Economic Geography Research Group

Chair & Web Officer

Andrew Jones

Andrew's research interests are:

• transnational work in the commercial and voluntary sectors
• globalisation, and specifically, the nature transnational firms and organisations
• theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the 'globalisation' debate
• corporate social relations, contact networks, culture and business practices
• critical social theory and the relationship between politics, the academy and policy development
• urban policy and transport planning

For more, see Andrew's website at Birkbeck, University of London.

Secretary

Steve Musson

Steve is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Reading. His research interests include devolution, local and regional government and the geography of government finance. His research focuses on public-private partnerships in the UK and he is currently investigating these issues in relation to health privatisation.

For more, see Steve's website at the University of Reading.

Treasurer

Jennifer Johns

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 Jennifer Johns, Treasurer, EGRG at the following email address: J.Johns@liverpool.ac.uk.

Jennifer joined the University of Liverpool Management School in August 2010. She previously lectured in the Department of Geography, University of Liverpool and the School of Geography, University of Manchester. Jennifer is an economic geographer working on research issues of inter-disciplinary interest including globalisation, the agglomeration of economic activities and global trade and production networks

For more, see Jennifer's website at the University of Liverpool.

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.

Book Review Editor

Kim Ward

Kim’s research lies broadly in the area of socio-economic geography. Her research looks at the development of sustainable communities and examines the development and deployment of socio-economic urban policies within deprived local areas, identifying and considering their outcomes through empirical research carried out in the South West of England.

For more information see Kim’s website at the University of Exeter.

Book Review Editor

Jenny Barnett

Jenny's research falls within the fields of political and social geography. Her research reviews sustainable communities from a planning perspective, exploring planning both for and by communities. Research is being conducted in Devon examining delivery of the sustainable communities agenda in areas with high proportions of second home ownership and the complex relationships between sustainability, community and tourism.

For more information see Jenny's website at the University of Exeter.