The grand societal challenges of our era call for rethinking regional development, imagining regional futures that are green, just, and more inclusive, and enacting them through regional socio-economic transformation.
Research interests
- Sustainability and inclusiveness of innovation-based regional development and policy
- Ideational and discursive processes in regional socio-economic transformation
- Geography of emission-intensive industries (e.g., chemical regions)
Short bio
Maximilian Benner is an economist and economic geographer with a habilitation degree (venia docendi) in human geography. As senior scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Vienna and non-tenured associate professor (“Privatdozent”) at the University of Klagenfurt, he focuses on innovation-based regional development and its impacts in terms of environmental sustainability, social justice, and inclusiveness, particularly within the context of EU policy frameworks (e.g., European Green Deal, smart specialization, partnerships for regional innovation). His research interests include institutional and evolutionary economic geography as well as the geography of sustainability transitions, and specifically the interplay between agency, institutional context, ideational and discursive processes, and policies. Empirically, Maximilian is particularly interested in regions hosting emission-intensive industries such as the chemical industry.
Prior to joining the University of Vienna, Maximilian worked at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Seville and at Heidelberg University. In addition, he gained extensive consulting experience on topics such as cluster promotion and agricultural innovation support in rural regions in Tunisia or export promotion in Cyprus.
Maximilian sits on the editorial board of “European Planning Studies” and has served as reviewer for a number of journals including “Economic Geography”, “Journal of Economic Geography”, “Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society”, “Progress in Economic Geography”, “Regional Studies”, “European Urban and Regional Studies”, “Energy Research & Social Science”, “World Development”, “Current Issues in Tourism”, “Tourism Geographies”, and “Science and Public Policy”.