Second Global Conference on Economic Geography

Second Global Conference On Economic Geography

2006-11-01T05:08:00Z

25-28 June 2007, Foreign Expert Building Hotel, Beijing, China

Jointly Organized By

The Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

And

The Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

Latest information at the Conference Website.

Conference Rationale

2006-11-01T05:07:00Z

This is the sequel to the first highly successful Global Conference on Economic Geography held in Singapore, 5-9 December 2000 (see special photo album). With almost 200 academic participants from 30 countries, the Singapore conference was significant in spurring on economic-geographical dialogue in a sustained manner worldwide. Some 150 high quality papers were presented and the conference resulted in two special issues in leading geographical journals (see JEG 2001, E&PA 2002, and Olds' editorial in E&PD 2001), as well as numerous other articles, chapters, and reports. In the context of the globalization of knowledge production and research activity, a global dialogue in economic geography continues to be highly important, for it facilitates the development of knowledge, and the establishment of international collaborative relations for both teaching and research. Such dialogue in a dedicated conference also requires economic geographers to face head on the complex issues of vantage points and ethnocentric biases, as evident in the intellectual interactions during the Singapore conference. Field trips organized in Beijing and elsewhere in China during the conference will enable participants to collect teaching materials (case studies, digital photos, etc) and to investigate possibilities for future research projects.

Six years have now lapsed since the Singapore conference. The global economy has experienced tremendous transformations since the late 1990s. For one, it witnesses much stronger integration of cross-border economic activities. The rise of emerging economies, particularly China and India, has significant economic-geographical implications. The continual economic integration within the European Union and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) requires new research insights from economic geographers. At the more micro-scale, economic geographies are much more implicated in our everyday life, from our consumption practices and productive work to our activities in labour and financial markets. We believe the timing is now appropriate for a second global conference on economic geography. As one of the key sub-disciplines in Geography, it is time to discuss and debate current and new research agendas in economic geography. It is also a critical time to continue our rethinking of the relationship between the sub-discipline (within human geography) and the wider social science community.

In organizing this second global conference on economic geography, we have three specific objectives:

1. The conference will provide a forum for constructive cross-regional dialogue among economic geographers from all regions and countries. Such dialogue is critical for the advancement of the subject.

2. The conference will provide an opportunity for economic geographers from outside Asia to interact with geographers and other interested social scientists from within the host region. While acknowledging the Anglo-American influence in much of the recent work in economic geography, we recognize that there is a considerable stock of knowledge in the Asian region that contributes to our understanding of regional and global economic geographies. In short, the conference will enhance the global interdependence of networks of economic geographers.

3. The conference and its associated activities will enable economic geographers from outside the Asian region to experience (first-hand) the dynamics of economic transformations in China and East Asia. Through carefully designed field trips, both within and outside of Beijing, the capital city of China, the conference will offer insightful educational experiences that can be brought home for the benefits of students and institutions, similar to those available during the Singapore conference in 2000.

Latest information at the Conference Website.

Conference Themes

2006-11-01T05:06:00Z

We invite papers on any of the following themes of economic geography. We also welcome proposals for additional themes and papers to be incorporated into the final programme. Thematic options include:

theories and discourses in economic geography
culture and ethnicity in economic geography
(en)gendering economic geography
consumption and economic geography
finance and economic geography (see proposed session by Gordon Clark and Dariusz Wojcik)
geography of service economies
organizing industrial spaces
labour geographies
comparative dynamics of emerging markets
development geography
geographies of international trade and investment
dynamics of urban and regional development
geographies of economic transitions
alternative economic geographies
neoliberalism and economic governance
economy and the environment
virtual economies
informational economies
histories of economic geographies
methodologies and economic geography
uneven geographies of global capitalism
innovation, learning, and communities of practice
rural and resource economies
the future of economic geography

Latest information at the Conference Website.

Conference Format and Schedule

2006-11-01T05:05:00Z

Conference sessions will take place from 25 to 28 June 2007 in Foreign Experts Building Hotel, a four star hotel, in Beijing, China. The conference will consist of plenary panels, special sessions organized by various individuals or study groups of geographical societies, general sessions comprising submitted papers, and panels and roundtable workshops on selected issues. If possible, we may organize a panel bringing together Chinese and foreign managers to reflect on their business operations and experiences in China and within the global division of labour. We also welcome proposals for other formats and styles of presentation.

Fieldtrips are likely to take place on Thursday 28 June 2007.

Three plenary speakers have been confirmed:

Susan Hanson (Clark University, USA)
Gordon Clark (Oxford University, UK)
Gernot Grabher (University of Bonn, Germany)

The specific titles of their talks will be announced in due course.

Latest information at the Conference Website.

Conference Organizers

2006-11-01T05:04:00Z

The conference will be jointly organized by the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, in collaboration with the Geographical Society of China (conference secretariat), the Division of Geography, China National Natural Science Foundation, and economic geography study/research groups or the equivalent of the Association of American Geographers, the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers, the Canadian Association of Geographers, the Institute of Australian Geographers, and the International Geographical Union Commission on "The Dynamics of Economic Spaces".

Conference Organizing Committee

Weidong Liu, Co-Chair, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Henry Yeung, Co-Chair, National University of Singapore
Yuko Aoyama, Clark University (USA)
Neil Coe, University of Manchester (UK)
Martin Hess, University of Manchester (UK)
Jinn-Yuh Hsu, National Taiwan University
Philip Kelly, York University (Canada)
Yong-Sook Lee, National University of Singapore
George Lin, University of Hong Kong
Kris Olds, University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA)
Jessie Poon, SUNY-Buffalo (USA)
Yu Zhou, Vassar College (USA)
Jici Wang, Peking University (China)
Xiaojian Li, Henan University of Finance and Economics (China)
Guoyou Zhang, General Secretary of the Geographical Society of China (GSC)
Local conference secretariat: Geographical Society of China

Conference Advisory Committee

Chuanjun Wu, Former Vice President of the International Geographical Union, and CAS Academician
Dadao LU, President of the Geographical Society of China, and CAS Academician
Changming LIU, Vice President of the International Geographical Union, and CAS Academician
Bojie FU, Director of Bureau of Science & Technology for Resources and the Environment, CAS
Yi LIU, Director of Bureau of Personnel and Education, CAS
Jiyuan LIU, Director of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS
Changqing SONG, Head of Geography Division, China National Natural Science Foundation
Lily Kong, Vice Provost, National University of Singapore
Shirlena Huang, Head, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
Victor Savage, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, and President, Commonwealth Geographical Bureau
Susan Hanson, Clark University (USA)
Gordon Clark, Oxford University (UK)
Gernot Grabher, University of Bonn (Germany)

Latest information at the Conference Website.