A plea for a ‘professional’ Institute of Australian Geographers

Abstract

This is an appeal for an enlarged outlook and self-perception of geography -as a profession and not merely as an academic discipline. It is a call to consider the gains possible from a more vigorous market-oriented organisation, bound by a code of ethics and centered upon a full-time secretariat not constrained by the spare-time efforts of dedicated individuals dependent upon the goodwill of scattered campuses. Such a structure carries a higher financial cost but with it comes the prospect of a n enlarged membership, more valuable community relationships and improved career opportunities for young geographers THE PROBLEM

Legal geography, geography, and the research‐policy nexus

“…It is furthermore significant that geographers have a long history of engaging in public debate and influencing policy (see Gleeson, ), including in Australia such luminaries as Griffith Taylor (Taylor, ; and see discussion in Marshall, ; Gibson, ; Strange, ) and James Macdonald Holmes (). We might also like to draw attention to the work of geographers in popular and pre‐tertiary geography and elsewhere in the public service and private sector (for example Proctor, ; Birtles, ; Erskine, ; Bonnett, ; Peterson et al ., ).…”

“…Nevertheless, our potential influence may be undermined by a reluctance to conduct applied normative research when it is perceived that it is theory that counts (Mercer, ; Birtles, ; Peck, ; Martin, ; Dorling and Shaw, ; McManus, ; Eden, ; Pain, ; Bell, ; Phelps and Tewdwr‐Jones, ). Arguably, however, values are unavoidable and need to be made explicit (see for example Mercer, ), and theory and practice inform each other, and each inform activism (see for example Cloke, ; see also Massey, ; Pain, ).…”