Economic geography

For the journal, see Economic Geography (journal).

The coffee trade is a worldwide industry

Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world. The subject matter investigated is strongly influenced by the researcher's methodological approach. Neoclassical location theorists, following in the tradition of Alfred Weber, tend to focus on industrial location and use quantitative methods. Since the 1970s, two broad reactions against neoclassical approaches have significantly changed the discipline: Marxist political economy, growing out of the work of David Harvey; and the new economic geography which takes into account social, cultural, and institutional factors in the spatial economy.

Economic geography is usually regarded as a subfield of the discipline of geography, although recently economists such as Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs have pursued interests that can be considered part of economic geography. Krugman has gone so far as to call his application of spatial thinking to international trade theory the "new economic geography", which directly competes with an approach within the discipline of geography that is also called "new economic geography". The name geographical economics has been suggested as an alternative.

Given the variety of approaches, economic geography has taken to many different subject matters, including: the location of industries, economies of agglomeration (also known as "linkages"), transportation, international trade and development, real estate, gentrification, ethnic economies, gendered economies, core-periphery theory, the economics of urban form, the relationship between the environment and the economy (tying into a long history of geographers studying culture-environment interaction), and globalization. This list is by no means exhaustive.

Approaches to study

As the economic geography is a very broad discipline with economic geographers using many different methodologies in the study of economic phenomena in the world some distinct approaches to study have evolved over time:

• Theoretical economic Geography focuses on building theories about spatial arrangement and distribution of economic activities.
• Regional economic geography examines the economic conditions of particular regions or countries of the world. It deals with economic regionalization, and local economic development as well.
• Historical economic geography examines history and the development of spatial economic structure. Using historical data it examines how the centers of population and economic activity shift, what patterns of regional specialization and localization evolved over time and what factors explain these changes.
• Critical economic geography is approach from the point of view of contemporary critical geography and its philosophy.
• Behavioral economic geography which examines the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, locational decision making, and behavior of firms and individuals.
• ...

Economic geography is a branch of anthropo-geography that focuses on regional systems of human economic activity. An alternative description of different approaches to the study of human economic activity can be organized around spatiotemporal analysis, analysis of production/consumption of economic items, and analysis of economic flow. Spatiotemporal systems of analysis include economic activities of region, mixed social spaces, and development. Alternatively, analysis can focus on production, exchange, distribution and consumption of items of economic activity. Allowing parameters of space-time and item to vary, a geographer may also examine material flow, commodity flow, population flow and information flow from different parts of the economic activity system. Through analysis of flow and production, industrial areas, rural and urban residential areas, transportation site, commercial service facilities and finance and other economic centers are linked together in an economic activity system.

Branches

Thematically, economic geography can be divided into these sub disciplines:

• Geography of Agriculture
• Geography of Industry
• Geography of International Trade
• Geography of Resources
• Geography of Transport and Communication
• and others

However, their areas of study may overlap with other geographical sciences or may be considered on their own.

History of economic geography

The history of economic geography was influenced by many theories arising, mainly, from economics and geographical sciences.

First traces of the study of spatial aspects of economic activities can be found in seven Chinese maps of the State of Qin dating to the 4th century BC. Ancient writings can be attributed to the Greek geographer Strabo's Geographika compiled almost 2000 years ago. As the science of cartography developed, geographers illuminated many aspects used today in the field; maps created by different European powers described the resources likely to be found in American, African, and Asian territories. The earliest travel journals included descriptions of the native peoples, the climate, the landscape, and the productivity of various locations. These early accounts encouraged the development of transcontinental trade patterns and ushered in the era of mercantilism.

During the period known in geography as environmental determinism notable (though later much criticized) influence came from Ellsworth Huntington and his theory of climatic determinism.

Valuable contributions came from location theorists such as Johann Heinrich von Thünen or Alfred Weber. Other influential theories were Walter Christaller's Central place theory, the theory of core and periphery.

Fred K. Schaefer's article Exceptionalism in geography: A Methodological Examination published in American journal Annals (Association of American Geographers) and his critique of regionalism had a big impact on economic geography. The article became a rallying point for the younger generation of economic geographers who were intent on reinventing the discipline as a science. Quantitative methods became prevailing in research. Well-known economic geographers of this period are William Garrison, Brian Berry, Waldo Tobler, Peter Haggett, William Bunge and others.

Contemporary economic geographers tend to specialize in areas such as location theory and spatial analysis (with the help of geographic information systems), market research, geography of transportation, land or real estate price evaluation, regional and global development, planning, Internet geography, innovation, social networks and others.

Economists and economic geographers

Economists and economic geographers differ in their methods in approaching similar economic problems in several ways. To generalize, an economic geographer will take a more holistic approach in the analysis of economic phenomena, which is to conceptualize a problem in terms of space, place and scale as well as the overt economic problem that is being examined. The economist approach, according to economic geographers, has four main drawbacks or manifestations of “economic orthodoxy that tends to homogenize the economic world in way that economic geographers try to avoid (Coe et al. p.10)”.

Economic geography in China China's economic geography development through the comparison of unique way. Besides developing stage, institutional environment and traditional culture, ideology, from such factors as the European and American countries and the former Soviet union's academic thoughts of alternating input also affecting China's economic geography development process. Generally speaking, after the founding of our country economic geography development can be used "to task with discipline" to summarize, namely: the development of the discipline of primary target and driving force is to satisfy the demand of the country, at the same time in the practice task promoted disciplinary theoretical development and construction. This directly facing the government demand for research work to make economic geography to the national economic construction has made important contributions, also make economic geography in government departments at all levels are widely recognized. Is it the European and American countries economic geography is deficits. However, it is also nature of work makes our economic geography of pure theoretical research relatively weak. Meanwhile, the system changes are separated the discipline theory process of accumulation, Part of the planned economy period, the theory and knowledge accumulated to a certain extent, lost utility. This only shows that China's economic geography is in the theory of institutional reform period reconstruction phase and can't be think this subject lack of theoretical basis Economic geography in Chinese history: China from the 1920s began receiving western economic geography, mainly through Europe and America to Europe and America send scholars lecturing and students. Until the late 1940s, in more than 10 universities in systematically teach geography, in which economic geography British staples, as a representative of the statistical records school effect is extensive. This period, China's economic geography work is mainly about the population distribution, land use and agricultural division, border prospecting and regional and inspection.

The second world war to the popularization of geographical knowledge plays a significant positive effect. The post-war world economic recovery and development, promote the development of economic geography. Before the second world war, economic geography in psychological therewithal are distributed theory, the key is to study of regional variations in the post-war entered location theory and landscape type research studies of the modern period.

Since 1960s, the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, electronic computers are applied promotion, social productive forces powerful and new technology applications, and most countries in the world the improvement of people's living standard, the rapid changing existing social economic structure and the living environment, and in economic activities have created the layout of district and human activity and geographical environment, the relationship has appeared in a series

See also

• Location theory
• Spatial analysis
• Development geography
• Regional science
• Retail geography
• Rural economics
• Urban economics
• Business cluster
• Gravity model of trade

Further reading

• Combes, P.-P. - Mayer, T. - Thisse, J.T. (2008). Economic Geography: The Integration of Regions and Nations, Princeton. Description. Scroll down to chapter-preview links.
• Dicken, P. (2003): Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century, Fourth Edition. The Guilford Press.
• Lee, R. - Wills, J. (1997). Geographies of Economies, Arnold, London.
• Massey, D. (1984): international trade and development Spatial Divisions of Labour, Social Structures and the Structure of Production, MacMillan, London.
• Yeung, Henry Wai-Chung, Neil M. Coe, and Philip F. Kelly. (2007). Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction. Grand Rapids: Blackwell Limited. Scroll down to chapter-preview links.

Scientific journals

• Economic Geography - founded and published quarterly at Clark University since 1925
• Journal of Economic Geography - published by Oxford University Press since 2001
• Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie - The German Journal of Economic Geography published since 1956.
• Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie (TESG) - Published by The Royal Dutch Geographical Society (KNAG) since 1948.

External links

• EconGeo Network
• Social and Spatial Inequalities
• Economic geography