SEMINAR IN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY (GEOG 8620)

 

Dr. Andrew Herod                                                                                          Spring 2003

Department of Geography

Main Office: 542 2856

 

Aherod@arches.uga.edu

 

 

This course is designed to provide a broad overview of a number of contemporary conceptual issues and debates in the field of economic geography.  There are four requirements for the class: i) attendance, completion of the reading assignments, and participation in class discussions; ii) provision of a research paper outline (approx 2 pages) due in class on February 5; iii) preparation of a research paper of between 20 and 30 pages, typed, double spaced; iv) presentation of student research topics to the rest of the class.

 

Research Paper:  This may be a more conceptual/ theoretical piece or it may be a more empirical, though nevertheless conceptually situated, piece.  With regard to your research, I view the field of economic geography in fairly broad terms.  If you are in doubt about whether your topic fits into the definition of "economic geography," please see me.

 

Student presentation of research:  Each student will be expected to present her/ his research paper to the rest of the class.  You will each have about 20 minutes to make your presentation and answer questions which may be generated by the class.  Presentations will take place in the last two class meetings of the semester.

 

Week 1: Introduction to the Class (1/15)

 

 

Week 2: The ideology of economics: Neo-classical versus Marxist approaches to understanding economic behavior (1/22)

 

Wolff, R.D. and Resnick, S.A (1987)  Economics: Marxian vs. Neoclassical.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

 

 

Week 3: Different approaches to practising economic geography (1/29)

 

Plummer, P. (2000): "The modelling tradition."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 27-40.

 

Swyngedouw, E. (2000): "The Marxian alternative: Historical-geographical materialism and the political economy of capitalism."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 41-59.

 

Oberhauser, A. (2000): "Feminism and economic geography: Gendering work and working gender."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 60-76.

 

Martin, R. (2000): "Institutional approaches in economic geography."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 77-94.

 

Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2000): "Poststructural interventions."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 95-110.

 

 

Week 4: Methodological debates in economic geography: politics and method (2/5)

 

Massey, D and Meegan, R (1985) Politics and Method.  New York: Methuen.

 

Sayer, R. A. (1982). "Explanation in economic geography."  Progress in Human Geography 6: 68-88.

 

 

Week 5: A Framework for understanding the political economy and geography of capitalism - part one (2/12)

 

Massey, D. (1995)  Spatial Divisions of Labor: Social Structures and the Geography of Production.  Basingstoke: Macmillan.

 

 

Week 6: A Framework for understanding the political economy and geography of capitalism - part two (2/19)

 

Walker, R. (1981) "A theory of suburbanization: Capitalism and the construction of urban space in the United States."  In Dear, M. and Scott, A. (eds) Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society.  London: Methuen, pp. 383-429.

 

Harvey, D. (1983) "The urban process under capitalism: A framework for analysis."  In Lake, R. (ed), Readings in Urban Analysis.  New Brunswick NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, pp. 197-227.

 

Harvey, D. (1976)  "Labor, capital, and class struggle around the built environment in advanced capitalist societies." Politics and Society 6.3: 265-295.

 

Harvey, D. (1985) "The geopolitics of capitalism."  In Gregory, D. and Urry, J. (eds), Social Relations and Spatial Structures.  New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 128-163.

 

Florida, R. and Feldman, M. (1988) "Housing in US Fordism."  International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 12, 187-210.

 

 

Week 7: Capital accumulation, uneven development, and regional growth (2/26)

 

Schoenberger, E. (1989) "New models of regional change". In Peet, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.), New Models in Geography (Vol 1).  London: Unwin & Hyman,  pp.115-141.

Smith, N. (1986)  "On the necessity of uneven development."  International Journal of Urban and Regional Development  10: 87-104.

 

Smith, N. (1989)  "Uneven development and location theory: Towards a synthesis."  In Peet, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.), New Models in Geography (Vol 1).  London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 142-163.

 

Soja, E. (1985) "Regions in context: Spatiality, periodicity, and the historical geography of the regional question."  Environment and Planning D 3: 175-190.

 

Martin, R. (1989). "The reorganization of regional theory: alternative perspectives on the changing capitalist space economy" Geoforum 20: 187-201.

 

Plummer, P., Sheppard, E., and Haining, R. (1998)  "Modeling spatial competition: Marxian versus neoclassical approaches."  Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84: 575-94.

 

 

Week 8: Discourses of Globalization (3/5)

 

J.K. Gibson-Graham (1996)  "Querying globalization" (pp.120-147).  In The End of Capitalism (As We Knew it): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell

 

Swyngedouw, E. (1997)  "Neither global nor local: 'Glocalization' and the politics of scale."  In Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local, ed. K. Cox, pp. 137-166.  Guilford: New York and London.

 

Leyshon, A. (1997)  "True stories? global dreams, global nightmares, and writing globalization."  In Lee, R. and Wills, J. (eds.) Geographies of Economies, pp.133-146.  London: Arnold.

 

Dicken, P., Peck, J., and Tickell, A. (1997)  "Unpacking the global." In Lee, R. and Wills, J. (eds.) Geographies of Economies, pp.158-166.  London: Arnold.

 

Mair, A. (1997)  "Strategic localization: The myth of the postnational enterprise."  In Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local, ed. K. Cox, pp. 64-88.  Guilford: New York and London.

 

î Tuathail, G, Herod, A., and Roberts, S. (1998) "Negotiating unruly problematics."  In An Unruly World? Globalization, Governance and Geography, Herod, A., î Tuathail, G, and Roberts, S. (editors), pp. 1-24.  Routledge: London

 

 

Week 9: Full steam ahead, or not so fast? (3/12)

 

Ohmae, K. (1990)  The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, pp.82-100, 137-145, 172-192.  New York: HarperBusiness.

 

Ohmae, K. (1995)  The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, pp. 1-5, 79-100.  New York: Free Press.

 

Bryan, L. and Farrell, D. (1996)  Market Unbound: Unleashing Global Capitalism, pp. 1-35; 152-195; 220-235.  New York: John Wiley.

 

Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1996)  "Introduction: Globalization - A necessary myth?" (pp. 1-17); "Globalization and the history of the international economy" (pp. 18-50.  In Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. Globalization in Question.  Cambridge: Polity Press.

 

Greider, W. (1997)  One World Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, pp. 39-53, 122-145, 333-359.  New York: Simon and Schuster.

 

Vogel, S. (1996)  Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries, pp.1-5, 9-24.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

 

 

Week 10: Economic Restructuring and the politics of Deindustrialization (3/26)

 

J.K. Gibson-Graham (1996)  "Strategies" (pp.1-23); "Capitalism and anti-essentialism: An encounter in contradiction" (pp.24-45); "The economy, stupid! Industrial policy discourse and the body politic" (pp.92-119).  In The End of Capitalism (As We Knew it): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

 

Hudson, R. and Sadler, D. (1986) "Contesting works closures in Western Europe's old industrial regions: Defending place or betraying class?"  In Scott, A and Storper, M. (eds) Production, Work, Territory: The Geographical Anatomy of Industrial Capitalism.  Boston: Allen and Unwin, pp. 172-193.

 

Herod, A. (1991) "Local political practice in response to a manufacturing plant closure: How geography complicates class analysis."  Antipode 23.4: 385-402.

 

Martin, R., Sunley, P., and Wills, J. (1994) "Unions and the politics of deindustrialization: Some comments on how geography complicates class analysis."  Antipode 26.1: 59-76.

 

Herod, A. (1994) "Further reflections on organized labor and deindustrialization in the United States."  Antipode 26.1: 77-95.

 

Kurtz, H. (2002)  "The politics of environmental justice as the politics of scale: St. james Parish, Louisiana, and the Shintech siting controversy."  In Andrew Herod and Melissa W. Wright (editors): Geographies of Power: Placing Scale.  Basil Blackwell: Oxford, pp. 249-273. 

 

 

Week 11: Fordism and the Transition to post-Fordism? (4/2)

 

Storper, M. and Scott, A.J. 1986.  "The geographical foundations and social regulation of flexible production complexes."  In The Power of Geography: How Territory Shapes Social Life, eds. J. Wolch and M. Dear, pp. 21-40.  Boston: Unwin Hyman.

 

Schoenberger, E. (1988) "From Fordism to flexible accumulation: Technology, competitive strategies, and international location." Environment and Planning D 6: 245-262.

 

Gertler, M. (1992) "Flexibility revisited: Districts, nation-states, and the forces of production."  Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 17.3: 259-278.

 

Hudson, R. (1989)  "Labour-market changes and new forms of work in old industrial regions: Maybe flexibility for some but not flexible accumulation."  Environment and Planning D 7: 5-30.

 

McDowell, L. (1991) "Life without father and Ford: The new gender order of post-Fordism."  Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 16.4: 400-419.

 

Herod, A (2000)  "Implications of Just-in-Time production for union strategy: Lessons from the 1998 General Motors-United Auto Workers dispute."  Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90.3: 521-547.

 

 

Week 12: Class and gender (4/9)

 

Herod, A. (1998)  "The spatiality of labor unionism: A review essay."  In Andrew Herod (ed.) Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism, pp. 1-36.  University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis and London.

 

Herod, A. (2001) "Introduction: Labor and landscapes" and "Toward a labor geography." In Herod, A. Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism, pp. 1-49.  Guilford Press: New York.

 

Wills, J. (1998)  "Space, place, and tradition in working-class organization."  In Herod, A. (ed) Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism, pp. 129-158.  University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis and London.

 

McDowell, L. (1983)  "Towards an understanding of the gender division of urban space."  Environment and Planning D 1, 59-72.

 

Gregson, N. (2000)  "Family, work, and consumption: Mapping the borderlands of economic geography."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 311-324.

 

Wright, M. (2001)  2001 "Global firms, masculine heroes and the reproduction of Ciudad Ju‡rez." Social Text 93-114.

 

 

Week 13: Political Economy of the State (4/16)

 

Jessop, B. (1990)  "Recent theories of the capitalist state."  In Jessop, B., State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place.  University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, pp. 24-47.

 

Jessop, B. (1990)  "Accumulation strategies, state forms and hegemonic projects."  In Jessop, B., State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place.  University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, pp. 196-219.

 

Jessop, B. (1993)  "Towards a Schumpeterian workfare state? Preliminary remarks on post-Fordist political economy."  Studies in Political Economy 40: 7-39.

 

Martin, R and Sunley, P (1997) "The post-Keynesian state and the space economy" in Lee, R and Wills, J (eds.) Geographies of Economies.  Arnold, London, pp. 278-90.

 

Painter, J. (2000)  "State and governance."  In Sheppard, E. and Barnes, T. (eds.) A Companion to Economic Geography.  Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 359-376.

 

Week 14: Student Presentations (4/23)

 

Week 15: Student Presentations (4/30)