Economic Geography
During the height of the ‘quantitative revolution’ of the 1960s, Economic
Geography was a tightly focused and specialized field of research. Now, it sprawls
across several disciplines to embrace multiple
theoretical,
philosophical and empir-
ical approaches. This volume moves economic geography through a series of
theoretical and methodological approaches, looking both towards the future and
to the discipline’s engagement with public policy.
Economic Geography covers contributions by selected economic geographers
whose purpose is to help explain the interconnection among all forces that trig-
ger societal change, namely the ever-changing capitalist system.
The contributors
record changing foci and methodologies from the 1960–1980 period of quanti-
tative economic geography, the 1980s interest in understanding how regimes of
accumulation in a capitalist world construct
spaces of uneven development, and
how the 1990s literature was enriched by differing viewpoints and methodolo-
gies which were designed to understand the local effects of the global space
economy. In the new century, the overwhelming response has been that of bridg-
ing gaps across ‘voices within the sub-discipline of Economic Geography’ in
order to maximize our understanding of processes
that shape our social, political
and economic existence. Contributors also highlight what they see as the chal-
lenges for understanding contemporary issues, thus
putting down markers for
younger researchers to take the lead on.
Through a collection of 20 chapters on theoretical constructs and methodolo-
gies, debates and discourses, as well as links to policymaking and policy evaluation,
this volume provides a succinct view of concepts and their
historical trajectories
in Economic Geography. Readers are exposed to the breadth of the discipline
and engaged in current debates and understandings of the critical components
of research in economic geography, theoretical, empirical and applied.