The Political Economy Research Group applies spatially sensitive theories and methods to the study of economic, social and political phenomena, broadly defined. Specific research interests include agrifood, the welfare state, urban politics, political ecology, gender, feminism, resource extraction, globalisation, health, science and technology, colonialism and postcolonialism, neoliberalism, and development.

These interests derive from the research and teaching emphases of the group’s members: Ed Atkins, Keith Bassett, Negar Behzadi, Lauren Blake, Owen Crankshaw, James Duminy, Maria Fannin, Sean Fox, Mark Jackson, Julie MacLeavy, Naomi Millner, James Palmer, Susan Parnell, Jonathan Rigg and Richard Timmerman. The group’s theoretical orientations are wide-ranging (our interests include neo-Marxism, political ontology, governmentality, postcolonial and feminist approaches), as are its empirical strategies (from visual methodologies and in-depth interviews to multilevel modelling). We carry out research in a wide range of countries and regions, including the Europe, North America, Latin America, Central and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China.

Members of the group collaborate with colleagues from the School’s other research clusters in a variety of ways. The Quantitative Spatial Science 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 political ecology; geographies of knowledge, environmental humanities, and geographies of identity, subjectivity and the body. A nascent collaboration with the Glaciology group investigates the historical, cultural and legal aspects of Arctic science and its relationship to indigenous communities in the North.

Outside the School, our group has connections to cognate disciplines (Sociology, Politics, Education, Law, Policy Studies, Socio-Legal 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 around the globe.