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Master specialisation: Economic Geography

 

Description

In this master specialisation you will study the role of regions as locations for economic activities. Especially with increased competition an optimal interaction between economic activities and the local environment are essential. Think of flows of knowledge, the recruitment and training of employees, relations with suppliers, local governments and the role of environmental and social organisations. In this specialisation you will learn to analyse and understand local developments from a global perspective, focussing on both mainstream and alternative economic practices.

Career Prospects

The master specialisation Economic Geography prepares students for a professional career in government, semi-government, and business. It also provides a stepping stone towards a research career in academia or consultancy. You will be able to apply the scientific insights and the practical skills you have acquired to topics including the development of regions and cities, the marketing of regions and cities, the locational choice of (multinational) companies, and innovation and learning in regions and firms.

Imagine yourself working at the Spatial or Economic Development department of a municipality or a larger city. You could become responsible for labour market policies, the planning of industrial zones, the upgrading of city centres, the attraction of new firms and investments, or for getting European Union funds. Provincial governments and new spatial-governmental entities such as city-regions are also happy to employ economic geographers. The same goes for Ministries: in the Dutch context, you can think of ‘Economische Zaken’, ‘VROM’, ‘Verkeer en Waterstaat’, ‘Binnenlandse Zaken’ and ‘LNV’.

A range of job opportunities is further offered by Chambers of Commerce, Regional Development Agencies, and Innovation Platforms. These institutions provide (starting) entrepreneurs with a wealth of information about rules, subsidies, regional labour markets and innovation policies. Often, they are the nodes in formal as well as informal networks of key actors in a region. It is important to add that governments, employers’ organisations, labour unions and housing corporations are increasingly interested in themes such as immigrant entrepreneurship, the ‘Creative Economy’, and sustainability. Economic geographers are well equipped to work on these socially engaged themes.

Currently, a majority of economic geographers works for consultancy and advisory firms. As a consultant or advisor, you may find yourself writing Strategic Plans for the sustainable development of regions and cities, you may help foreign firms and investors to find a suitable location, or you may assist regional and city governments in getting and managing EU funds (project and process management).

 

Programme

Semester 4.1

Semester 4.2

Period 1

Period 2

Period 3

Period 4

Our Common Ground: Human geographic research colloquium (6 EC)
Economic Geographies: Foundations, critiques and alternatives (6 EC) City- and Region Marketing (6 EC) Economy, Space and Culture in Nijmegen (6 EC)

Elective course (6 EC)
Preparing the Master Thesis (6 EC) Master Thesis (24 EC)

 

Course descriptions

Our Common Ground: Human geographic research colloquium

This course is a commons course for all Human Geography master students. This course has the form of a seminar or colloquium, in which students can partly co-determine the research issues it will deal with. This course focuses current debates in our discipline and how they are related to our own research. It also provides the opportunity to inform fellow students about the progress in your research and ask them advise. A mix of different activities will be employed in this course, such as jointly discussing selected articles from the latest issues of the 'top'-journals in our field, present and discuss research proposals and the intermediary results of our research, invite professional experts who are relevant for our research for contributing to the colloquium. As far as feasible also the activities developed in the framework of the renomated Alexander von Humboldt Lecture series in Human Geography will be part of this course. Students will report on the different activities in this course, from the perspective of their own research.. In this way students will be actively involved in the real research. Students will learn to independently critically reflect on and relate to the developments in the scientific community of our discipline and will gather highly topical knowledge about latest developments in our field..

Economic Geographies: Foundations, critiques and alternatives

The Course is structured around four themes:

  • enterprise and embedding (theories on small to large firms in space and their relations to the environment, with emphasis on knowledge economy perspectives)
  • regions and scale (regions as environments for enterprise, as nexuses of socio-economic activities, as economic agents and systems themselves, placed in a broader political economic perspective)
  • relational approaches (from a critique of categorical approaches on firms, environment and scale to relational approaches of firms and regions)
  • globalisation and hegemony (building on relational approaches, addressing ideas on neoliberal hegemony and the notion of alternative economic practices and spaces)

Each theme will be concluded with an assignment (strictly scheduled), in which students will be asked to critically reflect on ideas discussed in the literature provided on the basis of a number of questions. The final stage of the course consists of the writing (under supervision) of a short academic position paper offering a more in-depth critical reflection. The key task will be to discuses different perspectives bearing on a particular issue, accompanied by a more thorough literature review, and, possibly, the selections and discussion of an empirical case.

By framing concepts and ideas within a theoretical genealogy of the discipline, students gain experience in understanding the backgrounds and positioning of theories, and be able to use the theoretical capital of the discipline in a more critical and reflexive manner. In doing so, students will learn to cope with the variety as well as ambiguities that characterise the theoretical gamut evolved in recent decades. Tutorials and individual feedback will be the main tools of training.

Students will be trained in evaluating the meaning and significance of theoretical concepts in the field through absorbing academic texts, discussions in dedicated meetings (and the preparation for those meetings), presenting of a line of argumentation and the writing of a position paper (which includes responding to an in-depth review of a draft version of the paper by the supervisors), and the selection of relevant literature. A key aspect of this activity is the formulation of well-founded conclusions that critically reflect on the theoretical development of the field. In the essay, this is extended towards building a longer, well founded theoretical argument.

Economy, Space and Culture in Nijmegen

A course devoted to exploring the state-of-the-art in the 'cultural turn' in economic geography, drawing on some of the most exciting work in Anglo-Saxon and Dutch cultural geography today (Jackson, Gregson, Crang, Thrift, Barnes et al.). Origins of 'cultural turn' in economic geography will be situated within the broader context of cultural studies in the academy, debates on post-Fordism and post-modern consumer culture. Active student participation will be sought in the examination of real-life case studies drawn from everyday life in and around Nijmegen.

This is an exciting practical module, in which students will elaborate on a selected topic and undertake some empirical work in the Nijmegen area. Students will go through the entire research cycle, and report their findings in the form of a joint professional article. The reports will be bundled and published as a report. Each step will be prepared, discussed and monitored through a series of tutorials supported by group supervision. On the basis of thematic preferences, dedicated sets of readings will be composed, which will, as far as possible, build on the work done in the foundational theoretical course. A key aim of the module is to encourage students to liaise with economic agents and the region, which may be the basis for guest lectures, workshops, and the design of web pages. Grading will be individual, on the basis of an indication of the division of labour within the project and a final oral exam (on the project and readings).

Preparing the Master Thesis

This course is aims to teach you how to structurally develop and reflect upon your research design and the methods used for data collection and analysis. After completing this course, you will have completed your research proposal for the master thesis, including a detailed project planning. By doing this you will be able to make a 'flying start' with your actual master thesis project. In this course you will further develop your skills in preparing and elaborating a research proposal. The final goal is to prepare a concrete written research proposal in the format of a research proposal for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). This will be evaluated by the thesis supervisor and if possible also by an (external) 'expert'. You will be assigned a thesis supervisor as soon as possible to provide feedback on drafts versions of the proposal and related exercises building up to the proposal. Furthermore you will be expected to also use the expertise gathered during your study to discuss, evaluate and criticise methodological aspects of the proposals of your fellow students. To stimulate this process we will deal explicitly with ways to set up a bibliography, an expert network (consisting of scholars but also practitioners and policymakers concerned with themes of relevance to the topic of the master thesis. Before starting the actual research for your master thesis the proposal has to be graded by your supervisor as sufficient. An important focus therein will be on the degree to which translation of research questions into a concrete research design and empirical methods has been achieved.

 

Master Thesis (including Research Apprenticeship)

Objectives

After completing your master thesis you:

  • will have proven to be able to independently set up and conduct a scientific research project in the field of  socio-spatial research;
  • will have explored the professional practice of socio-spatial research and will have shown to be able to position yourself in the professional world. This implies that you:
  • have gathered insights in the organisation and  management of the apprenticeship organisation;
  • can formulate the research problem in such a way that it is highly relevant for professional field;
  • applied your academic geographical knowledge to a concrete working situation;
  • will have learned how to translate a practical problem into a feasible theory led empirical research project;
  • will be able to present the results of scientific research in a praxis relevant way.

Description

On the basis of your approved research proposal you start your master thesis research at the organisation of your choice where you do your research apprenticeship. You will be supervised by both a supervisor in the apprenticeship organisation and by your master thesis supervisor at the university. Since this is the 'proof of the pudding' you will be expected to conduct your research independently. Your supervisors will of course provide the necessary support you as advisors and coaches, but you will have to direct your research work yourself, and take the first initiative. You are also responsible for the time management of the research and of your research apprenticeship. Our experience shows that such a master thesis research project will take at least six months, although not always full time. Your master thesis research should be a scientific theory led empirical research project taking a practical socio-spatial problem as the starting point. Ultimately your research efforts should result in a complete and innovative academic report: the master thesis.

Examples of elective courses

Contact

For more information please contact the study advisor: MSc. Jackie van de Walle (j.vandewalle@fm.ru.nl), Room TvA 3.1_38, telephone: +31-(0)24 - 361 60 49.

You can also download a flyer on this master specialisation.