Dynamics in economic geography 2e druk - Ton van Rietbergen, Sierdjan Koster

Foreword to the fourth, revised edition The global economy is in a near-permanent state of flux. At the time of writing, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is changing the perspectives people have on globaliza tion. And the situation is influencing national and regional economies throughout Europe and beyond. The same can be said about the COVID-19 epidemic and the measures taken to curtail its spread. For over two years, many national economies were effectively closed down and trade was hindered. But our behaviour also seems to have changed; people are still working from home more regularly than before. Banks are merging and splitting up again, former developing countries account for an ever-growing slice of world trade, and innovations force one industry into a de fensive position while allowing another to flourish. The integration of the Euro pean economy is stagnating, although the conflict in Ukraine has led to renewed dynamics, and EU expansion and indeed the EU itself are called into question with increasing urgency. As an empirical applied science, economic geography can help explain this eco nomic turbulence and its effects on global, national and local economies. Rooted in 19th-century theory, the field has evolved and adapted over time. Over the last dec ades, economic geographers have studied globalization, regional institutional varia tion and the spatial evolution of industries, and they are making themselves heard. The aim of this book is to provide students and other interested readers with an up-to-date introduction to economic geography. It provides an overview of what economic geography studies and summarizes and explains its main approaches. As such, the book is broad in scope and serves as a starting point for more in-depth exploration. To aid with this, the bibliography provides a good overview of the cur rent state of research. Compared with the third edition, published in 2012 in Dutch (English version 2014), both the chapter organization and the topics addressed have been comprehensively updated. An introductory chapter, outlining what constitutes economic geography, is fol lowed by a new Chapter 2 about globalization and its opportunities and threats. This chapter sets the global context in which we can understand many local de velopments and phenomena. Chapters 3 to 7 introduce and summarize the main approaches in economic geography. Chapter 3 introduces classical and neoclassical theories, Chapter 4 explains the role of agglomeration as formalized in the influen tial New Economic Geography approach. This is followed by the behavioural ap proach (Chapter 5), the institutional approach (Chapter 6), and the evolutionary