Conflict Scenarios and Transitions. Opportunities and Risks for Regions and Territories

The Conference of the Italian Regional Science Association (AISRe), held in September 2023 in Naples, allowed scholars and policy makers to debate on the global issue of conflicts and transitions that are involving many regional economies worldwide, especially in the Euro-Mediterranean area. This book, collecting some contributions that were presented during the conference, aims at increasing the understanding of how regions are navigating and responding to the complex array of challenges they face in a rapidly changing world. The book considers a broad specification of conflicts that are closely related to the idea of exogenous shocks and consequent transitions interpreted as adaptation strategies to those shocks. The book is structured in two parts. The first part presents seven papers dealing with ‘conflicts’ of different nature such as regional disparities and cohesion, respect of law and social norms, occupational safety and health, urban congestion, gendered sectoral segregation, natural disasters. The second part of this book presents eight papers focuses on different types of ‘transitions’ related, for example, to climate change and environment, energy, digitalization and innovation. The book, even if does not cover all global conflicts and local responses comprehensively, however it provides useful insights to the debate on how regions are confronting the profound and often unexpected changes brought about by disruptive challenges.