Past, present, future: The RGS-IBG political geography research group within British political geography

Abstract

This paper critically examines the history of the Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) within the shifting landscape of political geography as a sub-discipline within British academic geography. While the sub-discipline has evolved almost beyond recognition in the past 50 years, from the rehabilitation of political geography and geopolitics in the 1960s through the political turn to the present, what has been the role of the flagship national study group in this journey? Reflecting on this question provides an opportunity to consider how the RGS-IBG research group has previously and can continue to contribute to and advance the (re)birth of British political geography while reflecting more broadly on the growing challenges to research groups—which rely upon volunteers undertaking ‘service roles’ for the benefit of the discipline—in the face of increasing workload pressures in the sector.