IGU Conference 2013: Applied GIS and Spatial Modelling, The Hilton Hotel, Leeds, 29 May - 02 June 2013

El Prof. Coombes, de la University of Newcastle upon Tyne, participó el pasado miércoles 29 de mayo en la conferencia anual de la International Geographical Union - IGU Conference 2013: Applied GIS and Spatial Modelling (Leeds, 29 mayo - 2 junio 2013) con la presentación "Applying a universal model of labour markets to the diverse geography of Europe", de la que son coautores José M. Casado Díaz y Lucas Martínez Bernabeu, miembros del equipo MOVENUR.

Abstract: 

Eurostat – the statistical agency of the European Union (EU) – recently asked whether a set of comparable labour market areas (LMAs) could be defined across the territory of the EU. The research undertaken in response to the challenge sought answers to four key questions. 

#1 For what policy concerns could a set of EU-wide LMAs be of value, and what does this mean for the task of defining the most appropriate LMAs (eg. in terms of the size of area)?

#2 What does past research – in the academic field in particular – indicate are the main elements of a ‘best practice’ method to define LMAs?

#3 Does any existing approach (eg. that of the Urban Audit, or the new definitions by OECD) meet all the criteria for appropriate method for EU-wide definitions of LMAs?

#4 How might the task of defining appropriate EU-wide LMAs be tackled in the near future?

The diverse academic work reviewed shows a lack of strong convergence on best practice. Existing approaches to defining LMAs in a policy environment highlights the key distinction over the decision of whether or not they initially select centres, as opposed to analysing the interaction data with an ‘open system’ approach that imposes no structure. In the academic world some new methods adopt more stochastic procedures. The paper will illustrate the results from sample methods of each type, as applied to three national commuting datasets.

The conclusions from the paper take the form of outline answers to six practical questions that will arise if the EU takes on challenge of defining a consistent set of LMAs across the diversity of its territory.