MODULE I: UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT

This part of the course introduces basic geographic concepts such as space, place, scale, territory, relations and shows how a capitalist economy results in uneven spatial development, and why we observe distinct economic periods that generate their own geographies of winners and loosers.

Session 1 (10.03.): Introduction: What is economic geography?

Here we will start exploring how we might think about geography influencing economic processes, business decisions, urban development, etc. We will pick up different theoretical lenses (as some of you have done in ZuWiI) and see how this may influence our interpretation of the global economy. We then look at Facebook, a company that must be, surely, footloose and not bound to particular places, to see how different geographical concepts can be used to understand where Facebook carries out various tasks of its business.

Required Reading: Coe et al. (2013) Chapter 1.

Additional Readings:

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2012) Why Nations Fail? A reponse to Jared Diamond. The New York Review of Books. August 16, 2012 Issue. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/08/16/why-nations-fail/

Essletzbichler, J. (2007). Economic geography. Entry in Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.

Mackinnon, D. and Cumbers, A. (2007). An Introduction to Economic Geography. Globalization, Uneven Development and Place. Pearson. Chapter 1: Introducing economic geography.

Sachs, J. (1997). Nature, nurture and growth. The Economist, Saturday, June 14, 1997, vol. 343, issue 8021, pp21-25.

Sheppard, E., Porter, Faust, Nagar (2009): A World of Difference. Encountering Development. Guilford Press.

Keywords: environmental determinism; production of space; location; territory; place; space; relational space;

Session 2 (17.03.): Explaining uneven development

This see-saw movement of uneven development, of some places growing while others decline, is often considered by economic geographers as the key puzzle that needs to be explained. In order to do that they try to think how location decisions of firms and workers are tied to how the economy, the way we organize our livelihoods, works. We will contrast and compare our current economic system, capitalism, with other systems, such as feudalism, and work out how this generates simultaneously, globalization (the spatial extension and intensification of spatially-extensive links) and urbanization (the concentration of money, people, businesses, infrastructure) in particular places.

Required Reading: Coe et al. (2013) Chapter 3

Additional readings:

Dunford, M. and Liu, W. (2017) Uneven and combined development. Regional Studies 51: 69-85.

Harvey, D. (1982). The Limits to Capital. Blackwell.

Harvey, D. (2016). The Ways of the World.  Profile Books: London.

Johnston, R.J., Gregory, D., Pratt, G., and Watts, M. (2000) The Dictionary of Human Geography. Entries on Capital; Capitalism; Circuit of Capital;

Smith, N. (1984). Uneven Development. Georgia: Athens.

Storper, M. and Walker, R. (1989) The capitalist imperative. Blackwell.

Keywords: Uneven development; Capitalism; Feudalism; Crisis; Spatial Fix.

MODULE 2: GLOBALIZATION

This module looks at the most recent period of globalization, examines how different countries and places influence the nature of globalization and how globalization processes in turn, benefit some and harm other countries, cities and regions.

Session 3 (22.10.): Is globalization always better? People and places left behind

We are usually told that trade increases aggregate output and hence, is a good thing. Looking more closely though we observe that there are winners and loosers of globalization and that the people and places that loose turn increasingly to the political process (Trump, BREXIT, Le Pen) to express their discontent with globalization and further economic integration.

Required Reading: (for seminar) Rodriguez-Pose. A. (2018) The revenge of the places that don’t matter (and what to do about it). Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 11: 189-209.

Additional Readings:

Essletzbichler, J., Disslbacher, F. and Moser, M. (2018) The victims of neoliberal globalization and the rise of the populist vote: a comparative analysis of three recent electoral decisions. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 11: 73-94.

Ghemawat, P. (2017) Globalization in the Age of Trump: Protectionism will change how companies do business – but not in the ways you think. Harvard Business Review 95, issue 4 (July/August), pp. 112-123.

Rodrik, D. (2018). Populism and the economics of globalization. Journal of International Business Policy. https://drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/files/dani-rodrik/files/populism_and_the_economics_of_globalization.pdf

Stiglitz, J. (2017) The overselling of globalization. Business Economics 52: 129-137.

Rodriguez Pose, A. https://voxeu.org/article/revenge-places-dont-matter

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/here-are-3-facts-you-need-to-know-about-inequality-and-populism/

http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/no-academic-normalization-of-trump-by-dani-rodrik-2018-08/german?barrier=accesspaylog

Keywords: Globalization; Loosers; Winners; Polanyi; Hayek; Countermovement; Populism;

Session 4 (31.03.): What is new in the current phase of globalization? Ethical trading - on global flows of capital and goods and how your consumption choices  do or don't make a difference

At least since 1492 we can speak of a world where people in different continents were linked through the movement of goods, people and money. However, economic integration sped up substantially with the industrial revolution and reached its first peak just prior to WWI in 1913. In this period, trade is well capture through Ricardian trade theory, some call it the old international division of labor.  What we observe now and starting in the mid-1970s is a new international division of labor, a global economy where value chains are broken up and different tasks are distributed around the globe generating business opportunities but also risks for countries in the Global South.

Required reading: (for seminar).

Additional readings:

Keywords:

MODULE 3: URBANIZATION AND LOCALIZATION

While Module 2 examined various aspects of globalization - the geographic extension and intensification of economic links - this part of the course explains why, despite globalization, more people than ever live in cities and economic activity remains concentrated in particular localities. More specifically this module will examine three different approaches to understand the continuing or renewed success of regions and cities in the Global North. The key ingredients in those stories are innovation, knowledge, talent and power.

Session 5 (21.04.): Why do we concentrate in cities and regions: Agglomeration and localization economies

We will develop a general account of agglomeration economies that explains why firms and people cluster in space and then look more carefully at the effects on rural areas, what to do with them and the effects on people living in these areas.

Required reading: (for seminar)

Additonal Readings:

Keywords:

Session 6 (05.05.): Who manages the global economy? Global cities

The global economy is a complex place. New information and transportation technologies means that the relative distance between places shrinks and hence, small differences in cost structures, infrastructure, or business environment can be exploited by global firms. However, this means managing increasingly complex resource flows (money, people, value chains, pollution, profits) that requires highly a set of highly specialized business services with offices in multiple countries, regions and cities. These advanced producers services (as they are often called) sit in cities at the top of the urban hierarchy, so-called global cities. Using London as an example we will see that the physical fabric and economic structure of those cities has been transformed tremendously, but that those changes in place cannot be understood without their relations to other places. It’s their position in this global network of flows rather than particular structure of the city that makes them stand out.

Required reading: (for Seminar) Doreen Massey (2007) Introduction and Capital Delight. Chapter 1 in World City. Policy Press.

Additional Readings:

Aalbers, M. (2009) Geographies of the financial crisis. Area 41.1, 34–42

Harvey, D. (2005) A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

Hackworth J (2016) Defiant neoliberalism and the danger of Detroit. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 107(5): 540-551.

Lipietz, A (1998) Nach dem Ende des “Goldenen Zeitalters”. Regulation und Transformation kapitalistischer Gesellschaften. Argument Verlag: Berlin.

Peck, J. (2010). Constructions of Neoliberal Reasons. Oxford University Press.

Sassen, S. (1990). Global Cities. Oxford.

Zwan, van der N. (2014). Making sense of financialization. Socio-Economic Review 12: 99-129.

There is a lot on world cities, global cities, etc. Also check out the work of the “Globalization and World Cities Research Network” https://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/

Keywords: Global Cities; World Cities; Relational Space; Network of Flows; Control and Command Centers; Global Financial Centers;

Conclusion and Exam Preparation

FINAL EXAM