Abstract
This paper contemplates the relationship between the discipline of geography, and the making of public policy. It is particularly concerned with the compatibilities and incompatibilities of the nature of academic knowledge production and public policy development. As such, we contribute to an ongoing debate among geographers regarding whether and how they should engage with policy, and utilize examples from our involvement in the Metropolis Project, a Canadian initiative based on interdisciplinary research networks linked to government and public service agencies involved in immigrant settlement. We argue ultimately that geographers do need to engage politically with policymaking, but that the manner in which to do this is never straightforward, but rather takes place across institutional, ideological, and political landscapes that are perpetually shifting. Finally we suggest some helpful tools from feminist methodologies with which to approach policy-related issues.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bailey, A. J., Wright, R., Mountz, A., & Miyares, I. (2002). (Re)producing salvadoran transnational geographies. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92, 125–144.
Blomley, N. (1994). Activism and the academy. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 12, 383–385.
Burstein, M. (2001). The metropolis project: Canada. In: Bridging the information gaps: A conference of research on asylum and immigration in the UK (pp. 33–35). 1 Whitehall Place, London: Home Office.
Campbell, M. (2002). Mapping social relations: A primer in doing institutional ethnography. Toronto: Garamond Press.
Castree, N., & Sparke, M. (2000). Professional geography and the corporatization of the university: Experiences, evaluations and engagements. Antipode, 32, 222–229.
Cope, M., (2002). Feminist Epistemology in Geography. In: Feminist geography in practice: Research and methods (pp. 43–56). Oxford and Malden: Blackwell.
Charlton, A., Duff, S., Grant, D., Mountz, A., Pike, R., Sohn, J. and Taylor, C. (2002). The Challenges to Responding to Human Smuggling in Canada: Practitioners Reflect on the 1999 Boat Arrivals in British Columbia. Vancouver Centre for Excellence Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis RIIM working paper 02–23.
Del Casino, V., Grimes, A. J., Hanna, S. P., & Jones, J. P. (2000). Methodological frameworks for the geography of organizations. Geoforum, 31, 523–538.
Demeritt, D. (2000). The new social contract for science: Accountability, relevance and value in US and UK science and research policy. Antipode, 32, 308–329.
Dorling, D., & Shaw, M. (2002). Geographies of the agenda: public policy, the discipline and its (re) ‘turns’. Progress in Human Geography, 26, 629–646.
Duncan, H. (2001). The metropolis project: Canada. In: Bridging the information gaps: A conference of research on asylum and immigration in the UK (pp. 33–35). 1 Whitehall Place, London: Home Office.
Gordon, D. (1995). Border work: Feminist ethnography and the dissemination of literacy. In: R. Behar, & D. Gordon (Eds.), Women writing culture (pp. 373–389). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Gottfried, H. (1996). Feminism and social change: Bridging theory and practice. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Harley, J. B. (1988). Maps, knowledge and power. In: D. Cosgrove, & S. Daniels (Eds.), The Iconography of landscape: Essays in the representation, design and use of past environments (pp. 277–312). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (1993). Why advocacy research? Reflections on research and activism with immigrant women. American Sociologist, 24, 56–68.
Hyndman, J., & Walton-Roberts, M., (2000). Interrogating borders: A transnational approach to refugee research in Vancouver. Canadian Geographer, 44(3), 244–258.
Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow engineers and scientists through society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lee, R. (2002). Geography, policy, and geographical agendas – a short intervention in a continuing debate. Progress in Human Geography, 26(5), 627–628.
McDowell, L. (1997). Capital culture: Gender at work in the city. Oxford: Blackwell.
Macklin, A. (1992). Foreign domestic worker: Surrogate housewife or mail order servant? McGill Law Journal, 37, 681–760.
Martin, R. (2001). Geography and public policy: The case of the missing agenda. Progress in Human Geography, 25(2), 189–210.
Mahtani, M., & Mountz, A. (2002). Immigration to British Columbia: Media representation and public opinion. Research on immigration and integration in the metropolis, Working Paper Series, No. 02–15. http://www.riim.metropolis.net
Mountz, A. (2003). Embodied geographies of the nation-state: An ethnography of Canada’s response to human smuggling. Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Mountz, A., Wright, R., Miyares, I., & Bailey, A. (2002). Lives in limbo: Temporary protected status and immigrant identities. Global Networks, 2(4), 335–356.
Papademetriou, D. & Ho, D. (1997). Making policy more responsive to research: A view from the United States. Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 20(1–2), 299–302.
Peck, J. (1995). Moving and shaking: Business elites, state localism and urban privatism. Progress in Human Geography, 19, 16–46.
Peck, J. (1999). Grey geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 24(2), 131–136.
Pratt, G. in collaboration with The Philippine Women Centre of Vancouver. (2003). From migrant to immigrant: Domestic workers settle in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver Centre of Excellence Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis working paper series # 03–18.
Pratt, G. (1993). Reflections on poststructuralism and feminist empirics, theory and practice. Antipode 25(1), 51–63.
Richmond, A. (2000). Immigration policy and research in Canada: Pure or applied? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 26(1), 109–125.
Roberts, S. (2000). Realizing critical geographies of the university. Antipode, 32(3), 230–244.
Simonson, L. J., & Bushaw, V. A. (1993). Participatory action research: Easier said than done. The American Sociologist, 24(1), 27–37.
Smith, D. (1987). The everyday world as problematic: A feminist sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. From granting council to knowledge council: Renewing the social sciences and humanities in Canada (Vol. 3). Report on the consultations, January 2005
Staeheli, L. A., & Mitchell, D. (2005). The complex politics of relevance in geography. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(2), 357–372.
Walton-Roberts, M. (2004). Rescaling citizenship: Gendering Canadian immigration policy. Political Geography, 23(3), 265–281.
Whyte, A. (1997). Presidential address: ‘In the national interest’: Science, geography, and public policy in Canada. The Canadian Geographer, 41(4), 338–349.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mountz, A., Walton-Roberts, M. Gender, geography and policy: the conundrums of engagement. GeoJournal 65, 263–273 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-006-0021-1
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-006-0021-1