Geographical Political Economy

James Evans’ new book to be out soon

Environmental Governance, a new book authored by James Evans, will be out with Routledge in December. Environmental Governance is the only book to discuss the first principles of governance, while also providing a critical overview of the wide ranging theories and approaches that underpin policy and practice today. It places governance within its wider political context to explore how the environment is controlled, manipulated, regulated, and contested by a range of actors and institutions. This book shows how network and market governance have shaped current approaches to environmental issues, while also introducing emerging approaches such as transition management and adaptive governance. In so doing, it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches currently in play, and considers their political implications.

Noel Castree elected an Academician of the Academy of Social Science and REF Panel Member

Noel has recently been appointed to the Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology sub-panel for the British Research Evaluation Framework exercise that will occur in 2014. He is one of twenty four assessors appointed to represent the breadth of research covered by this sub-panel, and is currently contributing to the formulation of the sub-panel guidelines that will specify how British research in Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology will be evaluated.
He has also recently been made an Academician of the British Academy of Social Sciences. He’s one of a few Geographers to be elected this year, and joins a distinguished group of researchers and teachers from across the disciplines dedicated to fostering the vitality and public contribution of the social sciences in Britain.

Martin Hess awarded Visiting Scholarship at ILO

Martin has received and accepted an invitation from the International Labour Organisation, a UN specialized agency, to join them as Visiting Scholar for three months. He will work at the ILO headquarters in Geneva with former research group member Ross Jones and ILO staff from September until November 2011. The proposed project will investigate the implications of variegated capitalism and global production networks on compliance with labour standards, working conditions and workers’ rights in Asian garment factories. This research is part of the Better Work Programme, a joint initiative of the International Labour Organisation and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

New Book by Kevin Ward

Mobile Urbanism: city policymaking in the global age, a new book edited by Kevin Ward and Eugene McCann, has been published by University of Minnesota Press. Mobile Urbanism provides a unique set of perspectives on the current global-urban condition. Drawing on cutting-edge theoretical work, leading geographers reveal that cities are not isolated objects of study; rather, they are dynamic, global–local assemblages of policies, practices, and ideas.
The essays in this volume argue for a theorizing of both urban policymaking and place-making that understands them as groups of territorial and relational geographies. It broadens our comprehension of agents of transference, reconceiving how policies are made mobile, and acknowledging the importance of interlocal policy mobility. Through the richness of its empirical examples from Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, contributors bring to light the significant methodological challenges that researchers face in the study of an urban–global, territorial–relational conceptualization of cities and suggest productive new approaches to understanding urbanism in a networked world.

Henry Yeung appointed Honorary Professorial Fellow

The School of Environment and Development at Manchester University is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Henry Wai-chung Yeung as Honorary Professorial Fellow. Henry is Professor of Economic Geography at the National University of Singapore and has an international, cross-disciplinary reputation for his research on theories and methods in economic geography, global production networks, Asian firms in the global economy and economic development in the Asia Pacific region. He will continue his already well established collaboration with the members of the Geographical Political Economy research group, namely Neil Coe, Peter Dicken and Martin Hess.

• For more information about Henry.

Economcic Geography Summer Institute comes to Manchester

The fourth Summer Institute in Economic Geography will meet in Manchester, England, in July 2008 and will be organised by GPE research group members Neil Coe and Kevin Ward. The Institute, which meets biannually, provides an opportunity to investigate leading-edge theoretical and methodological questions, along with a range of associated professional development issues, in the field of economic geography, broadly defined. The meetings feature contributions from internationally renowned figures in economic geography. Open to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and recently appointed faculty, the Summer Institute comprises an intensive, week-long program of activities designed to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the innovatory developments and enduring controversies in this fast-moving field. Detailed information will follow, watch this space.

ESRC Seminar Series “Changing Cultures of Competitiveness”

The ESRC is funding a seminar series on “Changing Cultures of Competitiveness: Conceptual and Policy Issues”. The Principal Organisers are Professor Bob Jessop and Dr Ngai-Ling Sum, University of Lancaster. The third seminar in the series will be held in Manchester in July 2008, organised by Martin Hess.

• ESRC Seminar Series: Changing Cultures of Competitiveness website