An Introduction to Economic Geography: Globalisation, Uneven Development and Place

Citation

MacKinnon, D., & Cumbers, A. (2018). An Introduction to Economic Geography: Globalisation, Uneven Development and Place (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has fourteen chapters in five parts. The publisher says it is "underpinned by the themes of globalisation, uneven development and place" and conveys the diversity of contemporary economic geography, exploring the social and spatial effects of global economic restructuring. It combines a critical geographical perspective with themes such as neoliberalism, financialisation, innovation and new technologies. A separate publisher description adds that the authors revised the structure to give a clearer and more sequential narrative.

Part 1, Chapters 1–3: Introducing economic geography; Approaches to economic geography; From regional specialisation to global integration: changing geographies of production

The foundations part sets out the field, its main approaches, and the long shift from regionally specialised production to global integration. The three chapters run to about twenty-three, thirty-two and thirty-nine pages, so the third, on changing geographies of production, is the longest in the part.

Part 2, Chapters 4–7: Capital unbound? Spatial circuits of finance and investment; Managing capitalism: states and changing forms of economic governance; Restructuring work and employment; Geographies of development

"Reshaping the Economic Landscape: Dynamics and Outcomes" turns to the forces that remake economies and their results. The chapters cover finance and investment, the role of states in governing capitalist economies, the restructuring of work and employment, and development. The finance chapter is one of those the publisher highlights as new to this edition.

Part 3, Chapters 8–10: Connecting cities: transport, communications and the digital economy; Global production networks and regional development; Urban agglomeration, innovation and creativity

"Reworking Urban and Regional Economies" brings the analysis down to cities and regions. It treats transport, communications and the digital economy, the link between global production networks and regional development, and agglomeration, innovation and creativity in urban economies. The digital economy material is new in this edition.

Part 4, Chapters 11–13: Consumption and retail; Economic geography and the environment; Alternative economic geographies

"Reordering Economic Life" covers consumption and retail, the relationship between the economy and the environment, and economic practices outside the dominant model. The publisher lists consumption and the environment as new in this edition and mentions energy transition and alternative economic practices among the contemporary topics.

Part 5, Chapter 14: Conclusions

A short closing chapter of about six pages draws the argument together.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3: Foundations

• Globalisation: the increasing integration of production and exchange across the world, one of the book's three organising themes.
• Uneven development: the different economic outcomes that capitalist economies produce in different places, the second theme.
• Place: the particular character and circumstances of locations, the third theme.

Chapters 4–7: Dynamics and Outcomes

• Spatial circuits of finance and investment: the movement of capital between places and the questions it raises about who controls it.
• Economic governance: the ways states manage and shape capitalist economies.
• Restructuring of work and employment: the changing organisation and geography of jobs.

Chapters 8–14: Cities, Regions and Economic Life

• Global production networks: the connection of regions and firms into worldwide production systems, linked here to regional development.
• Agglomeration, innovation and creativity: the concentration of economic activity in cities and the processes that make it productive.
• Consumption and retail: the geography of how goods are sold and bought.
• Alternative economic geographies: economic practices that depart from the mainstream capitalist model.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear framing. Three themes, globalisation, uneven development and place, run through a book organised in five parts, which makes it easier to see how the chapters connect than in a list of topics.
• Political economy with cultural and institutional insight. The publisher says the book takes an open political-economy approach, supported by cultural and institutional insights, so students meet more than one perspective on each topic.
• A balanced geographical range. The publisher describes case studies and examples from a diverse range of countries, with coverage of both developed and developing countries, rather than an exclusively domestic focus.
• Learning features. The publisher lists chapter maps, boxed case studies, reflective questions and exercises, along with maps, tables and photographs to clarify key concepts.
• Recognised as an introduction. Coe, Kelly and Yeung's sample chapter lists MacKinnon and Cumbers among further introductions to economic geography.

Limitations

• A very short conclusion. The last chapter is about six pages, so the book offers less synthesis at the end than its length might suggest; readers should expect to draw the threads together themselves.
• A strongly political-economy lens. The publisher presents the approach as a critical geographical perspective on restructuring. Students who need a neutral survey of location theory or formal models of regional economies will need a separate source; the contents list has no separate chapter on either.
• Dated at publication. The book was published in 2018, and the publisher describes the context as one of tension between continued globalisation and growing economic nationalism. Later events, including the pandemic and the changes that followed it, are outside its scope.
• Restructured edition. The publisher says the structure was revised and chapters were added. Readers using earlier editions will not find the same chapter order.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this course list, MacKinnon and Cumbers and Coe, Kelly and Yeung's Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction are the two broad introductions, and either can be the main text. Coe, Kelly and Yeung organise their chapters as questions and follow the main economic actors across fifteen chapters; MacKinnon and Cumbers organise around three themes and give a separate part to cities and regions. A student who wants a second view on the same ground can read the other alongside.

Aoyama, Murphy and Hanson's Key Concepts in Economic Geography is a concise set of short essays on central concepts and works as a quick reference. Dicken's Global Shift is a detailed account of economic globalisation through transnational corporations, states, labour, consumers and civil society, and extends the third chapter and the production-network chapter of this book. Combes, Mayer and Thisse's Economic Geography: The Integration of Regions and Nations is a graduate textbook on the models and econometrics of the new economic geography, and Rodrigue's The Geography of Transport Systems is an accessible survey of transport networks that goes with Chapter 8.

How to Use This Book

The publisher presents the book as a textbook for undergraduates in economic geography, globalisation studies and human geography, and as of interest to students in planning, business and management, and economics. The publisher names no prerequisites.

• Core: Part 1 (Chapters 1–3) first, since the three themes are set out there, then Chapters 4–7 for the main processes.
• Choose by interest: Part 3 for urban and regional economies, Part 4 for consumption, the environment and alternatives.
• Use the in-text features: work through the chapter maps and reflective questions, and read each boxed case study as a short example of the chapter's argument.
• Read the conclusion last, and then test the three themes against one place that you know well.