Policy geographies revisited

The early to mid-2000s was a period of intense debate within the geographical literature about, in a variety of terms, the ‘relevance’ of the discipline to the policy world ‘out there’ beyond the academy. This article steps back for the first time from that debate in order to reflect critically on, synthesise and reframe analytically key arguments and insights that – despite their potential continued value for the discipline – became lost amidst the frenzied noise of its emotive and crossing conversations. The aim in doing so is to provide an innovative inclusive analytical framework within which to better understand and stimulate productive debate around the diversity of what ‘policy geography’ is and can be right across the discipline without compromising – indeed whilst strengthening – the intellectual quality and integrity of our geographical scholarship.