George Chorafakis, DipEng, MSc
Part-time PhD student
George's research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of the European economic geography and the simulation of the technological trajectories of the European mesoeconomic clusters and networks from a complex adaptive systems perspective.
Biography
George is a qualified Architect-Engineer with specialization in Regional and Urban Planning. He has also studied at the postgraduate level Regional and Urban Planning and Development Studies at the LSE and Economics at Birkbeck College. His postgraduate studies were supported by two scholarships, the first from the Eugenidion Foundation and the NTUA, and the second from the Hellenic State Scholarship Foundation (IKY).
After his graduation George has worked as a freelance consultant in various regional planning projects. Since 2005 he is employed by the European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre as researcher in the 'European Research Area Watch' (ERA-Watch) project, working on the regional dimension of the ERA structure, and in particular on the evolutionary dynamics of industrial clusters and of entrepreneurial 'ecologies' at the regional level. This project runs in parallel to his PhD research.
George is currently a part-time PhD student. His doctoral research involves the study of the technological dynamics of mesoeconomic systems - such as industrial clusters and spatially non-embedded inter-firm networks - that behave as complex adaptive systems. The objectives of his thesis are first, to construct a typology of the mesoeconomic systems that make up the European economic geography based on their evolutionary trajectories in the economic and technological phase-spaces by using statistical data on the techno-economic characteristics of the European regions; second, to identify the aggregate characteristics of these 'types', such as their complexity, stability, resilience, adaptability and their phase transitions, and to identify the local techno-economic regimes in the European economic geography; and third, to produce an agent-based simulation of the European economic geography, which will allow to understand the coevolution of local and macro-regimes of the European economic geography and to identify the niche of different regional types in the European and international divisions of labour.
Qualifications
- PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2005-present)
- MSc Economics, Birkbeck College, University of London (2001-2003)
- MSc Development Studies, DESTIN, LSE (1999-2000)
- MSc Regional and Urban Planning, LSE (1998-1999)
- DipEng Architectural Engineering with specialization in Regional and Urban Planning, National Technical University of Athens (1990-1997)
Research
- Innovation and technological dynamics of regional clusters and networks
- Transition to knowledge economy and knowledge-based economic development
- Evolutionary economic geography and complexity theory
- Agent-based simulation in economics and economic geography
- Spatial econometrics and technological spillovers in geographical space
External activities
- Research Fellow, IPTS, DG-JRC, European Commission (2005-present)
- Trainee, DG-Regional Policy, European Commission (2003)
- Freelance consultant in the field of regional planning (1998-2005)