Twin transition and changing patterns of spatial mobility: a regional approach

ongoing

ΜΟΒΙ-TWIN argues that major global transition processes, such as green and digital transition, require to constantly redefine the changing nature of regional attractiveness for capturing shifts in the drivers and effects of spatial mobility. It builds on the idea that twin transition affects regional attractiveness -or otherwise, the drivers of human mobility- offering an opportunity to left-behind areas to attract new population based on characteristics related to living and environmental conditions and the changes it brings on job accessibility. It argues that this creates new spatial mobility patterns which tend to develop new equilibria between the different forms of mobility (permanent, circular, temporal), affecting both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ sending and receiving regions. It uses biga data and agent-based modelling to analyse the impact of those changing patterns of spatial mobility on EU regions and envisage policies to counterbalance their effects in terms of demographics, society, welfare system and labour market. The project has a four-dimensional scope: (i) it will analyse the changing drivers of spatial mobility based on human mobility behaviour, encompassing the structural changes caused by twin transition in the definition of regional attractiveness; (ii) it will examine the new balance rising between the different forms of spatial mobility (permanent, circular, temporal) and their effects on EU regions following the changing nature of regional attractiveness; (iii) it will use agent-based modelling to capture and assess the impact of changing patterns of spatial mobility on EU regions in terms of demographics, society, welfare system and labour market; and (iv) it will use the insights to envisage place-based policies for harnessing the positive outcomes of twin transition. Specific attention will be placed on the ways in which the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 and Brexit have affected freedom of movement between EU regions.