A long overdue update on the 5th Global Conference on Economic Geography (GCEG) that took place in Cologne, Germany at the end of July. Other than the extraordinary weather (36-37 degrees Celsius all week!!!), lasting memories are of the stimulating sessions, fruitful discussions and excellent company of fellow economic geographers from many different parts of the world.
I was involved in two Annual General Meetings (AGMs) that week as executive committee member. First to take place was the Global Network on Financial Geography (FinGeo) AGM just before the official start of the conference. We were pleasantly surprised by the good turnout with the large room was comfortably filled. Other than updating members about past year’s events, we also discussed future plans for forthcoming events and funding applications to keep the work of FinGeo going in subsequent years.
The AGM of the RGS-IBG Economic Geography Research Group (EGRG) took place a few days later over a lunch time slot. While the EGRG AGM is usually held at the annual RGS-IBG conference, it made sense to hold it at the 5th GCEG given the concentration of economic geographers. James Faulconbridge officially handed over the position of Chair to Jennifer Johns, and the discussion included follow up action from the recent EGRG report on the move of UK economic geographers to business and management schools (full report ‘The Business of Economic Geography’ is available here), and support for postgraduate and early career members.
The panel co-organised by me and Dariusz Wojcik on the first day was titled ‘Ten years after the global financial crisis: Critical reflections on finance and economy’. We gathered a panel of leading experts to discuss different dimensions and impacts of the crisis as we approach the decade milestone. It was a full-house turnout and discussions from both panellists and audience covered a wide range of economic, social and political issues that continue to reverberate long after the last financial crisis.
List of speakers and topics:
- Marc Boeckler – Finance, development and markets in Africa
- Gary Dymski – Financial regulation and innovation
- Jane Pollard – Small firms, financial inclusion/exclusion
- Kendra Strauss – Financialisation of social reproduction
- Dariusz Wojcik – International financial centres after the crisis
Michael Samers and I presented a joint paper on FinTech and identifying key research dimensions that should concern economic geographers. As a work-in-progress paper, we benefitted from the questions raised and discussion with other participants at the series of sessions on FinTech organised by Eric Knight and Dariusz Wojcik.
A signature of the GCEG conferences has always been the local fieldtrips. I went on the one to Wupper Valley which traced the roots of early industrialisation in Europe. From cottage industry to drop-forge factory to the birthplace of Friedrich Engels, it was a very enriching (although very long!) field day out to Solingen and Wuppertal.
As always, there was plenty of socialising and catching up with friends and colleagues from around the world, over schnitzel, flammkuchen and Kölsch. In between, there was also various meetings with collaborators, publishers and graduate students.
It was a rather whirlwind of a week, as most productive conferences are. I very much enjoyed my visit to Cologne, although next time I hope to visit during a cooler time of the year!
Karen P.Y. Lai 