A revised and updated edition of the leading introductory text on the geography of economic life, from the local to the global
Economic Geography is an engaging and accessible introduction to the different ways modern economic geographers understand, analyze, and interpret economic processes. This comprehensive text addresses significant questions relevant to contemporary economic life, from the activities of transnational corporations to issues surrounding workplaces and consumption. It encourages readers to explore how spatial patterns, places, networks, and territories shape large-scale economic processes. Accessible, highly-illustrated material presents fresh insights from the field - complemented by relatable, real-world examples that help students understand the social, cultural, and political contexts underpinning global economic processes.
Now in its third edition, this extensively revised and updated textbook retains the features and thematic structure that have proved popular with students and instructors alike, while adding exciting new content. New chapters explore how the global economy and global development are institutionalized and governed, the economic geographies of global climate change, economic practices outside the capitalist mainstream, the role of migrants in labour markets, global production networks, and more.
- Introduces economic geography with a thematic approach including major concepts, current debates, and case studies
- Revised and updated to enhance international coverage, including three entirely new chapters on international development, alternative economies, and global climate change
- Substantial new content on labour migration, global production networks, and recent intellectual trends such as evolutionary economic geography
- Highly illustrated with diagrams and photographs closely integrated into the text
- Pedagogical aids including key case studies, learning objectives, text boxes, chapter essay questions, summaries, and further reading
- Core geographical concepts – such as place, networks and territory – are closely integrated into all chapters.
Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction is an invaluable source of up-to-date knowledge for students new to the field, for those requiring a solid foundation, as well as for a broader academic and public readership with interest in this area of study.
Table of Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xv
List of Boxes xvii
Preface to the Third Edition xix
Acknowledgements xxvi
Part I Conceptual Foundations 1
1 Geography: How do we think spatially? 3
1.1 Introduction: Message in a Bottle 3
1.2 Bottled Water: A Contentious Commodity 7
1.3 Location and Patterns in Space 11
1.4 The Uniqueness of Place 15
1.5 Connecting Across Space Through Networks 20
1.6 Defining and Controlling Space Through Territory 26
1.7 Summary 30
2 The Economy: What does it mean? 36
2.1 Introduction 36
2.2 What ‘Counts’ as the Economy? 38
2.3 A Brief History of ‘the Economy’ 44
2.4 Basic Economic Processes 50
2.5 From Economics to Economic Geography 55
2.6 Summary 65
3 Dynamics of Capitalism: Why is economic growth so uneven? 69
3.1 Introduction 69
3.2 Uneven Development - Naturally! 73
3.3 Fundamentals of the Capitalist System 74
3.4 The Spaces and Scales of Uneven Geographical Development 82
3.5 Can Places and Regions Chart Their Own Futures? 93
3.6 Summary 98
4 Networks: How is the world economy interconnected? 102
4.1 Introduction 102
4.2 The Missing Relations Between Producers and Consumers? 105
4.3 Production Networks: Connecting Distant Places and Economies 108
4.4 Bringing Commodities Together: The Logistics Revolution 123
4.5 Where Does a Production Network End? From Waste to Commodities Again 127
4.6 Summary 129
Part II Key Economic Actors 135
5 Transnational Corporations: How do they keep it all together? 137
5.1 Introduction 137
5.2 The Myth of Being Everywhere, Effortlessly 139
5.3 The Changing Organization of TNCs 142
5.4 Organizing Transnational Economic Activities 1 - Intra‐firm Relationships 146
5.5 Organizing Transnational Economic Activities 2 - Inter‐firm Relationships 155
5.6 The Risks of Global Presence 164
5.7 Summary 167
6 Labour: Are migrant workers the new normal? 171
6.1 Introduction 171
6.2 Are Migrants the Problem? 174
6.3 Territorial Power and Migrant Types 178
6.4 Migrant Labour and Places of Settlement 183
6.5 Migrant Labour and Places of Origin 189
6.6 Organizing Migrant Labour 192
6.7 The Migration Industry 197
6.8 Summary 200
7 Consumers: Who decides what we buy? 206
7.1 Introduction 206
7.2 Towards Viewing Consumption as a Sociocultural Process 209
7.3 The Shifting Spatial Patterns of Retailing 213
7.4 Uneven Geographies of Consumption 232
7.5 Consuming Places: Travel and Tourism 238
7.6 Summary 243
8 Finance: How has capital become so powerful? 247
8.1 Introduction 247
8.2 How is the Real Economy Financed? 251
8.3 Deregulation and the Rise of Global Finance 253
8.4 Putting Global Finance in Its Place 257
8.5 Financialization: Circulating Global Capital 263
8.6 A Different Kind of Finance? 273
8.7 Summary 276
Part III Governing the Economy 281
9 States: Who runs the economy? 283
9.1 Introduction 283
9.2 Neo‐liberal Globalization and the End of the State? 286
9.3 The State as the Architect of the National Economy 289
9.4 Varieties of Capitalisms and States 301
9.5 Graduated Sovereignty and the State 309
9.6 Summary 309
10 International Institutions: How do they govern and foster global development? 314
10.1 Introduction 314
10.2 A Market Mechanism for the ‘Global South’? 317
10.3 Governing the Global Economy 319
10.4 Fostering Development in the Global South 331
10.5 Bottom‐Up? The Rise of Community‐Based Development 339
10.6 Summary 340
11 Environment: Does global climate change change everything? 345
11.1 Introduction 345
11.2 Climate Complacency 348
11.3 Causes and Sources of Climate Change 351
11.4 The Impacts and Costs of Climate Change 356
11.5 Regulating Emissions 360
11.6 Geographies of the Green Economy 368
11.7 Should this Change Everything? 373
11.8 Summary 375
Part IV Social and Cultural Dimensions 381
12 Clusters: Why does proximity matter? 383
12.1 Introduction 383
12.2 Industrial Location Theory 387
12.3 Towards a Typology of Clusters? 390
12.4 Binding Clusters Together: Agglomeration Economies 398
12.5 Untraded Interdependencies and Regional Cultures of Production 402
12.6 A Dynamic Approach to Clusters 409
12.7 Can Clusters Be Temporary? 412
12.8 Summary 415
13 Identities: Are economies gendered and racialized? 420
13.1 Introduction 420
13.2 Seeing Gender and Race in the Economy 422
13.3 Uneven Geographies of Gender and Work 425
13.4 Gender, Race, and the Labour Market 432
13.5 Identity and the Workplace 433
13.6 Ethnic Clusters and Networks 437
13.7 Intersecting Identities 446
13.8 Summary 448
14 Alternatives: Can we create diverse economies? 453
14.1 Introduction 453
14.2 Beyond a ‘Capitalocentric’ View of the Economy 456
14.3 Alternative Markets 461
14.4 Alternative Enterprises 465
14.5 Alternative Working 473
14.6 Alternative Property 477
14.7 The Limits to Diverse Economies? 481
14.8 Summary 485
Part V Conclusion 489
15 Economic Geography: Intellectual journeys and future horizons 491
15.1 Introduction 491
15.2 A Changing Field 493
15.3 A Changing World 505
15.4 Summary 510
Index 515
