Principal Research Fellow, Dr Igor Calzada has been awarded a Learned Society of Wales grant to take forward his transdisciplinary social sciences research on Wales and Basque Country cooperation with an online workshop on 5 May.
Wales and the Basque Country share some interesting commonalities in their development, allowing for opportunities to discuss devolution and current challenges around territorial political economy; urban transformations, such as sbarc I spark in Cardiff and AS-Fabrik in Bilbao; and also grassroots innovations, with a particular focus on digital foundational economy and data/platform cooperatives.
The workshop on 5 May, funded by the Learned Society of Wales, will gather key stakeholders from Wales and the Basque Country. Together, stakeholders will establish a strategic network from which they can work towards forming a policy-focused research agenda, informed by developments in both small nations.
At the workshop, Dr Igor Calzada will be joined by the following speakers: Professor Ian Rees Jones (WISERD director), Professor Kevin Morgan (Professor of Governance and Development at Cardiff University), Professor Joseba Agirreazkuenaga (Professor in Contemporary History at University of the Basque Country), Professor Rick Delbridge (Professor of Organizational Analysis at Cardiff University), Dr Nagore Ipiña (Dean of Humanities and Education Sciences at Mondragon University), Mark Hooper (Banc Cambria) and Beñat Irasuegi (Talaios Koop).
We are grateful to the Learned Society of Wales for awarding the funding for this event and look forward to establishing the network that will take this research agenda forwards.
Dr Igor Calzada recently completed his role as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) via the US-UK Fulbright Commission. Read more about his residency, which aimed to increase Basque-American community engagement capacity, here.