Economic Geography

Introduction
The past, present and future of 
economic geography 
Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen and Helen Lawton Smith 
This book draws its inspiration from five sessions on economic geography organ-
ized by the editors at the Centennial Meeting of the Association of American
Geographers (AAG) in Philadelphia in 2004. In the sessions, titled ‘Economic
Geography: Then, Now and the Future’, through a discussion of their own
research histories, the panelists were asked to reflect upon the progress in theory
and practice of economic geography. The panels were motivated by the recent
discourses in economic geography – this reveals that geography students need
exposure to various perspectives in order to understand the interconnection
among all forces that trigger societal change, namely the ever-changing capital-
ist system whether North American, European or Asian. 
The objectives of this book are therefore threefold. The first objective is to
assess the current state of knowledge in economic geography and its future direc-
tions. In doing so, this book shows how economic geographers have offered
explanations of processes that affect places and lives within the broader context
of the global economy. The book also offers a discussion of theoretical constructs
and methodologies with a purpose to show the need to combine different
approaches in understanding spatial (inter)dependencies. The second objective is
to demonstrate the need for economic geographers to engage with multiple
audiences, namely academics in different disciplines, businesses, government and
non-government organizations. Within this context, this book examines how
geographers have contributed to the policy-making process. One of the goals of
this book is to herald a world in which economic geographers engage in conver-
sations across disciplines (including sub-disciplines in geography) thereby creat-
ing new knowledge to promote a better understanding of processes and actions
that improve lives. In the long run, the role of ‘agent of change’ will not be rare
for an economic geographer. The third objective is to identify future research
agenda. Contributors highlight what they see as the challenges for understand-
ing contemporary issues, thus putting down markers for younger researchers to
take the lead on.
The appeal of economic geography at the AAG conference was demonstrated
by the size and diversity (students and faculty from a variety of sub-disciplines
within geography from several nations) of the audience, as well as the participa-
tion from the audience, during the sessions. Contributors agreed that the impact

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of economic geography within and beyond geography had been constrained in
the past by its own limitations. Some argued that the ‘mindless’ data crunching
and modelling of the 1960s and 1970s that marked the ‘quantitative revolution’
was the beginning of the end of geography’s appeal to wide audiences. Others
argued that the failure to engage policymakers is another reason why economic
geography, more so in the US than the UK, does not have a wide reaching influ-
ence in other social sciences or business. All recognized that both quantitative 
as well as qualitative methodologies are important. All argued for the need of
rigour in training as we prepare a new generation of economic geographers. As 
a synthesizer of many disciplines and a field, which offers immense synergy in
bringing together ideas and practices from other social sciences, humanities, law
and business, economic geography is and should be an important component 
of geography pedagogy from undergraduate/freshman year through doctoral
training. As many of the contributors point out, economists such as Krugman and
Porter have received enormous public and academic attention and have been
influential in stimulating a critical appraisal of the ‘economic’ within geography
from within the discipline as exemplified in this book.
Through a collection of 20 chapters on theoretical constructs and methodolo-
gies, debates and discourses, as well as links to policymaking and policy evalua-
tion, this book provides a succinct view of concepts and their historical trajectories
in economic geography (see the organization of chapters below). Contributions
of many other key researchers in economic geography are reflected in these chap-
ters. The book demonstrates the differing roots and creates a common legacy in
understanding dynamic dependencies in a globalized world. 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, especially at the Centennial Meeting of the AAG,
the overwhelming response has been that of bridging gaps across ‘voices within
the sub-discipline of economic geography’ in order to maximize our understand-
ing of processes that shape our social, political, and economic existence. The
intention of this book then is to expose its audience to the breadth of the disci-
pline and at the same time allowing the reader to engage in current debates 
and understand the critical components of research in economic geography,
theoretical, empirical or applied. 
The book has three sections: (I) Economic Geography – Roots and Legacy, (II)
Globalization and Contemporary Capitalism, and (III) Regional Competitive
Advantage – Industrial Change, Human Capital and Public Policy.
In the first section, Sheppard, Hanson, McDowell, Hudson, and Scott reflect
on advances in economic geography. Sheppard discusses the emergence of the
field of economic geography with specific focus on the location theory, political
economy, the ‘cultural turn’, feminist approaches, and geographical economics.
At the AAG session, Eric Sheppard stated:
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