Annual Symposia 2008

University of Manchester

14th-15th May

The EGRG Postgraduate Symposium and the Annual Symposium were held May 14-15 2008 at the University of Manchester. These back-to-back events provided an opportunity for economic geographers and reseachers in cognate fields to exchange ideas in a convivial setting.

A brief report

Postgraduate Symposium

Wednesday 14th May

Session One

Chair: Gavin Bridge, University of Manchester.

Ian R. Cook, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.	Private sector involvement in urban governance: The case of Business Improvement Districts and Town Centre Management partnerships
David Grover, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics.	The role of environmental goods and services firms in the diffusion of air pollution control technology: evidence from the upgrading of London’s black cab fleet
Allison Wylde, London Metropolitan University.	Lock in or locked out? The effects of public sector contracts on a small to medium sized enterprise

Session Two

Chair: Kevin Ward, University of Manchester.

Sejeong Ha, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics.	The role of local real estate market information in determining residential tenure
Katharine Jones, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.	Recruiting workers from the New Europe: the role of temporary staffing agencies in facilitating migration into the UK
Piotr Niewiadomski, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.	Interactions between spatial expansion and different trajectories of corporate growth of international hotel groups and the processes of regional growth in various institutional contexts of Central and Eastern Europe

Session Three

Chair: Neil Coe, University of Manchester.

David McCollum, University of Dundee.	Investigating employment instability: characteristics, causes and countermeasures
Robin de la Motte, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.	Creative destruction: neoliberalism, development and class war in Latin America

Annual Symposium – Economy, Nature, Space

Thursday 15th May

Professor Richard Walker, University of California-Berkeley.	Keynote Address: The Chinese Road to Capitalism. (web page opens in new window)
Dr Marcus Power, University of Durham.	New African choices? The economics and geopolitics of Chinese engagement with African development
Dr Daniel Buck, University of Oxford.	The ecology question
Professor Diana Liverman, University of Oxford.	Offsets in the carbon economy
Professor David Gibbs, University of Hull.	Prospects for an environmental economic geography: Transition management, ecological management, ecological modernisation and ecopreneurs
Professor Erik Swyngedouw, University of Manchester.	Impossible/undesirable sustainability and the post-political condition