Organisation profile

The Geographies of Political Economy group applies spatially sensitive theories and methods to the study of economic, social and political phenomena, broadly defined. Specific research interests include the welfare state, urban politics, gender, feminism, globalisation, colonialism and postcolonialism, neoliberalism, development, political ecology and creative industries.

These interests derive from the research and teaching emphases of seven human geographers: Keith Bassett, Adam Dixon, Malcolm Fairbrother, Maria Fannin, Mark Jackson, Julie MacLeavy, and group head Wendy Larner. The group’s theoretical orientations are wide-ranging (members’ interests include neo-Marxism, governmentality, postcolonial and feminist approaches), as are its empirical strategies (from visual methodologies and in-depth interviews to comparative-historical methods and multilevel modelling). Members’ research interests encompass a wide range of countries and regions, including the UK, France, North America, New Zealand, India and China.

Members of the group collaborate with colleagues from the School’s other research clusters in a variety of ways. The Spatial Modelling group provides strong complementarities in the areas of political geography, social inequality, gender and research methods. Links with the Historical-Cultural group include common interests in geographies of knowledge, cultural planning, and geographies of identity, subjectivity and the body. With respect to physical geography, a nascent collaboration with the Hydrology group investigates the social determinants of land degradation, and through BRIDGE there are links to the university’s Global Change theme. Outside the School, this research group has connections to cognate disciplines (Sociology, Politics, Education, Policy Studies, Socio-Legal Studies, East Asian Studies, Philosophy, Social Medicine, Social Anthropology) in the University of Bristol, at the University of the West of England (UWE), among our partner institutions in the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), and more broadly elsewhere in the UK, continental Europe, North America and Australasia.