About us

EdgeNet (short for Edge-Network) is a global research network founded in 2023 centered on peripheral regions and why they matter. We aim to elevate and synthesize insights on peripheral regions and their development by convening interdisciplinary researchers around the world by cultivating a welcoming and pluralistic atmosphere for those researching non-core regions and their development. EdgeNet's activities are sponsored by the Regional Studies Association's Research Network grant scheme.
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EdgeNet runs an email listserv open to all, hosts events independently and conjunction with Regional Studies Association conferences, and provides opportunities for peripheral researchers to connect and collaborate. In 2024 we are planning a workshop in Cornwall, England as the basis for an upcoming special issue on peripherality in regional studies. Stay tuned!

 

 

Edge-net aims to..

  • Reinvigorate the study of peripheral places and regions, advancing conversations beyond limited views of ‘lagging regions’ and ‘left-behind places’.
  • Bring expertise across disciplines, methods, and theories together in an inclusive research community.
  • Facilitate opportunities for knowledge exchange, which engage with and learn from multiple regions in global contexts.
  • Grow the presence and profile of research on peripheries and its people within the RSA.
  • Engage policy and practice audiences to share evidence and experience.
  • Foster future edgy scholarship through opportunities for PhD and early career researchers.

 

Organisers

 

Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins

🇳🇿 + 🇬🇧
Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins is a social scientist working in interdisciplinary regional studies. Her work applies mixed methods to explore socio-economic development initiatives in rural areas and peripheral regions and inform evidence-based policy decision-making.

Joanie Willett

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Joanie Willett is an Associate Professor of Politics at University of Exeter. Her research focuses on the entangled relationship between people, how they organise into communities, and the landscape that they are situated in (geography, geology, and ecology). 

Madeleine Eriksson

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Madeleine Eriksson is an Associate Professor in Geography at Umeå University.  Her research concerns representations of the rural and urban with focus on the Northern Periphery, migrant labour and housing for refugees.

 

Rhiannon Pugh

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 + 🇸🇪
Rhiannon Pugh is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Innovation Research at Lund University. Her research interests include economic geographies of weaker, post-industrial and peripheral regions, the roles of universities in regional development, and gender perspective within economic geography. 

Michael Howcroft

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Michael Howcroft is a Research Associate in the Urban Studies Department at University of Glasgow. His research interests include spatial, political and cultural geographies of pride and shame; civic imaginaries; post-Brexit local government policy and levelling up; Queer geographies; emotional geographies; and community-led planning. 

Grete Gansauer

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Grete Gansauer is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Communities at University of Wyoming. She is an economic geographer with research interests in place-based policy responses to uneven development;  foundational economy and public service provision in rural and 'left behind' places; and resource dependency in primary production economies.