National PhD Course: Economic Geography, 23-24 October 2013 Gothenburg

Organizers
Jerker Moodysson & Lars Coenen, Lund University
Patrik Ström & Anja Franck, Göteborg University
Jenny Sjöholm & Johan Jansson, Uppsala University (co-ordinators)
 

Course description

The course is jointly arranged by economic geographers at the universities of Lund, Göteborg and Uppsala. It builds on a format developed during previous courses on the same theme, held every second year since 1997. The course offers an introduction to contemporary research perspectives and approaches in economic geography.

While it primarily targets PhD students working on theses within economic geography, the course is designed to be accessible also to PhD students in human geography generally, as well as in related economic and social science disciplines. PhD students affiliated with Swedish geography departments taking part in the national collaboration on PhD courses in human geography are given priority, but also students from other universities in Sweden and beyond will be accepted if there are slots available. We aim at getting 15-25 students in the course. The course will be taught in English.

The course introduces research questions, concepts and theories in contemporary economic geography as well as examples of ongoing empirical research. The core questions of economic geography– related to the role of place and space in processes of economic development – have in recent years attracted interest not just from geographers but also from economists and others who study industrial and technological development, firm innovation processes, effects of economic integration and globalization etc. Themes dealt with in the course include: economic geography as a (sub)discipline, regional specialization, agglomeration, industrial systems, networks, clusters and regional innovation systems, the geography of creativity, uneven regional economic development, industrial, innovation and regional policy, trade, gender, entrepreneurship, labour, evolutionary processes, branding, environmental issues etc.

The course is literature and discussion based. The participants will read a selection of 15-20 papers from one of several handbooks or companions of economic geography that have been published in recent years (see list below). In addition, there is a core curriculum of texts connected to the themes dealt with during the course, which will be read by every participant. The lectures and seminars during the course will cover some but not all aspects of this literature.

In order to pass, the participating student is expected to take active part in the sessions arranged, read the literature, and by the time of the third and final course meeting have written a paper (4000-5000 words), related to the course literature.

There will be a mix of lectures and seminars held by the organizers and other teachers in the organizing departments, alongside guest lectures held by invited colleagues.

Format, application and venue

Johan Jansson (johan.jansson@kultgeog.uu.se) is contact person regarding general course matters. The course will take place during 6 days, distributed over three periods, in Lund 25-26 September, Göteborg 23-24 October and Uppsala 21-22 November.

Deadline for applications: Thursday 22 August 2013

The application should include:

• Name and contact information
• Number of years in PhD Programme
• Name of supervisor(s)
• Thesis topic or short description of research theme

The Gothenburg chapter will take place 23-24 October.

Second Meeting, 23-24 October in Göteborg

Place: School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Vasagatan 1

The meeting will focus on the close integration between economic geography and international business studies in the fields of manufacturing, services, trade and foreign direct investment in its Göteborg interpretation, but we aim also to demonstrate the broadening of economic geography to micro-level studies, by the illustration of cases of the interface between formal and informal economies in the retail distribution sector in Southeast Asia.

Please contact Patrik Ström for more programme details.