Economic Geography

Gavin Bridge
, University of Manchester
Susan Christopherson
, Cornell University
Gordon Clark
, University of Oxford
Meric Gertler
, University of Toronto
Susan Hanson
, Clark University
Victoria Lawson
, University of Washington
Andrew Leyshon
, University of Nottingham
Jamie Peck
, University of Wisconsin
Richard Peet
, Clark University
Erica Schoenberger
, Johns Hopkins University
Allen Scott
, UCLA
Eric Sheppard
, University of Minnesota
Michael Watts
, University of California, Berkeley
Henry Yeung
, University of Singapore

---

Series Preface
Over the past half century, the field of economic geography has been marked by
periods of particular dynamism and innovation. From the quantitative revolution
of the 1960s to the emergence of a new industrial geography during the 1980s,
a combination of theoretical innovation and rapidly changing economic circum-
stance have made for an intellectually dynamic field of enquiry. The past decade
has been no less significant in terms of theoretical and empirical advance.
Economic geography today is a vibrant and growing field of study. New lines of
research are emerging that build upon a broadened concept of the economic,
upon analysis of economic development and global economic change, and upon
renewed interest in issues of policy, institutions and governance. Longstanding
research interests in industrial and technological change are being vigorously
pursued in the context of new theories of learning and innovation. Economic
geography today is methodologically diverse, engaged with issues of compelling
social concern, and alive with interesting and provocative scholarship.
We are delighted in this context to support the launch of Routledge Studies in
Economic Geography. The intent of this new book series is to provide a broadly
based platform for innovative scholarship of the highest quality in economic
geography. Rather than emphasizing any particular sub-field of economic geog-
raphy, we seek to publish work across the breadth of the field and from a variety
of theoretical and methodological perspectives. In launching the book series, we
also seek to support and promote a move toward a broader, more integrated
economic geography. Economic geography now reaches into domains of culture,
gender, governance, and nature-society relations that heretofore typically have
been treated more or less as separate domains of enquiry. Arguably, some of 
the most exciting work within economic geography today lies at these interfaces
of economic change, whether this is in terms of cultural construction of
economies, or the relationship between industrial development, resources and
the environment.
Contemporary processes of global economic change are also stimulating new 
research agendas in economic geography. Exciting new research is emerging around
the scalar dynamics and relational geographies of global economic change, includ-
ing work on such topics as global organizations and global development policies,
deregulation of markets and investment regimes and attendant consequences for

---

xii
Series Preface
sustainable livelihoods around the world, and the local and regional development
dynamics accompanying intensified flows of capital, technology and information
on a global scale. One consequence of these processes of economic change is that
the predominant focus of economic geography on OECD economies is now
giving way to a more ‘global’ economic geography in which existing boundaries
with ‘development geography’ and ‘area studies’ are giving way. Indeed, it makes
little sense to talk of an economic geography absent analysis of developing
economies and economies in transition. By the same token, research into the
economic geographies of these regions is becoming a source for further theoret-
ical innovation within the field.
Many positive developments are underway that help feed economic geography
as a vibrant field of enquiry. We note with pleasure the emergence of new jour-
nals and the widespread support for a summer institute that exposes graduate
students and early career faculty to the very latest theoretical and methodological
developments within the field. We also welcome the engagement across academic
disciplines and among scholarly networks that marks much cutting-edge research
in economic geography. The field is also supported by the availability of publish-
ing platforms that actively promote the bringing to fruition of sustained periods
of scholarship in the form of book manuscripts. In an era of shortened cycles of
research and publication, there remains an important role for book manuscripts
that bring together the cumulative results of sustained programmes of research,
theoretical innovation and empirical investigation. Routledge Studies in Economic
Geography seeks to provide such a publishing platform for innovative scholarship
of the highest quality across the breadth of the field of economic geography. We
hope that the volumes in this series will inspire further theoretical and methodo-
logical innovation, as well as new insights into economic welfare, livelihoods and
the dynamics of economic change locally and around the world. 
David P. Angel
Clark University, USA
Amy K. Glasmeier
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Adam Tickell
University of Bristol, UK
June 2006

---