ACCESS Seminar: Engaging Geography and/with policy: grasping new opportunity or an ongoing search for relevance?

Presenter

Professor Niamh Moore-Cherry
University College Dublin

Abstract

Following in a long tradition since the 1970s of 'relevance debates' in geography, the seminar begins from the perspective that geographers have a responsibility to address the major challenges of our time by engaging with and shaping policy. Drawing on a range of experiences engaging with central, regional and local governments; the OECD; private sector; and civil society, I suggest a number of pathways through which geographers and geographic research can engage stakeholders beyond the academy and demonstrate impact in a variety of ways. By grasping these opportunities, and developing the skills to do so, we can create a geography of possibility where our discipline becomes widely recognised as critical to solving social, economic and environmental challenges at a range of scales.

Biography

Niamh Moore-Cherry is Professor in the School of Geography, Deputy College Principal in the UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, and Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Her research is focused on understanding governance and the impact of territorial politics on urban and regional decision-making and place-based outcomes. She founded and leads the Cities, Governance and Sustainability research group in UCD which brings together academic, policy and community engaged work. In summer 2022, she was appointed as an independent member of the advisory National Economic and Social Council (NESC) by An Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister).