Wood, A: Economic Geography

With intellectual roots dating back to the ninteenth century economic geography has traditionally sought to examine the spatial distributions of economic activity and the principles that account for them. More recently the field has turned its attention to a range of questions relating to: globalization and its impact on different peoples and places; economic inequalities at different geographic scales; the development of the knowledge-based economy and the relationship between economy and environment. This text is designed, first and foremost, to provide an introduction to economic geography by establishing the substantive concerns of economic geographers, the methods deployed to study them, the key concepts and theories that animate the field, and the major issues generating debate. It is as much about approaches to economic geography as it is about changing economic geographies on the ground. It encompasses traditional approaches, albeit from a critical perspective, while at the same time providing a thorough and yet accessible examination of the concerns, methods and approaches of the ¿new economic geography¿. Lucid and engaging, this is the first introductory text to cover the breadth of economic geography while also engaging with a range of contemporary debates at the cutting-edge of the field. The text is designed to provide a thorough and systematic introductory survey. The pedagogical value of the book has been enhanced by the inclusion of exercises, questions, annotated further reading and websites and numerous examples and cases from across the globe.