Luk Van Langenhove, Founding Director UNU-CRIS and Senior Associate Research Fellow, is delivering First Lecture, Specialisation on Regional Integration and Multi-Level Governance, University of Maastricht, 13-14 February 2017

The specialisation on Regional Integration and Multi-Level Governance (RIMLG) was launched a couple of years ago. Professor Luk Van Langenhove, Founding Director UNU-CRIS and Senior Associate Research Fellow, is introducing today the course with a lecture proposing a general Introduction to Regions.

The lectures are part of the specialisation ‘Regional Integration and Multilevel Governance’ in the Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development. The opening course of the MPP specialisation, introduction to regions, lays the analytical foundation for the entire specialisation. As an introductory course, the key concepts and arguments in the study of regionalisation are outlined that will be used in the following three courses of the specialisation. The courses brings students together from different backgrounds - economics, political science, public policy etc.- to a common understanding and addresses regions from a multidisciplinary perspective.       

The focus of this course is twofold:

• First, the concept of regionalisation is explained by addressing essential questions such as what regions are, what different conceptualisations of regions exist, why actors cooperate, whether regions form naturally or have to be constructed, what types of regions can be differentiated.
• Second, regional development is critically examined and different perspectives on regionalisation are addressed.

Theoretical perspectives are accompanied by a variety of empirical case studies. The course consists of lectures, workshops and interactive tutorials including role play and simulations, complemented by individual consultations to guide their written assignments.

The RIMLG specialisation is organised by UNU-CRIS in the framework of the MSc Public Policy and Human Development at Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) and UNU-MERIT.