GEOG 240: Day 2 Chapter 2: Approaches to Economic Geography

GEOG 240: Day 2
Chapter 2: Approaches to Economic Geography
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A reminder that the Geography welcome
back coffee and muffins event is happening
on Wednesday at 10:30 in the Map Library.
Does everyone have a course outline?
I have put the major assignment
instructions, along the outline and lecture
notes for Days 1 and 2, up on the web site:
http://web.viu.ca/alexander2
I also want to sign people up for leading
discussions today.
Today we will also go over Chapter 2, and I
will pass around some articles that may be
of interest.
Housekeeping Items
For an overview of the different
approaches to economic geography, see
Table 2.1. on page 23.
 Traditional economic geography- late
1800s to 1950s; focused on factual
detail in specific places, often in the
service of empire. Two distinct forms:
commercial (commodities and
resources) and regional (how physical
characteristics affect regional economies
and associated cultures).
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Chap. 2: Traditional Econ. Geo.
Strong from the 1950s, but began to be
challenged in the late 1960s.
 Premised on a philosophy of positivism
(see description on p. 25). Is this a
philosophy you agree with?
 Linked to urban and transportation
planning.
 Drew inspiration from neo-classical
economics (Adam Smith, David Ricardo,
etc.) and from German locational
theory.
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Chap. 2: Spatial Analysis
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Two examples would be Weber’s locational
triangle whereby factories would tend to be
located fairly close to sources of different raw
materials, especially when these materials are
heavy and impose increasing costs to
transport, and to final markets.
Having access to transportation media of
various kinds – both for raw materials and for
finished products – was also crucial. Examples?
As transportation technologies improve – e.g.
from barges to rail to truck transport to air and
container ship – production is increasingly
liberated from these constraints.
Chap. 2: Spatial Analysis
Weber’s Locational Triangle
(source: http://www.answers.com/topic/locationaltriangle)
Christaller’s Central Place Theory
(source: Wikipedia)
Chapter 2: Spatial Analysis
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Christaller’s theory of central place theory was
based on imagining that a hierarchy of higher
and lower-order centres would emerge to serve
agricultural communities in a sort of hexagonal
patchwork. Other economists (August Losch and
Paul Krugman) have worked with these concepts.
Unfortunately, Christaller wound up working for
the Nazis during World War II.
Krugman, in his work, has looked at the interplay
between centripetal (centralizing) forces and
centrifugal (decentralizing) forces. What are
some of the factors influencing each?
Much of the spatial analytical work has relied on
math for its modelling and then the results are
compared with real world economic processes.
Chapter 2: Spatial Analysis
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The transition from traditional to spatial economic
geography involved a shift from qualitative field
work to quantitative statistical work. In this sense,
they shared similarities with economists.
In the late 60s, there was a revolt against spatial
analysis and some, especially younger,
geographers began to adopt a political economy, or
Marxist, approach. In part, this was because
mainstream geographers seem to be ignoring the
major injustices of the day – the war in Vietnam,
colonialism and imperialism, and inequalities based
on gender, race, class, and developed and
developing nations.
Chapter 2: Spatial Analysis to
Political Economy
Political economy relied on a so-called ‘dialectical’
approach based on seeing things not as static, but in
flux. Things develop through the struggle of
opposites, in this case the struggle between classes
over who will control the surplus value from
production.
 According to Marxists, whoever controls the means of
production (land, labour and capital) will control and
reap the surplus.
 While capitalism was a more dynamic system than
feudalism, at the time Marx and Engels were writing
millions of workers in the industrialized countries
were working and living in misery. Conditions are
much the same in places like China and elsewhere
today. Samsung was recently denounced for
employing child labourers in China and for forcing
some of its workers to work up to 100 hours a week.
This in a so-called “communist” country.
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Chapter 2: Political Economy
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Marx and Engels believed that capitalism
would dig its own grave by increasing the
size and power of the working-class and by
its constant crises of overproduction,
whereby its capacity to produce commodities
would exceed the ability of workers and other
consumers to consume them. Did it work out
this way?
Marxist theory has had much validity, and
still does to some degree, but its constructed
alternatives in practice have not raised the
standard of living or democratic rights for
workers – quite the opposite. Are these past
regimes (Soviet and Chinese) a perversion of
Marxism or the inevitable result?
Chapter 2: Political Economy
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Recent economic geographers influenced by
Marxism, in discussing uneven development,
have noted two trends:
 A tension between ‘geographical fixity’ of
capital-generated infrastructure and the
overall mobility of capital, which seeks to
migrate to the most profitable locations.
Can you think of examples of this tension?
 Capitalism influences and is influenced by
geographical space and, as opportunities
increase for reinvestment in formerly
declining inner cities, we are seeing
gentrification on a massive scale. Can you
think of examples?
Chapter 2: Political Economy
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A partial off-shoot of Marxism, regulation theory
looks at modes of regulation – institutions and
ways of doing things that have a coherence to
them and change over time. During temporary
periods of stable growth, a regime of
accumulation occurs.
Fordism, combined with Keynesian economic
policy by governments, forms a classic case.
Fordism involved mass production, higher wages
and unionization, and broader consumption
patterns. Keynes’ policies involved maintaining
demand, full employment, while avoiding
inflation through public works spending and
manipulation of the money supply. This was the
dominant ‘paradigm’ until at the 1970s.
Chapter 2: The Regulation Approach
Wagerelation
Forms of
competition &
business
organization
Monetary
system
The state
International
regime
Rising wages
for
productivity
gains; full
unionization
Dominance of
large
corporations; in
some cases,
nationalization
of utilities
Use of interest
rates to manage
demand and
contract to
maintain demand/
full employment
Highly
interventionist;
provision of
social services;
modest income
redistribution
Cold War division
of states. Fixed
exchange rates
based on Bretton
Woods anchored to
US dollar; free
trade and
promotion of Third
World
‘development’
What has replaced Fordism?
Fordist ‘Mode of Regulation’
While a political economy approach has strengths,
its influence has waned with the collapse of
‘communism.’ Moreover, it has been criticized for
 being overly deterministic and leaving out human
agency
 over-valuing economic factors to the exclusion of
culture and ideas
 neglecting other social categories such race,
gender, and degrees of political and global
empowerment, not to mention neglect of
ecological issues.
• This has led to various responses, such as postmodernism, post-structuralism, and cultural and
institutional approaches to economic geography.
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The Weaknesses of Marxism
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Post-modernism: no one ‘grand theory’; different
groups have different worldviews, each of which is
equally valid.
Post-structuralism: social structure does not
determine all; individuals and groups can, through
determined efforts ‘buck the trend.’
A cultural approach: Christmas, to take one
example, is not just mindless orchestrated
consumerism but a cultural and family-oriented
festival. Also what might appear to be pure
consumerism in one context could be culturally
significant in another. Continuing relevance of
gender in all social systems.
‘New regionalism,’ path dependence and
relationality.
Alternatives to Political Economy