Assist. Prof. David Bole, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow at Anton Melik Geographical Institute ZRC SAZU, Assistant Professor in the field of Geography
+386 1 4706 551
david.bole@zrc-sazu.si
Education:
BSc in geography (Univerza v Ljubljani, 2004)
PhD in geography (Univerza v Ljubljani, 2008)
Research description:
His main research interest has always been at the intersection of economic and urban geography. He is particularly interested in the topic of urban transformation (be it industrial vs. post-industrial, modern vs.postmodern, Fordist vs. Post-Fordist) from which he received his PhD in 2008 (Economic transformation of Slovenian cities). He researches how people respond and adapt to change or in other words: what are the local responses to global economic, social and cultural shocks? He puts a lot of emphasis on exploring “cities that don’t matter”, such as small towns, industrial cities, shrinking cities, etc. He wonders how the communities in these cities survive, why they either thrive or fail, their resilience and resistance, and the innovative and creative potential they have. These include social innovations that he has researched in the past as part of the project “Bright Future for Dark Towns”. In the broadest sense, he explores the cultural and social aspects of marginalized and peripheral local communities and their (innovative) responses to processes of globalization.
Main projects:
- Lead Principal Investigator of the bilateral Slovenian-Swiss project »Places that don`t matter?
Socio-economic transformation of industrial towns in Switzerland and Slovenia«, financed by SNF and ARRS, 2020–2023. - Lead Principal Investigator of the project “BRIGHT FUTURE: Bright future for black towns: reinventing European industrial towns and challenging dominant post-industrial discourses”, financed by Horizon 2020 ERA-NET Cofund scheme JPI Urban Europe and Slovenian Research Agency, 2017–2020.
- Postdoctoral project Transport and its Effect On Everyday Life, financed by the national research agency ARRS, 2011–2014.
- Lead Principal Investigator of the transnational cooperation project SY_CULTour (Synergy of culture and tourism) financed by ERDF funds (SEE, 2011–2014).
Other:
- Chief Editor for Urban Geography at Acta Geographica Slovenica journal,
- member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis,
- guest editor of the Regions magazine (Regional Studies Association in 2009, 2012, 2014),
- guest editor at the Urban Science journal (MDPI, 2019),
- member of the Editorial Board of the following national publications: Geography of Slovenia, Georhythm and Regional Development.
- Since 2019: member of the Review board of the HERA programme (Humanities in the European Research Area) for the call Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe (2019-2022) and other national research councils.
- Anton Melik award for the best young scientist (awarded by Association of geographers of Slovenia), 2011.
Selected articles:
- BOLE, D., KOZINA, J., TIRAN, J. (2020): The socioeconomic performance of small and medium sized industrial towns: Slovenian perspectives. Moravian geographical reports 28, 1: 16-28. doi: 10.2478/mgr-2020-0002.
- NARED, J. BOLE, D. (Eds.) (2020): Participatory research and planning in practice, (The urban book series). Cham (Switzerland): Springer Open, 227 pp. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-28014-7.
- BOLE, D, KOZINA, J., TIRAN, J. (2019): The variety of industrial towns in Slovenia: a typology of their economic performance. Bulletin of Geography, Socio-Economic Series 46: 71-83. doi: 10.2478/bog-2019-0035
- KOZINA, J., BOLE, D. (2018): The impact of territorial policies on the distribution of the creative economy : tracking spatial patterns of innovation in Slovenia. Hungarian geographical bulletin 67, 3: 259-273. doi: 10.15201/hungeobull.67.3.4.
- KOZINA, J., BOLE, D. (2018): Creativity at the European periphery: spatial distribution and developmental implications in the Ljubljana region. In: CHAPAIN, C., STRYJAKIEWICZ, T. (Eds.): Creative industries in Europe: drivers of new sectoral and spatial dynamics. [Cham]: Springer International Publishing. pp. 227-254. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-56497-5_11
- BOLE, D., ŠMID HRIBAR, M., PIPAN, P. (2017): Participatory research in community development: a case study of creating cultural tourism products. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Geographica 52, 2: 164-173. doi: 10.14712/23361980.2017.13
- BOLE, D., NARED, J., ZORN, M. (2015): Small urban centers in the Alps and their development issues. In: ZHELEZOV, G. (Ed.): Sustainable development in mountain regions: Southeastern Europe. Cham: Springer. pp. 265-279. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-20110-8_18
