Economic Geography

E.J.Malecki
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Available online 2 November 2002.

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

2001, Pages 4084-4089

Economic geography, the study of the geography of economic activities,

developed from a focus on commercial activities and the exploitation of
resources for economic gain. The focus of the field includes sectors of
economic activity and numerous specialties. The central concerns of
economic geography include understanding the capitalist world economy
and, at the local, regional, national, and global scales, several other topics:
firms in all sectors, uneven economic development and restructuring, and
work and workers. While these topics overlap with other subtopics,
economic geography retains a central, umbrella-like role with respect to all
aspects of the geographical dimensions of economic activity. It has grown to
encompass social, cultural, political, and institutional influences that affect
the geography of economic activities.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767025468

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Economic Geography
Edward J. Malecki,
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Available online 12 March 2015.

in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

(Second Edition), 2015
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
(Second Edition)
2015, Pages 33-37
Conclusion
Economic geography has blossomed well beyond its original focus
on the location of production to embrace the many other human
forces – social, cultural, political, and institutional – which affect and
are affected by economic activity. Constant change ensures that
new ideas and new empirical knowledge are always characteristic of
the field, and this attracts new researchers and their fresh thinking
and new approaches.
A group of midcareer (i.e., not senior) geographers recently have
proposed a research agenda for economic geography, centering on
five research themes on which too little is known: networks, firms,
and markets; economic geography of global environmental change;
the geography of finance; digital property including challenges,
processes, regulation; and a more ‘global’ economic geography
(Benner et al., 2011). These and other emerging topics will be
among the future economic geographies to be written.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868720149

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Economic Geography
Richard Florida, Patrick Adler,
School of Cities, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Available online 4 December 2019.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second

Edition), 2020
International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition)
2020, Pages 25-28

Abstract
Economic geography is at once the way the economic activities of
companies and people are organized geographically and an
academic field that seeks to understand and explain the location
and geographic organization of economic activity. This article
highlights key trends in economic geography today. It focuses on
globalization—the global distribution of economic activity across the
world—and the clustering of economic activity in cities. It also looks
at the back-to-the-city movement and the shift in economic activity
away from suburbs and economic centers. It also looks at the new
economic divides and geographic or spatial inequality between the
winner and losers from globalization and the impacts that is having
on our society.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081022955100460

Economic Geography
T.J. Barnes,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Available online 8 July 2009.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
2009, Pages 315-327

Economic geography is one of the most diverse, vibrant, and

catalytic subdisciplines within human geography. It is concerned
with describing and explaining the varied places and spaces in
which economic activities are carried out and circulate. It was
institutionalized as a subdiscipline in the late nineteenth century in
both Western Europe and the United States. The first part of this
article provides a history of the development of economic
geography. Initially connected to projects of empire (and seen
especially in its earliest form, commercial geography), economic
geography has since been through a series of intellectual
transformations, including a regional approach, spatial science,
radical political economy, and, most recently, a ‘cultural turn’. Each
new framework, however, has rarely eradicated the previous one.
Rather, economic geography is more like a palimpsest, with
previous versions and approaches to the discipline continuing to
remain at least partially visible in present incarnations. The
contemporary version of the discipline is now highly variegated, with
research conducted on a wide front, and reflecting the changing and
expansive character of what has increasingly become its object of
study, global capitalism. Eight areas of current research within
economic geography are especially notable and reviewed in the
second part of this article: theory and methods; globalization and
neoliberalism; firms, industry, agglomerations, and networks;
innovation and high tech; labor, bodies, and work; retailing and
consumption; producer services and finance; and nature and
resources.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080449104001504
 ..............................................

Economic Geography, Quantitative

E. Sheppard, P. Plummer,
E.Sheppard
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Author links open overlay panelP.Plummer

University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Available online 8 July 2009.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
2009, Pages 328-331

Quantitative economic geography (the use of mathematics to

conceptualize economic geography and advance propositions about
the nature of the observable spatial economy) emerged in economic
geography through research on location theory and spatial
interaction during the 1960s. Alongside theory construction,
methods of spatial statistical analysis were developed to evaluate
the empirical predictions and fit of such theories. This approach was
reinvigorated by economists during the 1990s, developing a
perspective that has been dubbed ‘the new geographical
economics’. Notwithstanding associations within this literature, and
beyond, of quantitative reasoning with neoclassical economic
geography and logical empiricism, a different kind of quantitative
economic geography also emerged in the 1990s: regional political
economy. While both approaches use mathematical reasoning to
develop their theories, regional political economy is distinctive in its
association with Marxian political economy; its conclusion that the
capitalist space economy is not self-regulating but exhibits
persistent out-of-equilibrium dynamics; its treatment of the spatiality
of political economic processes as endogenous rather than
exogenous to those processes; and its rejection of logical
empiricism in favor of sociospatial dialectics. Quantitative economic
geography is, thus, much more diverse than is generally presumed.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080449104002182

................................
Quantitative Economic Geography
Eric Sheppard, Paul Plummer,

EricSheppard
Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United
States

Author links open overlay panelPaulPlummer

Department of Geography, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
Available online 4 December 2019.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition), 2020

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition)
2020, Pages 157-161

Abstract
Quantitative economic geography (the use of mathematics to advance propositions about the
nature of the spatial economy and statistical analysis of spatial economic data) emerged in
economic geography through research on location theory and spatial interaction during the
1960s. Alongside theory construction, methods of spatial statistical analysis were developed
to evaluate the empirical predictions and fit of such theories. This approach was reinvigorated
by economists during the 1990s, developing a perspective that has been dubbed geographical
economics. Notwithstanding commonplace beliefs associating quantitative reasoning with
neoclassical economic geography and logical empiricism, a different kind of quantitative
economic geography also emerged in the 1990s: regional political economy. While both
approaches use mathematical reasoning to develop their theories, regional political economy
is associated with Marxian and post-Keynesian thought, finding that the capitalist space
economy is not self-regulating but exhibits persistent out-of-equilibrium dynamics. In
regional political economy, the spatiality of political economic processes is endogenous rather
than exogenous, and logical empiricism is rejected in favor of socio-spatial dialectics. In
recent years, quantitative economic geography has become dominated by evolutionary
economic geography, with emergent interest in the construction and statistical analysis of
large data sets.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081022955100472

...............................

Feminist Economic Geography

Kendra Strauss,
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
Available online 4 December 2019.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second

Edition), 2020
International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition)
2020, Pages 43-46
Abstract
Feminist economic geography emerged as an explicit and self-
defined approach in the 1980s and 1990s and as a subdiscipline
has evolved to challenge knowledge production about “the
economy” in human geography. Inspired by the spread of
feminist epistemologies more broadly, feminist economic geography
is connected to feminist politics and centers the social construction
of gender as a category of difference and the production of unequal
power relations that subordinate and oppress women. Although still
not central to “mainstream” economic geography, feminist
approaches have gained in importance, including through
contributions to understandings of economic restructuring,
migration, and uneven development.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081022955100605

........................

Economic Geography, Relational

N.M. Rantisi, J.S. Boggs,
N.M.Rantisi
Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

Author links open overlay panelJ.S.Boggs

Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Available online 4 December 2019.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second

Edition), 2020
International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition)
2020, Pages 29-34

Abstract
Relational economic geography represents a broad set of
theoretical approaches, which have an explicit focus on the social
foundations of economic processes. A central concern of studies
that constitute this line of inquiry is an understanding of how the
nature, scale, and structure of social relations between key
economic actors shape processes of restructuring and consequent
economic performance. This article outlines the constitutive features
of relational economic geography. The article begins by providing a
historical context for the rise of relational economic geography,
situating it as a response to empirical trends as well as the limits of
past approaches. Then, the key attributes associated with relational
economic studies are presented. Given the diversity of perspectives
that fall within a school of “relational” thinking, the discussion
highlights not only a general approach that has dominated an earlier
wave of studies but also an alternative set of approaches that have
come into ascendance of late. While earlier studies emphasize a
place-based approach to analyzing key networks associated with
economic learning, highlighting how proximity can allow for
institutions that facilitate knowledge exchange, more recent
analyses are agency centered and focus on the contingent nature
and scale of such networks. The article concludes with reflections
on the state of relational economic geography as a “work-in-
progress,” underlining the conceptual and methodological
challenges that remain.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081022955101271

................................

Entrepreneurship, Geography of
John R. Bryson,
Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Available online 12 March 2015.

in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

(Second Edition), 2015
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
(Second Edition)
2015, Pages 686-691

Entrepreneurship and Born Global Firms – A New Research Agenda

Economic geography has yet to develop a major research or
teaching agenda on entrepreneurship. A reading of the existing
geographical literature on entrepreneurship leads to the assumption
that entrepreneurship is about clustering or perhaps minority ethnic
populations. More recently, an interesting geographical literature is
developing on the relationship between place and entrepreneurship
and with a particular focus on self-employment (Reuschke and Van
Harn, 2013). The WWW, new technologies and the on-
going division of labor have created opportunities for new forms of
entrepreneurship. This has created new business models with
distinctive and often unusual economic geographies. The study of
small firms and entrepreneurship has tended to be relegated to be
of secondary importance compared to research into global value
chains, TNCs, and international business. Nevertheless,
entrepreneurship is a fundamental geographical process, which is
both enabled and constrained by place-based relationships and
translocal relationships (Yeung, 2009, 2010). There is an interesting
opportunity for economic geography to pay more attention to
entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship; the study of all types of
entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior should form one of
the central research and teaching pillars of economic geography.
The world of the entrepreneur is being transformed with
technological developments and the emergence of new business
models. Developments in e-commerce have reduced firm formation
barriers; new firms may be established in unusual locations as long
as they have an effective Web presence. The rise of Web-based
businesses has led to a major revolution in the geography of
entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, this is a revolution that has yet to
be explored by geographers but exploratory research has been
undertaken in marketing studies (Chetty and Campbell-Hunt,
2004; Hashai, 2011). Conventional approaches to new firm
formation highlight that firms are initially established to provide
goods and services to local markets. Over time, a firm may begin to
trade beyond its local market and eventually may begin to export
goods or services. Over the last decade, new firms have been
established, which have been ‘born global.’ A born global firm is a
business that from its initial moment of inception seeks to develop
an international or global presence. The born global firm begins with
a ‘borderless’ view of the world economy and the formation process
includes a strategy to target clients or customers located in other
countries. The emergence of born global firms represents an
important opportunity to understand the complex ways in which
individuals and groups of individuals are developing novel business
models that operate at the interface between a set of local and
global processes.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868721258

.........................................

Relational Economic Geography

N.M. Rantisi, J.S. Boggs,
N.M.Rantisi
Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

Author links open overlay panelJ.S.Boggs

Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Available online 8 July 2009.

in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
2009, Pages 314-319

Relational economic geography represents a broad set of

theoretical approaches, which have an explicit focus on the social
foundations of economic processes. A central concern of studies
that constitute this line of inquiry is an understanding of how the
nature, scale, and structure of social relations between key
economic actors shape processes of restructuring and consequent
economic performance. This article outlines the constitutive features
of relational economic geography. The article begins by providing a
historical context for the rise of relational economic geography,
situating it as a response to empirical trends as well as the limits of
past approaches. Then, the key attributes associated with relational
economic studies are presented. Given the diversity of perspectives
that fall within a school of ‘relational’ thinking, the discussion
highlights not only a general approach that has dominated an earlier
wave of studies but also an alternative set of approaches that have
come into ascendance of late. While earlier studies emphasize a
place-based approach to analyzing key networks associated with
economic learning, highlighting how proximity can allow for
institutions that facilitate knowledge exchange, more recent
analyses are agency centered and focus on the contingent nature
and scale of such networks. The article concludes with reflections
on the state of relational economic geography as a ‘work-in-
progress’, underlining the conceptual and methodological
challenges that remain.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080449104002236