I really wanted to develop an Erasmus Mundus programme that would excite students from all over the world and offer a truly innovative and challenging programme that explores the intellectual spaces between global imperatives and local responses.  We offer the opportunity to think about the relationship between economic and historical forces on the one hand and places on the other.  This matters to me, as a citizen of Scotland and proud resident of Glasgow, but it also matters to anyone thinking about how their own city/ region/country can respond to current economic and political challenges, and our multidisciplinary team, from a variety of post-industrial and industrial cities, brings an enormous range of insights, expertise and approaches to these questions.  I graduated from the University of Glasgow a long time ago, and earned my PhD at the London School of Economics.  I taught at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Middlesex University and Royal Holloway, University of London, before returning to Glasgow, where I am also Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Social Sciences.  If you can’t find me on campus, I am probably out riding my bike.