Regional Science Association International
The Regional Science Association International (RSAI) is a cluster of scholarly societies whose members engage in regional science. Origins. In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the economist Walter Isard worked to draw together a group of academics interested in analyzing regional (i.e., sub-national) development. These academics were drawn from a number of disciplines: economics, geography, city planning, political science and rural sociology. Naming their new approach "regional science", they envisioned it as an interdisciplinary effort, one that would require unique theoretical concepts, methodological tools, and data. Because their effort was interdisciplinary, no existing  academic organization brought the participants together; they therefore created their own organization, the "Regional Science Association", which first met in December 1954. By 1961, the RSA had 960 members, and its first local "section", which organized conferences for regional scientists located in the western United States. The next section to form (in 1963) was in Japan, followed by sections throughout Europe, as well as in India, Argentina, and Brazil. In 1969, the Western section and the Japan section began to cooperate in holding a biennial "Pacific Rim" international conference. Gradually issues of coordination among the various sections were worked out , resulting in much the present structure by 1990. The "Regional Science Association International" (RSAI) now functions as the umbrella organization for three other organizations: the "Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization", the "North American Regional Science Council", and the "European Regional Science Association". Each of these serve as the umbrella organization for a number of other organizations, as seen in the next section. Structure. Regional Science Association International is the umbrella organization for all affiliated regional science associations: