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

"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

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 and neoclassical economics, economic sociology, and economic anthropology.

Leading contributors examine substantive methodological issues in economic geography and make a distinctive contribution to economic-geographical debate and practice.

PART ONE: POSITION AND METHOD: PRODUCING ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES
Chapter 1: Politics and Practice: Becoming a Geographer - Erica Schoenberger
Chapter 2: Smoke and Mirrors: An Ethnography of the State - Alison Mountz
Chapter 3: Nature Talks Back: Studying the Economic Life of Things - Paul Robbins
Chapter 4: Sexing the Economy, Theorizing Bodies - Linda McDowell
Chapter 5: Putting Play to Work - Geraldine Pratt and Caleb Johnston
Chapter 6: Of Pufferfish and Ethnography: Plumbing New Depths in Economic Geography - Elizabeth C. Dunn
PART TWO: POLITICIZING METHOD: ACTIVATING ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES
Chapter 7: Method and Politics: Avoiding Determinism and Embracing Normativity - Andrew Sayer
Chapter 8: Cultivating Subjects for a Community Economy - J.K. Gibson-Graham
Chapter 9: A Public Language for Analyzing the Corporation - Philip O’Neill
Chapter 10: The Place of Personal Politics - Jane Wills
Chapter 11: Locating the Thai State - Jim Glassman
Chapter 12: Post-socialism and the Politics of Knowledge Production - John Pickles and Adrian Smith
PART THREE: QUANTITY AND QUALITY
Beyond Dualist Economic Geographies
Chapter 13: Hybrid GIS and Cultural Economic Geography - Mei-Po Kwan
Chapter 14: Evolution in Economic Geography? - David L. Rigby
Chapter 15: Beyond Close Dialogue: Economic Geography as if it Matters - Gordon L. Clark
Chapter 16: Economic Geography, by the Numbers? - Paul Plummer
Chapter 17: Methodologies, Epistemologies, Audiences - Amy Glasmeier
PART FOUR:BOUNDARY CROSSINGS
Mobilizing Economic Geographies
Chapter 18: Out of Africa: History, Nature, Empire - Judith Carney
Chapter 19: ‘I Offer You This, Commodity’ - Vinay K. Gidwani
Chapter 20: ‘El Otro Lado’ and Transnational Ethnographies - Altha J. Cravey
Chapter 21: Researching Transnational Networks - Philip F. Kelly and Kris Olds
Chapter 22: Reflexivity and Positionality in Feminist Fieldwork Revisited - Richa Nagar and Susan Geiger
Chapter 23: Researching Hybridity through ‘Chinese’ Business Networks - Henry Wai-chung Yeung