Dynamic Sustainability of Small and Medium Size Towns

Dear Colleagues,

Following our previous Special Issue on the topic of towns, entitled “Small and Medium-Size Towns Across the World: From the Past into the Future” ( https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/SMTs), we are launching a new call for a second volume: Dynamic Sustainability in Small and Medium-Sized Towns. 

This very generic title should call researchers' attention for the real "net" value of agglomeration economies generated when in the presence of history, strategic planning, knowledge creation, trust, shared innovation, and advanced specific skills on a global scale. Frequently, such assets contribute to successful cases of small towns that need to be identified and studied. 

In this Special Issue, we hope to provide to the scientific community successful cases of small towns that have occurred due to these intangible values. This proves that SMTs can have the capacity to become leading participants in the development process throughout longer timeframes, deserving to be considered as agents of dynamic sustainability.

From a theoretical point of view, the concept of agglomeration economies shows efficiency gains due to the proximity amongst agents. However, we propose that this unrefuted truth should be revisited and assessed from a long-term perspective. Without a doubt, the concept suggests immediate efficiency gains as policymakers promote strategies that, despite the good intentions for regional development policies, in Europe, for instance, have caused aggravated discrepancies of development and with shrinking effects for SMTs. We believe that some long-term negative externalities such as pollution, loss of biodiversity, climate change, pockets of social stress, and extreme poverty are long term impacts that have not been considered. We wish to advocate for the rise of SMTs and call the attention of their significant role in balanced social progress.

This Special Issue is organized with a first introductory paper calling for the need to observe the dynamic role of SMTs in the long-term development of regions and suggest how historical geography should not be put apart for future development strategies. This first chapter will be the last to be published as it shall confront the other papers and will conclude with the current methodology of the SI as well.

Following this first chapter, an extensive set of nine papers will be selected that exclusively describe the long-time dynamic roles of SMTs. We would rather accept manuscripts from different parts of the world. The first part is comprised of a solid, extensive paper as a theoretical framing discussion about physical distance and relational flows, the limits in the form of agglomeration economies under technological change, and the recent contributions to new cost structures and consequent savings for the organization. Finally, the concluding remarks of this first chapter link non-spatial proximities together and advocate their possible advantages. 

We call those colleagues interested in participating and diffusing their experience and knowledge about SMTs to present their views and case-study papers. We wish to honor the history of small places and show how the past promotes the future in the process of engaged communities.

Prof. Dr. Teresa de Noronha
Prof. Dr. Eric Vaz
Guest Editors

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