Moving beyond Anglo-American economic geography

Environment and Planning A, 2002

The paper opens with a statement on the social embeddedness of knowledge. The disciplinary situation and practices of economic geographers are reviewed in the light of this statement. The rise of a new geographical economics is noted, and its main thrust is summarized in terms of a description of the core model as formulated by Krugman. The geographers’ reception of the new geographical economics is described, and some key aspects of this reception are assessed. I then subject the core model itself to critical evaluation. Its claims about pecuniary externalities in the context of chamberlinian competition provide a number of useful insights. However, I argue that the model is deficient overall in the manner in which it tackles the central problem of agglomeration. The discussion then moves on to consideration of the recent interest shown by many economic geographers in issues of culture. After a brief exposition of what this means for economic geography, I offer the verdict that this shift of emphasis has much to recommend it, but that in some of its more extreme versions it is strongly susceptible to the temptations of philosophical idealism and political voluntarism. In the final part of the paper, I attempt to pinpoint some of the major tasks ahead for economic geography in the phase of post-“late capitalism.” I suggest, in particular, that a new cognitive map of capitalist society as a whole is urgently needed, and I offer some brief remarks about how its basic specifications might be identified.

Regional Studies, 2012

Over the last twenty years, modern economic geography has been increasingly fragmented, particularly concerning its themes, on the one hand, and its schools of thought, perspectives and paradigms, on the other. Although there have been arguments in favor of engaged pluralism between the latter, what we see in reality is mainly fragmented pluralism, which is particularly problematic for the identification with the sub-discipline and the exchange with neighboring social disciplines. In order to solve this problem, in our view, we need an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography. In this paper, we sketch the contours of such a paradigm, which consists of a core, namely economic activities in space, place and scales and their drivers, and three inter-related ontological foundations, namely networks, evolution and institutions.

Papers in Regional Science, 2003

This article presents a summary of our conversation on the past, present and future of the new economic geography, which took place with the help of an interlocutor in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 2002. Following the introduction, we explain what the new economic geography is, and we describe some basic models. The discussion of its various critical aspects is presented subsequently, and the article concludes with the discussion of future issues and challenges facing the field.

Area, 2008

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2000

Geographical Research, 2013

Most big industries operate at a variety of territorial scales, from the local to the global. This can make their worldwide locational pattern seem "all over the place, " and it takes closer analysis to reveal a geography of large and small clusters, networks of linkages between nodes, and subspecialization and hierarchy.

Journal of Economic Geography, 2002

These excellent handbooks on the state of the art in economic geography are both addressed to the usual range of suspects --advanced undergraduate and graduate students, interested persons new to the field, and assorted faculty colleagues from economics, geography, and other disciplines. Their respective editorial teams agree that this is an exciting intellectual period for economic geography both in terms of its growing theoretical diversity and challenging dialogues and of the many and varied major transformations in the so-called 'natural world', technologies, economic forms, spaces, and actors, and the nation-state's role as the primary container of economic