‘Male, Pale and Stale’? For More Curious, Diverse and Heterodox Economic Geographies

With this paper we directly address critiques made of mainstream, self-defined Economic Geography as a ‘male, pale and stale’ subdiscipline, proposing that more constructive conversations require open-mindedness, diversity and curiosity. To develop this argument, we draw on scholarship across feminist economic geographies and feminist studies more broadly, presenting new directions and possibilities for overlap. More specifically, inspired by McDowell (2016), we outline three areas offering exciting possibilities for further exploration of the who, what and how of economic geographical research: (i) intersectionality, (ii) diverse economies, and (iii) embodied and sensory geographies. While having already piqued the interest of some economic geographers, these research areas hold great potential for exciting intra- and interdisciplinary conversations. With our conclusions we note the timeliness of this agenda for the real-world application of economic geographies.