Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society

The International 3-day Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG attracts over 1.000 geographers from around the world. Theme: Confronting the Challenges of the Post-Crisis Global Economy and Environment.

I accepted the invitation to Chair the 2010 Conference of the Royal Geographical Society in April 2009. The Global Financial Crisis Was raging. Capitalism, Which HAD ground to a halt Nearly in September 2008, HAD Been Determined saved by intervention But Were Effectively Markets frozen credit and Economies across the world plunge Into Recession HAD. Looking ahead a year and a half to the
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The International 3-day Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG attracts over 1.000 geographers from around the world. Theme: Confronting the Challenges of the Post-Crisis Global Economy and Environment.

I accepted the invitation to Chair the 2010 Conference of the Royal Geographical Society in April 2009. The Global Financial Crisis Was raging. Capitalism, Which HAD ground to a halt Nearly in September 2008, HAD Been Determined saved by intervention But Were Effectively Markets frozen credit and Economies across the world plunge Into Recession HAD. Looking ahead a year and a half to the Conference, The Obvious Choice Was Not Merely to focus around research agendas ITS theme directly related to the crisis But, most importantly, to look forward to the Challenge to be confronted as the global economy to move empezar out of crisis. How would geographers, Both human and physical, Reply via Their research questions to Those challenges, and to What Extent They would be Able to September cross-disciplinary research agendas prompter by the crisis and by subsequent Economic and societal Readjustment?

Intervening in the year, as you Slowly Began recovery to take hold - farrier at very Different rates across the global economy - the nature of Those challenges, Both Practical and intellectual, Have Become clear. For the social sciences, as Sylvia Walby in a paper for the Academy of Social Sciences has recently argued, Their failure to predict the Financial Crisis and the Risks of Articulate to 'over-financialisation' Implies the Need to Develop a research agenda post-crisis Centred firmly around the interrelationship of finance with Changing Social Institutions. That is to say, focus issues of regulation Not Only, But Also governance and Legality Aspects of Civil Society financialisation Such as consumerism and Its alternatives. For the Environmental Science, related issues Concerned Have the Impact of the crisis and the Uneven recovery of Economics on the politics of Both research and global climate change emission targets. Transition to low-carbon pathways Economies Have Become more vital yet simultaneously more problematic.

A year after-my Acceptance of the Chair it is now clear That the UK economy, post-crisis, will be restructured to Have Inevitably less dependence on Financial and business services, and will Need to Rely to a Greater Extent Other Sectors on - Such as the creative industries - to drive future growth. The burden of Debt and an Aging Society will reconfigure public services, and UK Universities and discipline Within Our Own Institutions Those will be repositioned. The Challenge of Developing new Environmental Industries Within a low carbon economy will Have to be GRASP Inevitably and policy makers will focus more on Promoting Sustainable Growth and resilient Within a 'smart economy'.