Department of Regional Management represents a multidisciplinary approach towards economic research and teaching, inspired by ideas of regional and sustainable development, environmental and ecological economics and pluralism in economics. Theoretical multi- and an interdisciplinary approach are accompanied by a practical focus on the regions and their needs. This is realised through the cooperation with mayors, preparation of development plans for municipalities, projects and consultancies with national and regional Local Action Groups.

The diversity of thinking is supported by the background of department members. Their education and expertise consist of economics, regional science, sociology, geography, political science, culturology and applied ecology.

Teaching
Two Czech study programmes are taught at the department. Bachelor Structural Policy of the EU for Public Administration and Master Structural Policy of the EU and Rural Development. In both study programmes, the traditional economic education is accompanied by public administration and governance, and regional, social and environmental context of economic phenomena. Both study programmes could be studied in full-time or combined (distance) mode.

One international Master study programme is offered at the department. Regional and European Project Management is taught as a joint degree programme in English and French languages in cooperation with Université de Bretagne Sud (France) and Westsächsiche Hochschule Zwickau (Germany). The programme consists mostly of regional development and management courses and offers a unique opportunity to live and study in three EU countries.

All offered study programmes introduce the concept of sustainable development to students with its balanced economic, social and environmental pillars and its possible application in regional development. The department also offers various English courses for international students (currently Environmental Management, Environmental Policy, Green Economy and Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Rural Sociology, Regional Management and Management of Services).

Alumni
Students who graduated in the above-mentioned programmes find their jobs in public administration, the non-profit sector and private companies in various work positions. Currently, our alumni work at Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Regional Development, State Environmental Fund, State Agricultural Intervention Fund, Local Action Group Sdružení Růže, town administration in Milevsko, taxation authority in Třeboň, rectorate of the University of South Bohemia, companies like E.On, Komerční Banka, Agrico, and many others.

Working positions include, for example, analyst, subsidies controller, project administrator, regional administrative positions for regional development and tourism, or Environmental Impact Assessment administrator.

Research
Research themes of the department could be summarized into four categories:

• Socio-economic aspects of regional development
• Bioeconomy, environmental and ecological economics
• Environmental and rural sociology
• Regional and global aspects of energy demand and climate change

Current research topics include bioeconomy, socio-economic aspects of soil degradation (erosion), sustainable tourism and agrotourism, informal food production, regeneration of brownfields, assessment of Czech and EU Local Action Groups, comparison of national and regional strategic documents, policies supporting ecosystem services of landscape, and sustainable development of urban areas.

Projects
Full list of projects can be viewed here in Czech. Most important current projects with participation of department’s members include POWER4BIO (H2020), SIP-SME (Interreg) and membership in COST Action European Network on Environmental Citizenship.

Recent projects include 7FP GILDED, Land and Art as a social movement and example of cultural sustainability (COST/Czech Ministry of Education), UNICREDS (Interreg) or research of brownfield regeneration (Czech Science Foundation).

Publications
Full list of publications can be found here or in the profiles of the department’s members.

Among recently published works, you can read the chapter on bioeconomy published by Springer; paper comparing local perception of floods and changes in Czech flood risk management policies in Journal of Flood Risk Management or paper analysing climate mitigation potential of informal food production, published in Journal of Cleaner Production.

Conferences and seminars
Department organises international Bioeconomy course and co-organises international economic conference INPROFORUM and multidisciplinary conference Our Common Present. Other events (in Czech language) include seminars focused on pluralistic thinking in economics, a seminar on qualitative methods or students’ research competition.

Cooperation beyond academia
Department acknowledges the importance of cooperation with non-academic institutions and the responsibility of the university in its relationship to the region. Members of the department, therefore, cooperate with Local Action Groups, municipalities, Microregions of municipalities and Landscape Protected Areas, mostly from the South Bohemia Region. The cooperation involves not only academics but also students, who deal with the real-world problems in their seminar works, participate in the preparation of strategic development plans for the municipalities and have their practical training in municipalities or Local Action, Groups.

Department offers services and expertise, especially in the areas of regional development, politics and management of environmental protection, rural and sustainable tourism. These services and expertise include project consultations and monitoring of subsidies; research on socio-economic topics; preparation and consultation of strategic documents; evaluation of Local Action Groups; financial calculations for procurement; consultations, preparation and analysis of questionnaire studies; evaluation of environment; evaluation of effectivity of subsidies.

Media
A shortvideo presenting the research of the department created in 2015. Other media appearance (talks in Czech Radio and Television of South Bohemia) can be found in the Czech language.