Geography Structural Change And Economic Development

The authors in this book regard the process of economic expansion as a non-homogeneous and multifaceted phenomenon which has deeply affected human welfare, and cultural, social and political change. The book is a bridge between the theorists (Rosenstein-Rodan, Lewis, Myrdal, and Hirschmann) who in the post-war period analyzed regional inequalities, structural change and dualism, and the modern literature on economic growth. The latter has emphasized the existence of multiple equilibria, bifurcations and various types of dynamic complexity, and clarified the conditions for the emergence of phenomena such as cumulative causation, path dependence and hysteresis. These are the typical ingredients of structural change, economic development or underdevelopment.

Here is a comprehensive edited volume that outlines the historical roots and state-of-the-art debates on the role of structural change in the process of economic development, including both orthodox and heterodox perspectives and contributions from prominent scholars in this field.

The contributors explore four central themes: the locational impacts of the openness of the Canadian economy, Canada's relatively simple economic geography in terms of regional variations in resources and urban development, the problems of keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, and the role of government in maintaining a national market and assisting economic development. They outline the essential elements of Canada's contemporary economic geography, highlight the origins and spatial imprint of change in the Canadian economy, and provide an assessment of Canada's participation in significant international patterns of economic change. Canada and the Global Economy is concerned not only with the economic size and location of consumption and production but also with institutional changes and shifts in employment, the sectoral composition of economic activity, and the organizational structure and locational behaviour of particular industries and firms. Special attention is given to the technological development of both established industries and new service and manufacturing activities. A timely addition to the field, it provides a geographic perspective on significant changes in jobs and types of work that result from the transformation of economic activities. Contributors: Trevor J. Barnes (UBC), John N.H. Britton (Toronto), James B. Cannon (Queen's), William J. Coffey (Montréal), J. Tait Davis (York), Geoffrey Dobilas (Toronto), William C. Found (York), Meric S. Gertler (Toronto), James M. Gilmour (consultant, Ottawa), Roger Hayter (Simon Fraser), John Holmes (Queen's), Anthony C. Lea (Compusearch, Toronto), Ian MacLachlan (Lethbridge), Alan D. MacPherson (SUNY at Buffalo), Glen B. Norcliffe (York), D. Michael Ray (formerly Carleton), Tod Rutherford (Waterloo), R. Keith Semple (Saskatchewan), James W. Simmons (Toronto), William Smith (Auckland), Guy P.F. Steed (formerly Science Council of Canada), Iain Wallace (Carleton), and Nigel Waters (Calgary).

The turbulence of the current times has dramatically transformed the world’s economic geographies. The scale and scope of such changes require urgent attention. With intellectual roots dating to the nineteenth 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. Now, more than ever, the changing fortunes of peoples and places demands our attention. Economic Geography provides a stimulating and innovative 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. This book is the first to address the diverse approaches to economic geography as well as the constantly shifting economic geographies on the ground. It encompasses traditional approaches, albeit from a critical perspective, while providing a thorough, accessible and engaging examination of the concerns, methods and approaches of the ‘new economic geography’. This unique introductory text covers the breadth of economic geography while engaging with a range of contemporary debates at the cutting-edge of the field. Written in an accessible and lucid style, this book offers a thorough and systematic introductory survey. It is enhanced by pedagogical features throughout including case studies dealing with topics ranging from the head office locations of the Fortune 500, Mexico’s maquiladoras to China’s investments in Southern Africa. This book also contains exercises based on the key concepts and annotated further reading and websites.

First published in 1968, this book explores the theme of geographical generalization, or model building. It is composed of seven of the chapters from the original Models in Geography, published in 1967. The first chapter broadly outlines this theme and examines the nature and function of generalized statements, ranging from conceptual models to scale models, in a geographical context. The following six chapters deal with socio-economic building in geography. They focus on demographic and sociological models as well as looking at special aspects of models in human geography in reference to economic development, urban geography and settlement location, industrial location, and agricultural activity. This book represents a robustly anti-idiographic statement of modern work in one of the major branches of geography.