*Call for papers: * * *
*HUB CITIES AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY.* *Airports. Seaports. Brainports.* * * *Deadline extended until October 10th* * * *2011 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting *** Seattle, Washington State, USA April, 12-16, 2011 *Organizers* Frank Witlox, Ghent University Ben Derudder, Ghent University Alain Thierstein, Munich University of Technology Sven Conventz, Munich University of Technology ** *Special Session: Hub Cities and the Knowledge Economy. Airports. Seaports. Brain- ports.* The starting point is the expanding importance of the knowledge economy in mature economies. A key question is the role of knowledge in the process of generating value added. But how is knowledge being generated? Empirical evidence sees an interplay between physical/geographical proximity and relational proximity. How then does this translate into certain location specificities or requirements? This again puts a focus on accessibility and connectivity both in a physical and relational perspective. Again, some evidence sees hub cities benefitting from the process of (re)location of business activities at spaces of highest accessibility. >From a historic perspective, seaports, airports and nowadays certain ‘brainports’ – centers of competence – are best positioned to be the winners in the re-structuring process of space. The session asks for the state of the matter: what do we really know about the interplay between knowledge generation of firms and accessibility/connectivity? To what extent are physical infrastructures like seaports, airports, brainports being re-defined / re-coded against the backdrop of the knowledge economy? * * *Submitting papers* Both conceptual and empirical papers are welcome, and we look forward to receiving proposals that make use of a variety of data sources, scales of analysis and methodological backgrounds. Interested participants should send expression of interest, questions and/ or title and *abstract of 250 words *or less to Frank Witlox (frank.wit...@ugent.be), Ben Derudder ( ben.derud...@ugent.be), Alain Thierstein (thierst...@tum.de), and Sven Conventz (conve...@tum.de), by *October 10, 2010*. Contributors will have to register for the conference and submit their abstract the regular way (through the AAG website: http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/register_to_attend), and should then send the *registration code (PIN)* they receive to us. Please note that you have to submit the abstract *AND* also pay, and then your PIN is activated. Once everyone has done this (+/- mid-October), we register for a special session, and mention all registration codes that will be in our session(s).
