Departmental website: lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment|
Number of graduate students (full-time equivalent)
Taught: 229
Research: 51
Number of faculty (full-time equivalent): 34
RAE: 70% of the Department's research was rated world leading or internationally excellent
Location: St Clement's
About the Department
The Department was ranked amongst the leading departments in the country in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. It has for many years been a recognised ESRC research training outlet (full-time and part-time).
The Department is distinctive in that it concentrates on the socio-economic aspects of the subject, places great emphasis on multi-disciplinary teaching and research and focuses strongly on policy relevant work.
Our research primarily takes place in three research cluster groups which focus on: Economic Geography; Environmental Economics and Policy; and Urban/Development. The Economic Geography and the Environmental Economics and Policy clusters are closely associated with two large externally-funded research centres: the ESRC Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC) and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (incorporating the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy), respectively. Staff in each of the three research clusters have responsibility for teaching specialist master's courses, ensuring that students benefit from the most up to date understanding of the issues involved.
Departmental staff are also actively involved with the School's other interdisciplinary institutes and research centres (including the Centre for Economic Performance, Department of International Development, LSE London, Media@LSE|, Gender Institute, and Urban@LSE|) and undertake collaborative research with colleagues in other disciplines.
The Department currently runs an ESRC-recognised PhD programme in Human Geography and Urban Studies, with new PhD pathways in Economic Geography and Spatial Economics, Environmental Economics, and Environmental Policy and Development planned to start soon. The Department also runs a PhD programme in Regional Planning. There are two research-orientated masters degrees (in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research) and in Environmental Economics and Climate Change) and a range of others focused on developing the ability to integrate theoretical developments with practical experience.
Staff come from a wide range of subject backgrounds. Most of those involved in teaching graduate students have a wealth of experience in working for, or acting as advisers to, a range of international agencies – including the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Commission, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Wide Fund for Nature – and governmental bodies in Great Britain, South Africa, China and throughout the European Union.
Staff and their academic interests
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Dr Gabriel Ahlfeldt: Urban economics and land development, external effects of the built environment; economic impact of accessibility.
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Dr Giles Atkinson: Environmental policy and economics; environmental equity; environmental valuation; sustainable development; green accounting.
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Professor Sylvia Chant: Development geography, especially Mexico, Costa Rica, the Philippines; gender; poverty; migration; women's employment; masculinities.
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Dr Sharad Chari: Historical ethnographies of capitalist development; politics of work, social space; 'race' and the commodity detritus; social theory; India; South Africa.
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Professor Paul Cheshire: Spatial aspects of economics, particularly urban economic growth in Europe; urban land and housing markets; land use regulation.
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Dr Riccardo Crescenzi: Economic growth; innovation; regional and local economic development; regional policy of the European Union.
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Dr Simon Dietz: Environmental equity; sustainable development; climate change and public perceptions of environmental issues.
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Dr Salvatore Di Falco: The intersection between environmental and development economics; econometric analysis of the contribution of natural resources such as biodiversity.
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Dr Asher Ghertner: Urban informality and governance; aesthetic politics and the epistemology of rule; regional focus on South Asia.
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Dr Steve Gibbons: Spatial issues in labour and education economics; econometric methods and their application to the analysis of spatial relationships; the valuation of school quality, community human capital and neighbourhood crime.
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Professor Ian Gordon: Spatial labour markets and migration, urban and regional development, particularly in relation to metropolitan regions, urban policy and spatial modelling.
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Dr Christian Hilber: the role of housing supply for investment in local public schools and social capital; the determinants and consequences of home ownership; the determinants and consequences of land use regulation or the determinants of firm and household location choices.
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Dr Nancy Holman: Urban regeneration, social capital, and network analysis.
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Dr Simona Iammarino: Economic geography of innovation and technological change; spatial profile of university-industry linkages; new technology and labour productivity, multinationals, technology and cluster evolution labour productivity, multinationals, technology and cluster evolution.
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Professor David Jones: Socio-economic activity; environmental change and environmental hazards; hazard and risk assessment; environmental risk management.
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Dr Gareth Jones: Access to land and market deregulation; housing finance and NGOs; conservation and identities, especially Latin America, southern Africa.
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Dr Murray Low: Political geography, especially spatial aspects of democracy; urban politics, and geography of political parties.
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Dr Alan Mace: Urban planning. The role of local government in developing cohesive communities and in developing a sense of place. Second homes, shrinking cities, suburbanisation and the family in the city.
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Dr Michael Mason: Environmental geography; theory and application of transnational environmental accountability; Canadian environmental policy; urban regeneration.
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Dr Carmen Marchiori: Environmental economics and development; water resource management and climate change.
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Dr Claire Mercer: Post-colonialism and development; diasporas; civil society and NGOs; sub-Saharan Africa; Tanzania.
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Dr Giordano Mion: Regional and urban economics; international economics; heterogeneous firms models; labour markets; applied micro-econometrics.
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Dr Susana Mourato: Environmental economics and policy; environmental valuation (and applications to other areas of public policy such as health, culture, sports or crime); markets for ecosystem services; bio-security; life satisfaction and the environment.
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Dr Eric Neumayer: Trade and environment; sustainable development; green accounting; climate change; quantitative analysis of environment, development and governance.
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Dr Henry Overman: Location theory and urban economics; models of economic geography with emphasis on cities and regions; national and European regional policy.
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Dr Richard Perkins: The relationship between globalisation and environmental change; corporate environmentalism; environmental leapfrogging and energy transitions.
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Professor Diane Perrons: Economic geography, particularly cohesion in Europe, focusing on region and gender; flexible working.
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Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose: Economic growth, regional and local development, and global restructuring in Europe and Latin America; regional devolution and regional disparities and policy in Europe.
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Dr Hyun Bang Shin: Contemporary urban (re-)development; urban governance; housing and social change; social welfare; transitional cities, especially in China; Korea; East Asia.
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Dr Olmo Silva: Spatial issues in the economics of education (such as school accessibility, school competition and neighbourhood effects); urban economics; issues in applied growth; entrepreneurship.
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Professor Michael Storper: Economic geography; globalisation, trade, location and specialisation; regional development in Europe, North America, Brazil.
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Dr Andrew Thornley: Urban planning; globalisation, world cities; city competition; Olympic Games.
Opportunities for research
We welcome applicants with good master's degrees to study for a PhD. We only accept PhD topics that are close to staff interests, so you should check our staff CVs, publications and current research agenda (our departmental web pages list key research topics). Broadly speaking this covers economic geography, spatial economics, regional development, environmental economics, environmental policy, climate change economics, human geography, political geography, globalisation, geographies of development, and urbanisation.
You should have a good master's degree (or equivalent) in a cognate field of study to your proposed research topic, with strong performance in the dissertation element, and have a background in geography, economics or allied subjects such as political science, development studies, sociology, anthropology, planning, environmental studies or regional science.
Selection is based upon your past academic performance, the quality of your research proposal, references, prior achievement, and the appropriateness of your research to the Department's research focus. Your research proposal should be three to four pages long (excluding references and appendix). It is essential that the research proposal addresses: research question; relevant literature and previous research in the field; potential contribution to knowledge; likely methods and theoretical approaches to be adopted; likely information sources and an assessment of their suitability and availability. An outline three year research timetable must be included as an appendix. Applications that fail to address these points will not be considered. We normally interview prospective research students.
As part of their PhD training, new MPhil/PhD students will take a range of compulsory and optional courses. Specifically, students take core courses in human geography, economic geography, environmental economics or environmental policy as well as relevant specialist MSc level courses to take them to the leading edge of their chosen discipline and topic. Students can also select from courses offered by LSE's Methodology Institute. In addition, throughout the programme, we offer a series of study skills workshops, a research seminar series where graduates present their current research to staff and colleagues, and research cluster seminars where visiting speakers and staff present their work. Exemption from parts of the graduate programme may be obtained if you have already undertaken recognised research training. Most elements of the graduate programme are completed in the first year. ESRC funded students will take the MSc Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research)| as part of their 1+3 programme of study (it may also be possible to take one of our other MSc programmes if adequate research methods courses are taken as part of the programme).
Personal supervision and continued review and monitoring and key elements of the PhD programme. You will be allocated a (principal) supervisor, backed up by either a second (joint) supervisor or a review supervisor. Under the guidance of the supervisors you will work on your research design, strategy and methodology, and the timetable and plans for dissemination of your work. You will receive regular feedback on your work and your progress will be monitored by a formal first year progress review, an upgrade review in the second year, as well as yearly annual reviews.
Taught programmes
The Department runs a joint degree with Sciences Po, Paris: