Economic Geography

Feminist approaches
Feminist economic geography accompanied the cultural turn, with neither
reducible to the other. Beginning with feminist critiques of how mainstream
economics makes invisible the extensive economic contributions of women 
to society that are not bought and sold in the market (50% of GDP), feminist
economic geographers, while also sympathetic with the analysis and goals of
political economy, argue that class is not the prime marker of livelihood possibil-
ities. Even within the household, women often face very different livelihood
possibilities from men, reflecting their distinct roles and daily geographies.
Patriarchy pre-dates and exceeds capitalism, even if the forms it takes under 
capitalism are distinctive. As feminist theory evolved, it came to be recognized
that other social markers were also vital in shaping geographical livelihood possi-
bilities; race, age, ableness, sexuality, and location. It is argued that identity,
where these markers intersect, is vital to understanding the economic actions of
individuals, as it influences traditional themes in economic geography such as
labor relations, workplace practices, consumption, and residential choice
(Hanson and Pratt 1995; McDowell 1997). Gibson-Graham (1996) extended
the feminist critique of mainstream economic theory to a far-ranging critique of
political economy’s failure to recognize the manifold forms of non-capitalist
production that coexist under capitalism’s nose. Drawing on post-structuralism,
The economic geography project
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she argued that attention to and validation of such alternatives is a pre-requisite
to making the possibility of a post-capitalist society real. This has catalyzed
research into diverse economies. The importance of place, at a variety of scales,
has also been a central theme in feminist economic geography. Diagnoses of
unequal livelihood possibilities have been similar to those of the cultural turn, albeit
with a greater focus on identity and on gender as a prominent marker of unequal
livelihood possibilities. Methodologies have also focused on intensive case studies,
but with close attention to problematizing and flattening the relationship between
researcher and researched through broadly participatory research designs.