Economic Geography Research Group

Chair & Web Officer

Neil Coe

Neil's interests are in the areas of global production networks and local economic development; the geographies of local and transnational labour markets; the geographies of innovation; and relational and network approaches to economic development. He explores these concerns through empirical research into the globalization of service sector activity, including for example, computer services in the UK and Asia Pacific, temporary staffing in Europe and Asia, and retailing in the UK, East Asia and Eastern Europe.

For more, see Neil's website at the University of Manchester.

Secretary

Al James

Al’s interests are in the areas of: high tech learning and innovation; gender, family, work and employment; and the development of India’s new e-service economy.  Right now he is looking at everyday geographies of work life ‘balance’ and learning in the IT sector in the UK (Cambridge and the SE) and Ireland (Dublin); and the operation and outcomes of call centre labour market intermediaries in India (Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon) and the UK (NorthWest region). 

For more, see Al’s website at Queen Mary, University of London.

Treasurer

Martin Hess

The Economic Geography Research Group is funded by an annual stipend from the Royal Geographical Society, partly as a standing grant and partly in relation to subscriptions to the Researh Group. Our funding is therefore modest, and we aim to supplement the activities of the Group with income from sponsorship and publication royalties. In recent years, the annual prizes for PhD and Master's dissertation - aimed at promoting the work of young economic geographers - have been supported by sponsorship from academic publishers. Furthermore, a number of seminar events have been supported by additional financial support from host universities.

We would welcome proposals from any interested institution who would like to offer sponsorship for our annual prizes, events, annual conference meeting or other activities undertaken by the group. Please contact Martin Hess, Treasurer, EGRG at the following email address: martin.hess@manchester.ac.uk.

Martin is an economic geographer with a specific interest in the following research areas:

• Evolution and change of global production networks
• Organisation and embeddedness
• Economic geography and cultural political economy

For more, see Martin's website at the University of Manchester.

Annual Events Officer

Sarah Hall

Sarah's research interests focus on: the geographies of money and finance; geographical engagement with the social studies of finance; the spatialities of economic knowledge and learning; the geographies of business and professional education; and relational approaches in economic geography. She has explored these themes through empirical research into London's financial district, business education in the UK and US and Europe's executive search industry. She is currently exploring the role of financial business education in the (re)production of financial theory and particular types of financial expertise.

For more, see Sarah's website at the University of Nottingham.

Annual Events Officer

Laura James

Laura's research interests lie in the areas of economic restructuring and its impact on gender and class relations, the 'knowledge economy', unemployment and labour market policy, and regional economic development. She is currently working on a project looking at the nature and dynamics of knowledge in the Automotive and New Media sectors in the West Midlands, which is part of a larger comparative study of the impact of the 'knowledge economy' on the development of different European regions.

For more, see Lara's website at the University of Birmingham.

Working Paper and Book Review Editor

James Faulconbridge

James's research interests lie broadly within the field of economic geography with a focus on three areas:

• Globalization and the role of professional service firms (PSFs)
• Geographies of the 'knowledge economy'
• Relational economic geography

As the Working Paper Series and Book Review Editor along with John Harrison he is keen to encourage everyone out there who considers themselves an economic geography to make the group's website a dynamic resource that charts the latest developments in the sub-discipline. For those of you who have been around a bit longer and have settled into being an Economic Geographers the Book Review and Working Paper Series can be used to promote our latest work long before any journal can provide advance access proofs. More importantly, for postgraduates the Working Paper Series can be used as a forum to air your work for the first time and ask for gentle and supportive feedback.

Please get in touch with any ideas for how the two series can be improved and evolved. Also please do send in your reviews and papers so that we can make a visit to the website worthwhile for everyone!

For more, see James's website at the University of Lancaster.

Working Paper and Book Review Editor

John Harrison

John's research interests lie within the broad scope of economic geography, with a specific focus on regions, regionalism and regionalisation; the political-economy of regional policy; the new city regionalism; and state rescaling. To date, these themes have been explored primarily through empirical research into the shifting geographies of cities and regions in the political-economic governance of England.

For more, see John's website at Loughborough University.