Being a member has changed the course of my academic career
Dr Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK
FeRSA & RSA Research Network Grant holder
Project: RSA Research Network on Peripheries and Peripherality (EdgeNet) (2023-2026)
I joke that I joined the RSA by mistake – I’m from a different disciplinary background, and first met regional studies when a project colleague submitted a paper to an RSA Annual Conference. I’ve never looked back! The RSA gave me a warm welcome and my membership has opened possibilities for research, professional development, collaboration and impact that have changed the course of my academic career.
These opportunities have been well above what I have found through the other associations I have joined over the years. The RSA especially stands out for European policy engagement and early career support. I’ve quickly gone from being a stranger to part of a lively interdisciplinary community that I always enjoy engaging with, and I’m proud to now be a Fellow of the RSA.
Bryonny is part of EdgeNet, the Regional Studies Association Research Network on peripheral places and regions (and why they matter). The network advocates and amplifies impactful research on, from, and for the diverse places and regions that are ‘non-core’ or on the ‘edge’ of core activities, including but not limited to rural, peri-urban, post-industrial, de-populating, and remote areas.
EdgeNet seeks to understand peripheries as multi-dimensional and multi-scalar, in space and over time. Neither peripheries nor the many terms research and policy used to describe them (e.g., ‘marginal’, ‘remote’, ‘less-developed’) are homogenous. Not all peripheries are ‘left-behind’. Some core-periphery relationships are writ large in colonial histories and global economic flows. Some peripheral regions divide into cores and peripheries at local scales. Some cores have changed to peripheries (and some back again) over time. Find more details on EdgeNet here.