Minutes of AGM 2022

Minutes of the EGRG Annual General Meeting held on 7th September 2021 (online) are now available for viewing here. You can also find minutes of past AGMs on that same page.



Reminder of AGM on 7 Sep 2022 (online)

The Economic Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG is holding its AGM on Wednesday 7th September 2022, 1pm-3pm (UK time) online.

All are welcome to attend. We will provide updates on the Research Group’s activity over the last year and we are looking to fill some key roles:

  • Treasurer
  • Events officer
  • Web and social media officer
  • Early career rep
  • International officer
  • Education officer

If you’re interested in any of the above and want to know more, please feel free to contact EGRG Chair Allan Watson (A.Watson3@lboro.ac.uk) or Secretary Kean Fan Lim (keanfan.lim@ncl.ac.uk).

To register for the AGM, please book a ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/economic-geography-research-group-agm-tickets-411085727477.



EGRG social event at RGS-IBG Conference 2022

For those attending the RGS-IBG Annual Conference next week, the Economic Geography Research Group would like to invite you to a ‘meet the committee’ social event at The Hotspur pub on Wednesday 31st August 2022 at 4.30pm.

Location: 103 Percy Street (directly opposite the Haymarket Bus Station and Metro Station)
Google Maps link

Ahead of our Annual General Meeting on 7th September 2022, we will be looking to fill the following committee positions:

  • Treasurer
  • Events officer
  • Web and social media officer
  • Early career rep
  • International officer
  • Education officer

For those who might be interested in any of the above roles, this meeting will provide the opportunity for an informal discussion, and allow you to find out more about the work of the group.

Of course, those who would just like to join us for a drink, please do come along and say hello!



EGRG-sponsored sessions at RGS-IBG conference 2022

The Economic Geography Research Group is pleased to be sponsoring the following sessions at the upcoming Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference 2022. This will be taking place at Newcastle University and online from 30th August to 2nd September 2022.

Session titles and convenors

  • Environmental Labour Studies
    Adrian Smith, Carlo Inverardi-Ferri, Liam Campling, and Elena Baglioni (Queen Mary University of London) and Neil Coe (University of Sydney)
  • Chains of Recovery and Resilience: A Global Production Network (GPN) Approach
    Smytta Yadav (University of Manchester) and Tiago Alves-Teixeira (Durham University)
  • Labour beyond recovery: (Post-)pandemic futures of work
    Sabina Lawreniuk (University of Nottingham, & Will Monteith (Queen Mary University of London)
  • Discard economies and dynamics of valuation in times of crisis
    Julia Corwin (London School of Economics) and Katharina Grüneisl (Leipzig University/IRMC)
  • Explaining with Asian Geographies: Theorising Back, Theorising Better
    Kean Fan Lim (Newcastle University) and Henry Wai-chung Yeung (National University of Singapore)
  • Understanding the global geographies of the knowledge-based economy: transformations, disruptions and reproductions of transnational higher education
    Marc Schulze, Tim Rottleb (Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space) and Michael Hoyler (Loughborough University)
  • Financial geographies of higher education
    Luke Green (Newcastle University) and Emily Rosenman (Penn State University)
  • Geographies of dietary change
    Jonathan Beacham, David M Evans (University of Bristol) and Peter Jackson (University of Sheffield) 
  • Geographies of Recovery? Development Pathways and Prospects for ‘Left Behind Places
    Danny MacKinnon (CURDS, Newcastle University), Tim Leibert (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) and Vincent Béal (University of Strasbourg)
  • Social Reproduction and Labour in Lockdown – Crisis and Recovery?
    Al James (Newcastle University) and Julie MacLeavy (University of Bristol)
  • Financialisation, regulation, and the local state
    Frances Brill (University of Cambridge), Laura Deruytter (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Andy Pike (Newcastle University) and Callum Ward (London School of Economics)
  • Ecology and Labour Regimes
    Elena Baglioni, Liam Campling, Carlo Inverardi-Ferri and Adrian Smith (Queen Mary University of London) and Neil Coe (University of Sydney)
  • Housing Speculations: Conversations about Work in Progress
    Jessa Loomis (Newcastle University) and Elsa Noterman (University of Cambridge)
  • New and critical geographies of innovation  
    Helen Pallett and Martin Mahony (University of East Anglia)


Submissions for EGRG undergraduate dissertation prize 2022

A prize of £50 is offered each year for the best undergraduate dissertation in economic geography.

Nominated dissertations should be: 

  • An innovative theoretical and/or empirical piece of work in economic geography;
  • Usually 8,000 words or more in length
  • Submitted for formal assessment in the current academic year (2021/2022) to a UK Higher Education Institution for a BA/BSc level geography degree programme;
  • Include a full set of references and images (as relevant); 
  • In PDF format;
  • Written in English.

Please note that a department may not submit more than one entry and nominated dissertations should not be submitted for consideration for any other RGS-IBG prizes.

Please send your nominated undergraduate dissertations to the EGRG Prizes Officer: a.dales@yorksj.ac.uk (Dr Alexandra Dales)

Deadline: 15 July 2022



EGRG statement in response to the Al-Jazeera podcasts

Following the Al-Jazeera Podcasts in their “Degrees of Abuse” investigation, the EGRG committee met to discuss and outline what forms of actions we could take as a group to make economic geography, and geography as a broader discipline, welcoming, diverse, inclusive and safe. You can read our statement here: https://egrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/EGRG-statement_Final_24Jan2022.pdf

We will announce specific steps and initiatives in the coming months.



EGRG sponsorship at RGS-IBG 2022

The Economic Geography Research Group (EGRG) of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) invites expressions of interest and proposals for sponsored sessions for the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2022.

The chair of the 2022 conference is Professor Rachel Pain (Newcastle University, UK) and the conference theme is Geographies Beyond Recovery. See https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/call/ for guidance on organising sessions.   

The EGRG are able to sponsor some sessions in the conference schedule that will be guaranteed to be non-concurrent. Please consider the EGRG sessions for any topic that includes consideration of economic questions (broadly defined). We are keen to sponsor diverse sessions based on innovative theoretical and methodological perspectives. 

Each session is 1 hour and 40 mins and in addition to paper-based sessions we also encourage innovative formats to sessions.

The deadline for session proposals submissions to the EGRG is 4th March 2022. Final session proposals including registered participants are due to the RGS-IBG 25th March, 2022.

Please email submissions to Kean Fan Lim (keanfan.lim@newcastle.ac.uk) and Jon Swords (jon.swords@york.ac.uk) including session title and abstract (max 400 words), name(s) and affiliation(s) of the session convenor(s), and the anticipated format of the session. Please also indicate if you are applying or intend to apply for sponsorship with any other research group for co-sponsorship. Please bear in mind that sessions cannot occupy more than two slots in the whole programme.



Submissions to EGRG PhD Dissertation Prize 2022

We are pleased to open the call for submissions to the annual EGRG PhD Dissertation Prize. This award provides the opportunity to recognise excellent research undertaken by doctoral researchers in the UK in the field of economic geography (broadly defined) as judged by the committee. Previous winners are listed on the EGRG website here: https://egrg.org/prizes/

In order to be considered for the award, please email an electronic version of the thesis to the Prizes Officer, Prizes Officer – Alexandra Dales (a.dales@yorksj.ac.uk) by 1st March 2022. This must the final version of a thesis that has passed the PhD degree at a UK institution between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021.  If you have any doubts about eligibility, please email Alexandra Dales.

The theses will be reviewed by the EGRG committee and the prize winner will be announced in early May 2022.  



EGRG Dissertation Prizes 2022

The Royal Geographical Society with IBG Economic Geography Research Group is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 EGRG PhD Thesis Prize and the 2022 EGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize.

EGRG PhD Thesis Prize Winner:

The EGRG Committee would like to congratulate Dr Johannes Petry, University of Warwick, whose thesis ‘Capital markets with Chinese characteristics: Exchanges, state capitalism and China’s integration into the global financial order’ has won the PhD Thesis Competition 2022.

EGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize Winner:
Congratulations to Mr Junze Shi, University of Oxford, whose dissertation ‘Operating in the absence of proximity: A case study of a Chinese Bank in the City of London during the Covid-19 lockdown’ has won the Prize for best Undergraduate Dissertation 2022

Again, many congratulations to both Dr Petry and Mr Shi!

A list of previous dissertation prize winners can be found here: https://egrg.org/prizes/



AGM Minutes 2021

Minutes of the EGRG Annual General Meeting held on 8th September 2021 (online) are now available for viewing here. You can also find minutes of past AGMs on that same page.