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Politics and Practice in Economic Geography
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Politics and Practice in Economic Geography

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August 2007 | 336 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Fortunately, to the benefit of students young and old, the reflexive ruminations contained between these covers are fresh, penetrating, honest, personal and, at times, poignant. They are sure to stimulate a long-overdue reawakening of interest in methodological choice and its consequences in economic geography. In doing so, the contributors to this volume have performed an incredibly valuable service on behalf of economic geographers everywhere

—Professor Meric S. Gertler, University of Toronto, Canada

How do geographers do economic geography? This is the first sustained discussion of methodological issues in economic geography in the last twenty years. It comprises an extended discussion of qualitative and ethnographic methods; an assessment of quantitative and numerical methods; an examination of post-structuralist and feminist methodologies; an overview of case-study approaches; and an inquiry into the relation between economic geography and other disciplines.

In the last fifteen years economic geography has experienced a number of fundamental theoretical and methodological shifts. Politics and Practice in Economic Geography explains and interrogates these fundamental issues of research practice in the discipline.


Concerned with examining the methodological challenges associated with that "cultural turn," the text explains and discusses:

  • qualitative and ethnographic methodologies
  • the role and significance of quantitative and numerical methods
  • the methodological implications of both post-structural and feminist theories
  • the use of case-study approaches
  • the methodological relation between the economic geography other disciplines like neoclassical economics, economic sociology, and economic anthropology

With short, accessible, and engaging chapters, this is a critical assessment of qualitative and quantitative methods in economic geography.

Leading contributors examine substantive methodological issues in economic geography and make a distinctive contribution to economic-geographical debate and practice. This will be an essential primer for all students of economic geography, as well as human geography more generally.


 
PART ONE: POSITION AND METHOD: PRODUCING ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES
Erica Schoenberger
Chapter 1: Politics and Practice: Becoming a Geographer
Alison Mountz
Chapter 2: Smoke and Mirrors: An Ethnography of the State
Paul Robbins
Chapter 3: Nature Talks Back: Studying the Economic Life of Things
Linda McDowell
Chapter 4: Sexing the Economy, Theorizing Bodies
Geraldine Pratt and Caleb Johnston
Chapter 5: Putting Play to Work
Elizabeth C. Dunn
Chapter 6: Of Pufferfish and Ethnography: Plumbing New Depths in Economic Geography
 
PART TWO: POLITICIZING METHOD: ACTIVATING ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES
Andrew Sayer
Chapter 7: Method and Politics: Avoiding Determinism and Embracing Normativity
J.K. Gibson-Graham
Chapter 8: Cultivating Subjects for a Community Economy
Philip O’Neill
Chapter 9: A Public Language for Analyzing the Corporation
Jane Wills
Chapter 10: The Place of Personal Politics
Jim Glassman
Chapter 11: Locating the Thai State
John Pickles and Adrian Smith
Chapter 12: Post-socialism and the Politics of Knowledge Production
 
PART THREE: QUANTITY AND QUALITY
Beyond Dualist Economic Geographies

 
Mei-Po Kwan
Chapter 13: Hybrid GIS and Cultural Economic Geography
David L. Rigby
Chapter 14: Evolution in Economic Geography?
Gordon L. Clark
Chapter 15: Beyond Close Dialogue: Economic Geography as if it Matters
Paul Plummer
Chapter 16: Economic Geography, by the Numbers?
Amy Glasmeier
Chapter 17: Methodologies, Epistemologies, Audiences
 
PART FOUR:BOUNDARY CROSSINGS
Mobilizing Economic Geographies

 
Judith Carney
Chapter 18: Out of Africa: History, Nature, Empire
Vinay K. Gidwani
Chapter 19: ‘I Offer You This, Commodity’
Altha J. Cravey
Chapter 20: ‘El Otro Lado’ and Transnational Ethnographies
Philip F. Kelly and Kris Olds
Chapter 21: Researching Transnational Networks
Richa Nagar and Susan Geiger
Chapter 22: Reflexivity and Positionality in Feminist Fieldwork Revisited
Henry Wai-chung Yeung
Chapter 23: Researching Hybridity through ‘Chinese’ Business Networks

The biggest strength of the book is its pedagogic design, which will appeal to new entrants in the field but also leaves space for methodological debates... It is well suited for use on general courses but it also involves far more than an introduction and is full of theoretical insights for a more theoretically advanced audience.

Economic Geography Research Group

Fortunately, to the benefit of students young and old, the reflexive ruminations contained between these covers are fresh, penetrating, honest, personal and, at times, poignant. They are sure to stimulate a long-overdue reawakening of interest in methodological choice and its consequences in economic geography. In doing so, the contributors to this volume have performed an incredibly valuable service on behalf of economic geographers everywhere.

Meric S. Gertler
University of Toronto

Very good reading for advanced students with an interest in cultural/methodic/political aspects of doing economic geographies.

Dr Annika Mattissek
Geography, Dresden University of Technology
December 17, 2012

Sample Materials & Chapters

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