As part of Geography Awareness Week, Associate Professor Victor Savage from the NUS Department of Geography will be giving a public presentation on human-nature relationships in Southeast Asia. Some Geography students will also be displaying their posters.

Date: Saturday 12 November 2011
Time: 2pm
Venue: National Geographic Store, Vivocity

(Click on the poster for a larger image)

The 6th Summer Institute in Economic Geography will take place in Zurich, July 1-7, 2012. 

The Summer Institute is open to early-career researchers in economic geography, broadly defined (doctoral students at or beyond the fieldwork stage; postdoctoral researchers in universities, think tanks and research institutes; and lecturers or tenure-track faculty within the first three years of appointment).

Local costs will be covered, and travel stipends are available for some participants (with priority given to graduate students and to those traveling from outside Western Europe or North America).

Applications must be received by January 31, 2012.  Application forms and further details can be found at the Summer Institute web site.

For further information about the Summer Institute in Economic Geography, contact:

Jamie Peck
Canada Research Chair in Urban and Regional Political Economy
Professor of Geography
Department of Geography
University of British Columbia
1984 West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

Canada Phone: (604) 822 0894
Fax: (604) 822 6150
Email: peck [at] geog [dot] ubc [dot] ca

Call for Papers

AAG Annual Meeting, New York City, 24-28 February 2012

The Rise of the BRICS Knowledge Intensive Service Economy

Organisers:
Andrew Jones, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Patrik Strom, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
James Faulconbridge, University of Lancaster, UK
Jon Beaverstock, University of Nottingham, UK

Debates about the rise of the BRICs economies have to date often focused on the significance of manufacturing industries. Despite some attention to the rise of financial centres in BRICs countries and the growing significance of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in these economies, only limited attention has been paid to the nature and development of these leading industries in the global knowledge economy within the BRICs context. One of the key questions for economic geographers concerned with economic globalization and global corporate development is whether or not knowledge intensive service industries in BRICs countries will develop similar capacities in terms of service delivery, quality and innovation that have been central to the globalization of firms in these industries in economies of the more developed countries. The rise of globally competitive BRICs knowledge intensive service in this respect represents a significant and key challenge for advanced industrial economies in the coming decades.

This session aims to bring together research and theoretical contributions on knowledge intensive services in BRICs. Empirical and theoretical papers are welcome and contributions might include, but are not restricted to:

• Conceptual and theoretical papers that consider what is known about the nature, role and significance of knowledge intensive service in BRICs economies;
• Empirical research concerned with knowledge intensive service industries in BRICs, both in terms of domestic firms and transnational knowledge intensive firms operating in BRICs economies;
• The role of knowledge intensive business services in urban, regional or national economies in BRICs countries;
• Growth, internationalization and competitive strategies in domestic BRICs service industries;
• The nature of innovation, corporate strategy and service delivery amongst BRICs knowledge intensive service firms;
• The relationship between BRICs knowledge intensive services and other industries in BRICs economies.

Expressions of interest are welcome. Abstracts should be submitted to Andrew Jones (a.jones@bbk.ac.uk) or Patrik Strom (Patrik.Strom@geography.gu.se) by 14 September 2011.

Three Year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Economic Geography

The Department of Social and Economic Geography and the Centre for research on Innovation and Industrial Dynamics (CIND) at Uppsala University invites applications for a three-year full-time post-doctoral research position in economic geography. The economic geography group at the Department (http://www.kultgeog.uu.se/research/) has a strong international reputation and our staff engage in a broad range of research in economic geography. We seek an outstanding postdoctoral researcher in any area of economic geography to join our milieu.

The University: Founded in 1477, Uppsala University (www.uu.se) is the oldest university in the Scandinavia and one of the largest with more than 40,000 students and more than 2,000 graduate students. The University is one of the foremost research environments in Europe and has extensive library facilities and data resources that rank amongst the best in Europe. The University is located in the centre of lively and historic Uppsala (http://www.uu.se/en/node264), which is Sweden’s fourth biggest city and located 40 minutes north of the capital Stockholm and 20 minutes from Stockholm Arlanda International Airport.

The Position: The position is a full-time research fellowship and the holder will have complete academic freedom to engage in the research they wish to pursue. We are seeking an exceptional researcher who can demonstrate a strong commitment to scholarly research and publishing as well as an ambition to be at the forefront of research in economic geography.

The fellowship holder will be expected to engage actively in research seminars and similar activities at the Department and CIND. The fellowship holder will be provided with their own office, computer, and research expenses and will have access to world-class research resources and libraries. There are no teaching or administrative responsibilities included in the Fellowship, however we encourage the Fellow to combine their fellowship with a limited amount of paid undergraduate and graduate teaching and supervision.

The fellowship is in the form of a Browaldh stipend financed by Handelsbankens Research Foundation. The stipend consists of an annual tax-free personal allowance of 300,000sek (approx. 46,000USD), 75,000sek towards pension and insurance per year, as well as 40,000sek in annual research expenses. As a registered resident in Sweden the Fellow will be covered by the public health system.

Candidates must possess a doctoral degree in economic geography or closely related field received after January 1 2009 or have submitted their PhD thesis for examination by time of commencement. The three-year position can be started between September 1st 2011 and January 1st 2012. Subject to approval the Fellowship may be renewed for a further three years.

Contact and Application procedure: Interested candidates should send an E-mail including their Curriculum Vitae, a statement of research interests (maximum 3 pages), one digital copy of written work, and names of three referees willing to provide a reference on request to: Professor Dominic Power (dominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se). Deadline for applications is 25th of July 2011.  Short-listed candidates will be contacted and invited for an interview. Interviews will take place between 15th and 19th of August 2011 but flexibility exists.

For more information or queries, please contact any member of the Selection Panel:
Prof Dominic Power (dominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se)
Prof Anders Malmberg (anders.malmberg@kultgeog.uu.se)
Dr. Johan Jansson (johan.jansson@kultgeog.uu.se)
Dr. Brett Christophers (brett.christophers@kultgeog.uu.se)

I have now put up the schedule and tentative course outline for GE3201 The Service Economy, which will be offered in Semester 1, 2011/2012. The dates/times and venues (for lectures, tutorials and final exam) are fixed. The course content and lecture topics and still being finalised, but should give you a fair idea of what to expect if you are considering taking this module. (Edit: 15/07/2011 – Course content and lecture topics now confirmed)

In the mean time, you can email me if you have any questions related to the module. Please note that I will be away in Seoul for the Third Global Conference in Economic Geography from 28 June to 2 July and may not respond quickly to emails until I return.

A new module GE3201 The Service Economy will be offered in Semester 1, 2011/2012.  It is on the Geography Department’s module listing but has not been offered for many years. I will be updating the course content accordingly.

Details about the module (e.g. outline, lectures/tutorials, CA components, reading list) will be posted on my Teaching webpage and the Geography Deparment’s website in early July.

Lai, Karen (2011) ‘Differentiated Markets: Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in China’s Financial Centre Network’, Urban Studies, DOI: 10.1177/0042098011408143.

The online version of this article can be found at:
http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/06/04/0042098011408143

Abstract:

This paper examines the roles of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as financial centres by utilising interview and secondary data to analyse the decision-making of financial and regulatory actors, and the different functional roles of foreign banks in those cities. Their intercity relations demonstrate a complex mix of competition and collaboration that embeds them in evolving networks of interdependence. Empirical findings indicate differentiated markets leading to the distinctive development of Shanghai as a commercial centre, Beijing as a political centre and Hong Kong as an offshore financial centre, with all three financial centres performing distinctive and complementary roles within the regional banking strategies of foreign banks. The analysis first explains Hong Kong’s continued dominance in the region and, secondly, reveals insights into changing intercity relationships between these prominent Chinese cities that contribute to their distinctive development as financial centres.

Keywords: Financial centres, global cities, markets, networks, China

The Sage Handbook of Economic Geography has just been published. For more details, please visit the SAGE website.

The SAGE Handbook of Economic Geography
Edited by Andrew Leyshon, Roger Lee, Linda McDowell & Peter Sunley

Contents:

PART ONE: LOCATION MODELS AND QUANTITATIVE ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
Locating Location Models – Jürgen Essletzbichler
The Quantitative Revolution and Economic Geography – Trevor Barnes
The ‘New Economic Geography’: Credible Models of the Economic Landscape? – Ron Martin

PART TWO: POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF SPACE I
Making Sense of Globalization Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Geographies – Richard Peet, Ipsita Chatterjee & Elaine Hartwick
Unpacking Globalisation: Changing Geographies of the Global Economy – Neil M. Coe
The Consequences of Economic Globalization – Peter Sunley

PART THREE: POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF SPACE II
The Local in the Global – Martin Jones
Critical Sociospatial Theory and the Geographies of Uneven Spatial Development – Neil Brenner
Space, Place and Labour – Philip Kelly

PART FOUR: POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF SPACE III
The Geographies of Capitalism – Susan Christopherson
Capitalism and Social Justice – Paul Routledge
Globalisation and the City – Jonathan V. Beaverstock, James R. Faulconbridge and Michael Hoyler
Towards a Critical Economic Geography of Workfare – Michael Samers

PART FIVE: POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF NATURE
The Economy Of Nature: From Political Ecology to the Social Construction of Nature – Gavin Bridge
The Antonymies of Sustainable Development: Sustaining What, How, and for Whom – David Demeritt
Towards Visceral Entanglements: Knowing and Growing the Economic Geographies Of Food – Michael K. Goodman

PART SIX: UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT: GEOGRAPHIES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DECLINE
Geographies of Economic Decline – Ray Hudson
Geographies of Economic Growth I: Industrial and Technology Regions – Nick Henry and Stuart Dawley
Geographies of Economic Growth II: Money and Finance – Michael Pryke

PART SEVEN: GEOGRAPHIES OF CONSUMPTION ECONOMIC SPECTACLE
Geographies of Retailing and Consumption: The Shopping List Compendium – Louise Crewe
An Economic Geography of the Cultural Industries – Andy C. Pratt
Doing Gender, Performing Work – Linda Mcdowell

PART EIGHT: RETHINKING THE ECONOMIC
Feminist Economic Geographies – Louise Johnson
Ordinary Economic Geographies: Can Economic Geographies Be Non-Economic? – Roger Lee
Towards a Non-Economic, Economic Geography? From Black Boxes to the Cultural Circuit of Capital in Economic Geographies of Firms and Managers – Andrew Leyshon

** Click on poster below for larger image **

 

With effect from 1 November 2010, I will be based at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore.

Address:
Department of Geography
National University of Singapore
1 Arts Link
Singapore 117570
Office: (+65) 6601 1720
Fax: (+65) 6777 3091
Email: karenlai@nus.edu.sg