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This document discusses the need for urban and regional development studies to examine the relationship between ecology and economy, as well as the commodification of nature. It highlights the various initiatives and strategies being implemented in Europe, such as the EU's Green Deal, to address the challenges of ecological crisis and climate change. The special issue of the journal European Urban & Regional Studies focuses on these topics and includes papers that explore transformative resilience, sustainability transition challenges in peripheral regions, entrepreneurial action in local energy clusters, the impact of urban structure on automobile use, the use of green buildings, and energy poverty amelioration policies. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores how multiple linguistic cues interact in predictive processing among second language (L2) learners. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, we investigated whether learners of German use case and prosody cues together to assign thematic roles and predict post-verbal arguments. During the experiment, participants listened to subject-first and object-first sentences that contained (1) case cues only, or (2) both case and prosody. The results showed that the learners successfully predicted post-verbal arguments on the basis of lexical-semantic information but were less successful in using case cues. However, prediction success increased when both case and prosody were present, suggesting that predictive processing is supported by prosodic cues. Additionally, results show that higher proficiency was associated with faster processing and a greater ability to generate predictions. We conclude that the presence of cue coalitions allows L2 learners to process information more efficiently, and that the L2 processor can exploit the additive use of cues for prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 20 years ago a series of papers identified a strikingly dominant economic cluster – the UK's Motorsport Valley (MSV) – which led to MSV becoming an international exemplar of concepts such as agglomeration, clusters and knowledge-driven systems of regional development. Utilising an evolutionary perspective on cluster development, this paper asks 'whatever happened to MSV?'. Drawing on the framework of strategic cluster coupling, four cluster development episodes are conceptualised that each depict the dynamic evolution of the cluster's multi-scalar institutional environment, strategic coupling trajectories and economic development outcomes. Reflecting the emerging synthesis between evolutionary economic geography and geographical political economy, the paper describes an extended case study of cluster development, an evolutionary process of strategic cluster coupling and, ultimately, an example of cluster resilience. Through a focus on strategic cluster coupling, the paper provides further understanding of cluster evolution and path development mechanisms at key moments of cluster reconfiguration – and an empirical update and continuation of the economic story and cluster lifecycle of MSV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial announces the addition of Jürgen Essletzbichler as an Editor for European Urban and Regional Studies (EURS), along with two new Editorial Board Members, Andy Cumbers and Hug March. The diverse Board is valued for its contributions to the journal's academic debate in urban and regional studies. The publisher, Sage, has implemented initiatives to promote unbiased and inclusive research, including a name change policy and new authorship change processes. Starting in 2024, EURS will offer a language editing service and a new option for authors to provide self-reported user information on race, ethnicity, and gender, with explicit consent and anonymized data collection. [Extracted from the article]

It was over 25 years ago that European Urban and Regional Studies was launched at a time of epochal change in the composition of the political, economic and social map of Europe. Brexit has been described as an epochal moment – and at such a moment, European Urban and Regional Studies felt it should offer the space for short commentaries on Brexit and its impact on the relationships of place, space and scale across the cultural, economic, social and political maps of the 'new Europes'. Seeking contributions drawing on the theories, processes and patterns of urban and regional development, the following provides 10 contributions on Europe, the UK and/or their relational geographies in a post-Brexit world. What the drawn-out and highly contested process of Brexit has done for the populace, residents and ex-pats of the UK is to reveal the inordinate ways in which our mental, everyday and legal maps of the regions, nations and places of the UK in Europe are powerful, territorially and rationally inconsistent, downright quirky at times but also intensely unequal. First, as the UK exits the Single Market, the nature of the political imagination needed to create alternatives to the construction of new borders and new divisions, even within a discourse of creating a 'global Britain', remains uncertain. European Urban and Regional Studies has always been a journal dedicated to the importance of pan-European scholarly integration and solidarity and we hope that it will continue to intervene in debates over what alternative imaginings to a more closed and introverted future might look like. Second, as the impacts of COVID-19 continue to change in profound ways how we think, work and travel across European space, we will need to find new forms of integration and new forms of engagament in intellectual life and policy development. European Urban and Regional Studies remains commited to forging such forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gordon was a long time member of the Geography Department at the University of Durham, which was the birthplace of I European Urban and Regional Studies i as a journal. For many years Gordon acted as Book Reviews Editor before moving to a position as Editorial Board member in 2017. It is with deep sadness and a sense of shock that the Editors of I European Urban and Regional Studies i (EURS) have heard of the loss of our colleague Dr Gordon MacLeod. [Extracted from the article]

This study investigates the effects of Processing Instruction (PI) on the acquisition of grammatical gender and gender-marked pronouns in German. PI was compared to Traditional Instruction, i.e. a traditional, vocabulary-oriented approach using color cues (TI) and a Categorization and Memorization task (CM). The results of an immediate posttest showed that the PI group outperformed both TI and CM with respect to gender assignment on both a gender selection task and a writing task. The PI group also scored higher and responded faster than the TI and CM groups on a comprehension task that required accurate processing of gender-marked pronouns. However, differences between the three groups were not sustained on delayed posttests. These results extend the findings of previous research on PI (e.g. Benati, 2004) by showing that PI can be applied to target forms that are low in communicative value and must be learned item-by-item like grammatical gender in German. Results also lend support to psycholinguistic research that suggests that second language (L2) learners have difficulty acquiring grammatical gender because they do not process nouns together with gender information (Arnon & Ramscar, 2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces that article "After Florida: towards an economics of diversity" by Max Nathan published in the periodical "European Urban and Regional Studies" has got the Jim Lewis Prize.

Barnes has argued that (new) economic geography has moved in to a phase of theory development that he describes as 'hermeneutic' theorising. This epistemological position is characterised by an interpretive, reflexive and open-ended mode of inquiry that recognises the diversity of sources available for theorising and the subsequent conversations that will ensue from such diversity. In a recent deconstruction of the clusters concept in economic geography, and especially that version (or brand) expounded by Michael Porter, Martin and Sunley ask the question as to what added value is delivered by the concept's gatecrashing of academic and policy debates. This paper argues that clusters should not be overendowed as a singular 'brand', but recognised as an emergent set of multiple perspectives in dialogue. From a position of hermeneutic theorising, 'clusters' have the potential to add value by allowing theoretical debate across a wide range of (overlapping and competing) perspectives whose partiality and situatedness are made explicit. The possibilities for theoretical, empirical and policy cross-fertilisation from the difficult act of holding together these threads is one potential drawn from the conversations engendered through hermeneutic theorising in economic geography. Nevertheless, this 'work in progress' must be deepened and extended if the potential of clusters is to be realised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is with deep sadness that the Editors of EURS have heard of the loss of our colleague Dr Tassilo Herrschel, EURS Editorial Board Member, who passed away recently after a short illness. Tassilo held an international reputation as an expert on the governance of cities and regions and his early work offered particular insights on post-socialist cities. His commitment to comparative European research, fieldwork and teaching was central to his academic and life choices and he was a strong supporter and regular reviewer for the journal. [Extracted from the article]

The author reflects on the contributions to academic and policy debate on processes of urban and regional development in Europe and information on 10th European Urban and Regional Studies (EURS) Conference and information on Jim Lewis prize.