Our Economic Geography research group specializes in the analysis of territorial dynamics from a socioeconomic perspective. We focus on metropolitan and medium-sized urban areas; on understanding local development and its scalar derivations, exploring the complex interaction between local and regional spheres; and on topics specific to Industrial Geography, which includes productive activity, services, and new economies linked to innovation, new technologies, and the introduction of Large Language Models (LLM, Artificial Intelligence).

We thoroughly investigate alternative economies, including social economy and diverse forms of economic organization proposed by authors like Gibson-Graham and Dobronski, emphasizing the opportunities they offer for new models of work and prosperity.

A fundamental pillar of our research is the interconnection between biodiversity, urban planning, and quality of life. This relatively novel approach in Economic Geography allows us to interpret economic space through the lens of sustainability, where urban planning becomes a key instrument for addressing the relationship with climate change.

Additionally, the group addresses key themes such as the tertiary sector and public spaces. We analyze the role of this sector in economic space and urban planning, considering its implications for e-commerce, the impact of Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence.

From a microgeographical perspective, we investigate alternative mobility and cycle-distribution. We study how transport and mobility, classic concepts in Economic Geography, are transformed by new paradigms that modify labor structures and associated costs. This research line also delves into cultural and social change, offering new perspectives for the study of sustainable Economic Geography.

Finally, another relevant microgeographical aspect for the group is energy vulnerability, work-life balance and gender in hybrid spaces. We analyze the consequences of teleworking and hybrid work environments, particularly the “workplace” of the hybrid employee, and how new conditions in the work environment can intensify women’s workload within the family sphere and entail a new set of energy related challenges.

Keywords

  • Local development
  • Alternative economies
  • Economic spaces
  • Location factors
  • Biodiversity
  • Urban planning
  • Quality of life
  • Tertiary sector
  • Public spaces
  • Alternative mobility
  • Cycle-distribution
  • Energy vulnerability
  • Work–life balance
  • Gender in hybrid spaces

Key descriptors

  1. Local development. Some authors highlight the dichotomy of the concept between the local and the regional, and here the derivative of scale and space is added when speaking of local development.
  2. Within alternative economies, there is the social economy and diverse economies, including opportunities in well-published works on this topic and their developments.
  3. Biodiversity, urban planning, and quality of life. A relatively new factor in Economic Geography (EG) that helps interpret economic space, where urban planning is the facilitating instrument and which certainly includes its relationship with climate change.
  4. Tertiary sector and public spaces. This is a key sector in EG and in our group, and it relates to economic space and urban planning, offering very important perspectives such as the study of the “space” of e-commerce and Big Data.
  5. Alternative mobility and cycle-distribution. This is the most microgeographic part of our group’s themes, studying how the factor of transport and mobility (a classic in EG) now appears as a change in the structure of work within EG, modifying the classical aspects of transport and transport costs that have been so present in our discipline. It also appears as a cultural and social change materialized in the paradigm of EG, offering new perspectives for the study of sustainable Economic Geography.
  6. Energy vulnerability, family-work balance, and gender in hybrid spaces. This is the third most microgeographic aspect of the group, as it studies issues of teleworking and hybrid workspaces; especially the “workplace” of the hybrid worker and its consequences in family space, such as energy vulnerability, and how the new conditions of the workspace may lead to a new intensification of women’s work in the household.