This book contains the complete text of the special Golden Anniversary issue of the flagship journal of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI), Papers in Regional Science (Volume 83, Number 1), as well as the full text of Walter Isard's Presidential Address "The future (near and far) of regional science". Professor Isard originally delivered the speech in a special plenary session of the fiftieth North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International. The session began with a ceremonial kickoff to the year-long celebration of the multidisciplinary field's first 50 years. At the ceremony, held on the morning of Friday, November 21,2004 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Philadelphia, we presented Walter Isard, the founder of our multidisciplinary field, as well as Antoine Bailly, the President of the Regional Science Association International, and David Boyce, the Association's Archivist, with commemorative first copies of the anniversary issue. This book, entitled Fifty Years of Regional Science, consists of a compendium of "thought" papers authored by a representative sampling of some of the field's leading scholars. For the special journal issue we originally titled the collection: "The Brightest of Dawns".

Inhalt

Introducing the brightest of dawns: Regional science in "Papers".- A short history of the field of regional science.- Path-breaking books in regional science.- Intellectual leaders of regional science: A half-century citation study.- Regional science: Directions for the future.- The new economic geography: Past, present and the future.- Agglomeration and networks in spatial economics.- Location, agglomeration and infrastructure.- Cities, regions and the decline of transport costs.- Transport in regional science: The "death of distance" is premature.- Growth, development and innovation: A look backward and forward.- Trade and spatial economic interdependence.- The environment in regional science: An eclectic review.- Crossing boundaries and borders: Regional science advances in migration modelling.- Spatial interaction modelling.- GIS and spatial data analysis: Converging perspectives.- The future (near and far) of regional science.