Trajectories of geography and public policy

Amidst political and institutional demands for a focus on ‘translational’, ‘applied’, ‘useful’, ‘relevant’, ‘impactful’ and ‘engaged’ research, this Special Section revisits and resituates the question of geography’s relationship with public policy and asks how do we respond to these societal demands? We need not start from scratch; in fact, there exists a substantial established literature on the geography–public policy relationship and its actual and potential trajectories. These debates need to be recontextualised and supplemented so that they are more thoroughly situated and sensitized to contemporary conjunctures, risks and opportunities.