conference entitled 'The periphery and its host economy: Symbiosis, exploitation or burden?' The conference is part of the activities of PEMABO, Peripherality, marginality and border issues in Northern Europe Regional Studies Association Research Network. This research network is mainly concerned with Europe's Celtic-Nordic periphery. This is the third conference organized by PEMABO, the first conference being held in Norway in 2008 and the second in Scotland in 2010.

 

Regional Studies Association is a cross-disciplinary research network of scholars of economics, geography, planning as well as other disciplines, who take space and society into consideration, whether for scholarly activities or policy making, in densely or sparsely populated areas.

 

The theme for this conference is the connection between the periphery and its host economy, and whether it is characterized by symbiosis, exploitation or burden. To spread light on this, seminars will be held in the University Centre of the Westfjords on September 3-4. On September 5 conference guests will be taken on a day tour through the south-western parts of the Westfjord peninsula, where they will be introduced to ongoing research and development carried out by companies and institutions in the area.

 

About thirty lecturers will participate in the conference, partipants coming from Iceland as well as various other countries, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Russia. The majority are scholars, but you also find participants from public administration.

 

More information is to be found on the University Centre website.

For more information on the PEMABO research net and the Regional Studies Association please consult their respective websites:

http://www.pemabo.net/

http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/research-networks/current/pmrne.asp

 

More information is also given by Dr. Peter Weiss, Univeristy Centre of the Westfjords (+354 869 3045 weiss@uwestfjords.is) and Dr. Kristinn Hermannsson (+44 781 690 4486, kristinn.hermannsson@strath.ac.uk ), University of Strathclyde.