Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.
Holdings
Details
Description
xiv, 174 p. : ill.; 23 cm.
Summary
"This book focuses on the theme of the mutually constitutive relations between geographic space and the economic order. Three principal lines of investigation are identified and explored. First, Allen J. Scott sketches out the general theory of the division of labour and the ways in which it is reflected in geographic patterns of specialization and interaction. He examines, in particular, the role of the division of labour in the formation of large-scale agglomerations of economic activity and the ways in which their internal and external relationships are played out. Second, he considers the structure of geographic space as a fountainhead of creativity, learning, and innovation. A theory of the creative field is presented, and its application to the investigation of entrepreneurship, technological change, and the dynamics of the cultural economy is considered. Third, he offers an account of the regional question in less developed parts of the world. Here, he recovers some of the arguments of high development theory and shows how they can be revitalized in the light of a specifically geographic approach. These three lines of investigation are, of course, tightly intertwined with one another." "Allen J. Scott's argument in general demonstrates that geographic space is not just an inert dimension in which the economy unfolds, but plays an active role in the eventuation of economic outcomes. This state of affairs raises many difficult policy questions about growth and development in both more and less economically advanced countries. Some of the more important of these questions are also broached in the book."--Jacket.
Series Statement
Clarendon lectures in geography and environmental studies
Uniform Title
Clarendon lectures in geography and environmental studies.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [125]-150) and index.
Processing Action (note)
committed to retain
Contents
1. Geography and the division of labour: Introduction -- Classical political economy and the division of labour -- The organization of inudstry -- The division of labour and agglomeration -- A historiographical digression -- Interregional and international dimensions of the division of labour -- The new economy and the global regional mosaic -- Synthesis : geography and the division of labour. 2. Geography, entrepreneurship, and innovation: Introductory remarks -- Towards a concept of the creative field -- The entrepreneur in spatial context -- Space-time dynamics of innovation I: knowledge, learning, and technical change -- Space-time dynamics of innovation II: culture, sensibility, and symbolic products -- Collective order of the creative field -- Geography and creativity. 3. Geography and development: Theories old and new -- Industrialization on the ground : polemical prelude to a geography of development -- Cities, regions, and productivity -- Regional development in low- and middle-income countries -- Regional push in practice -- Institutions and markets : developmental practice in regional context -- A world of regions.