The role of regional science in Hungary The case of the Institute of Regional Studies, CERS, HAS Ilona Pálné Kovács director palne@rkk.hu Novosibirsk, 10-13, October, 2016.
The story and the history interconnected The establishment, and activites of any research institute dealing with regional issues depend on external context also, on the state of the art of: the surrounding region/country regional policy politics science policy
History of the institute 1943 Transdanubian Institute (Pécs, independent with local and governmental support) 1955 it becomes a part of the institute network of HAS 1972 new interdisciplinary profile 1984 establishing the network with more departments CRS, HAS 1990 systemic change ( to survive) 1993-2004 strong governmental demand for professional support the new regional policy: legislation, macro and regional, local planning, preparation for EU accession, teaching 2004declining governmental demand and financial crisis but stabilised the international embeddeddness (2010. Annual conference of RSA in Pécs) 2012 HAS reform: merger with two institutes CERS HAS- shock 2012shrinking, fighting for survive again, but consolidation in a smaller scale,
Main activites Basic research Policy advise Higher education
Basic research activities, disciplines Regional, urban and rural development Spatial structure of the society and economy, infrastructure Regional policy and regional administration Regional policy in the European Union, International and interregional co-operations, border studies Environmental researches Economics, geography, history, sociology, political science, law Geographically CEE in the focus but some shifts towards Balkan countries and Russia
Periodicals Sapce and Society Discussion papers Series Volumes Monographs
Departments of IRS departments in 2007 Departments in 2016
Heigher education in regional science Doctoral schools (Győr, Pécs, Debrecen, Gödöllő) Master trainings (Győr, Pécs, Budapest, Szeged, Kaposvár, Debrecen, Székesfehérvár, Gödöllő) New regional science workshops in Carpathian Basin (Kolozsvár, Csíkszereda, Szabadka, Komárom) also declining, students clever enough moving to more „competitive” professions
Massive regional polarisation is going on Did we succeed? Hungary is still (or again) a centralised country without regions or any strong autonomous local and regional governments (We could ask are any governments interested in regional knowledge and decentralisation?) Massive regional polarisation is going on Development policy is territorally blind. Massive social polarisation together with territorial desintegration and segregation
Why failure? Policy Empty map, lack of culture of regionalism Hectic political fashions of geographical scales instead of adapting to the spatial processes Ethnic regions (at the beginning) Economic rayons (1950–) City districts, planning regions (1970–) NUTS regions, Leader area, CBC (1990–) City networks, macro regions (2014–) Space is only a device of politics (empty map or mapdrawing) not a stable frame of reference in public policy
Dilemmas of the mission of policy advise Regionalism and decentralisation under threat (only in Hungary?), there is no demand for our knowledge No need for on-the-ground interdisciplinary research that reflects territorialities IRS has to focus on „pure” science
Science policy challenge Regional science has weakened in its position both in higher education and applied research in Hungary Dilemma of basic vs. applied research What is (can be) our priority: to assist the regional policy or to conduct mainstream basic research The last one of course but without money?
Both institutes located at the periphery Similarities between IRS and Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering Both institutes located at the periphery Same profile: interdisciplinary research and modelling of regional processes Ambition to assist regional development policy Outstanding leaders (Enyedi, Horváth, professor Granberg) who died but their impact survived Firm target to co-operate in the future
Our mission is to continue Optimist conclusion Politics is changing Regional policy is changing Science policy is changing Regional science must exist Our mission is to continue