Economic geography, as a distinct field within human geography, has undergone profound transformations over the past few decades, moving significantly beyond its traditional focus on the simple spatial distribution and location of economic activities. Historically, the discipline was heavily influenced by quantitative methods and positivist paradigms, seeking universal laws governing economic phenomena in space. This “spatial science” era, prominent from the 1950s to the 1970s, often abstracted economic processes from their social, cultural, and political contexts, emphasizing models of optimal location and regional economic growth based on simplified assumptions of rational economic actors and homogeneous space.

However, the late 20th and early 21st centuries witnessed a critical re-evaluation of these foundational assumptions, driven by both internal critiques from within geography and broader shifts in social theory and economic thought. The limitations of purely quantitative and aspatial economic models became increasingly apparent in explaining complex phenomena like persistent regional disparities, the rise of global production networks, the embeddedness of economic action in social relations, and the role of non-market factors in economic development. This intellectual ferment has led to the emergence of a diverse array of “recent approaches” in economic geography, characterized by methodological pluralism, interdisciplinary engagement, and a deep appreciation for the contingent, relational, and historically situated nature of economic life.

Recent Approaches in Economic Geography

The contemporary landscape of economic geography is rich and multifaceted, reflecting a move away from a singular, dominant paradigm towards a more nuanced understanding of economic processes. These recent approaches often overlap, critique, and build upon one another, offering different lenses through which to examine the spatiality of economic phenomena.

The “New Economic Geography” (NEG)

One of the most prominent, albeit somewhat controversial, “new” approaches to emerge in the late 20th century was the “New Economic Geography” (NEG), largely pioneered by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman. Rooted firmly in neoclassical economics, NEG sought to reintroduce space and agglomeration into mainstream economic models, which had largely neglected geographical dimensions. Its core contribution lies in demonstrating how the interaction of increasing returns to scale, transportation costs, and monopolistic competition can lead to the spontaneous formation of core-periphery structures and the agglomeration of economic activity.

NEG models typically explain why industries might cluster in certain regions, even without pre-existing advantages, by focusing on “forward and backward linkages.” For instance, a firm might locate near its suppliers (backward linkages) or its customers (forward linkages), creating cumulative causation processes that pull more firms and labor into a particular area. While lauded for its analytical rigor and ability to explain certain spatial patterns using formal models, NEG has also faced significant criticism from within geography for its simplistic assumptions about economic actors, its lack of attention to institutions, power relations, and socio-cultural factors, and its often static, equilibrium-oriented nature. It offers a powerful explanation for why agglomeration occurs but less insight into the how and who of economic development in specific contexts.

Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG)

In direct response to the static nature of neoclassical and some early new economic geography models, Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) emerged as a dynamic and process-oriented approach. Drawing inspiration from evolutionary economics, biology, and institutional theory, EEG emphasizes path dependence, innovation, organizational learning, and the co-evolution of firms, technologies, and institutions within specific regional contexts. It posits that economic landscapes are not merely the result of equilibrium forces but rather the outcome of historically contingent processes, where past decisions and structures constrain or enable future possibilities.

Key concepts in EEG include “routines” (stable patterns of behavior within organizations), “capabilities” (the ability of firms and regions to adapt and innovate), “technological paradigms” (dominant frameworks for technological development), and “lock-in” (where initial choices create self-reinforcing mechanisms that make divergence difficult). EEG helps explain why certain regions specialize in particular industries, how new industries emerge (regional branching), and why some regions are more resilient to economic shocks than others. It highlights the importance of endogenous factors like regional innovation systems, social capital, and specific institutional arrangements in fostering long-term economic development. EEG is inherently interdisciplinary, bridging economics, management studies, and sociology, to understand how regions adapt, transform, and decline over time.

Cultural Economic Geography

The “cultural turn” in human geography profoundly influenced economic geography, leading to the development of Cultural Economic Geography. This approach argues that economic activities are not solely driven by rational, utility-maximizing individuals or abstract market forces, but are deeply embedded in and shaped by cultural norms, values, beliefs, trust, and shared meanings. It challenges the traditional distinction between the “economic” and the “cultural,” demonstrating how culture permeates every aspect of economic life, from production and consumption to exchange and regulation.

Cultural economic geography explores a wide range of phenomena: the role of trust and social networks in facilitating economic transactions, the cultural embeddedness of entrepreneurial activity, the impact of local traditions and identities on regional specialization (e.g., wine regions, craft industries), and the rise of creative industries (art, music, design, media) where cultural content is central to economic value. It also examines the cultural dimensions of consumption, such as ethical consumerism, branding, and the symbolic meanings attached to goods and services. Methodologically, cultural economic geography often employs qualitative and ethnographic approaches, discourse analysis, and detailed case studies to uncover the nuanced interplay between culture and economy. It highlights how cultural factors can create competitive advantages, shape consumer preferences, and influence economic resilience.

Institutional Economic Geography

Institutional Economic Geography emphasizes the crucial role of formal and informal institutions in shaping economic activity and outcomes. Moving beyond a purely market-centric view, this approach posits that markets are not “natural” but are socially constructed and embedded within specific institutional frameworks. Institutions, defined broadly to include laws, regulations, property rights, social norms, conventions, trust networks, and organizational structures, reduce uncertainty, facilitate coordination, enforce contracts, and influence incentives for economic actors.

This approach draws heavily from New Institutional Economics and broader sociological and political economy traditions. It analyzes how different institutional configurations (e.g., varieties of capitalism, welfare states, regional innovation systems) lead to divergent paths of economic development across places. For example, the nature of labor market regulations, financial systems, corporate governance, or state-market relations can significantly impact industrial structure, innovation patterns, and income distribution. Institutional economic geography is particularly adept at explaining persistent regional differences in economic performance, even among regions with similar factor endowments, by highlighting the unique “institutional thickness” or “governance architectures” that underpin local economies. It underscores that economic action is always embedded in a web of social relations mediated by institutions.

Relational Economic Geography and Global Production Networks (GPNs)

Perhaps one of the most transformative recent approaches is Relational Economic Geography, often articulated through the lens of Global Production Networks (GPNs) or Global Value Chains (GVCs). This perspective fundamentally challenges the notion of discrete, territorially bounded economies, instead emphasizing the interconnectedness of places through complex, trans-scalar networks of production, trade, finance, and knowledge. It argues that economic phenomena are not simply located in places but are constituted through relations between places.

GPN/GVC analysis traces how production processes are fragmented and geographically dispersed across the globe, involving multiple firms, labor forces, and state actors in different locations. It investigates the governance structures within these networks (e.g., buyer-driven vs. producer-driven chains), the power asymmetries among different actors (e.g., lead firms vs. suppliers), and how value is created, captured, and distributed along the chain. Key concepts include “embeddedness” (both territorial and network embeddedness), “upgrading” (moving to higher-value activities within the chain), and the interplay of firms, states, and labor in shaping network dynamics. Relational economic geography, particularly through GPN research, provides a powerful framework for understanding global capitalism, industrial restructuring, and the uneven development outcomes associated with globalization. It encourages multi-scalar analysis, moving beyond the local or national to understand how global connections shape local possibilities.

Feminist Economic Geography

Feminist Economic Geography emerged from a critical engagement with traditional economic geography, which was often implicitly gender-blind or masculinized in its focus on formal employment, large firms, and male-dominated industries. This approach systematically highlights how gender relations shape and are shaped by economic spaces, processes, and outcomes. It argues that economic life is not gender-neutral and that power asymmetries based on gender profoundly influence labor markets, income distribution, access to resources, and spatial organization.

Feminist economic geography draws attention to often-overlooked aspects of the economy, such as the social reproduction of labor (including unpaid care work and household labor), the informal economy, and gendered divisions of labor within households and workplaces. It examines how global economic restructuring, for instance, can lead to the feminization of labor in certain sectors or the increased reliance on migrant women for care work. Concepts like “intersectionality” are crucial, acknowledging that gender interacts with race, class, sexuality, and other dimensions of identity to produce diverse economic experiences. By revealing the gendered nature of economic spaces (e.g., the home as a site of work, public spaces for street vending) and challenging dominant narratives of economic rationality, feminist economic geography offers a more comprehensive and equitable understanding of economic life and contributes to policies promoting gender justice and inclusive development. It underscores that economic action is always embedded in a web of social relations mediated by institutions.

Other Emerging and Cross-Cutting Themes

Beyond these distinct approaches, several other themes and perspectives are gaining traction, often intersecting with the aforementioned frameworks:

  • Financialization of Space: This area examines how finance and financial markets increasingly shape urban and regional development, real estate, infrastructure, and the daily lives of individuals, often leading to new forms of inequality and precarity.
  • Digital Geographies and the Platform Economy: With the rise of digital technologies, Big Data, and platform companies (e.g., Uber, Airbnb), economic geographers are exploring the spatial implications of online marketplaces, remote work, gig economies, and the increasing role of algorithms in shaping economic interactions and labor processes.
  • More-than-Human Geographies: A nascent but growing area seeks to integrate non-human actors (e.g., nature, animals, technologies, microbes) into economic analyses, moving beyond an anthropocentric view of the economy. This includes work on environmental economic geography, resource management, and the ecological embeddedness of economic systems.
  • Geographies of Inequality and Precarity: A renewed focus on understanding the spatial dimensions of widening income and wealth disparities, precarious labor, and social exclusion, particularly in the context of globalized and financialized economies.
  • Ethical and Sustainable Economies: Exploring alternative economic practices, such as social enterprises, fair trade, local food movements, and circular economy models, which prioritize social and environmental well-being alongside economic profit.

Conclusion

The recent approaches in economic geography collectively represent a vibrant and dynamic evolution of the discipline. They signify a significant departure from the more narrowly defined, positivistic, and often aspatial economic models of the past. The field has embraced methodological pluralism, integrating quantitative techniques with rich qualitative, ethnographic, and historical analysis.

The common thread uniting these diverse approaches is a profound recognition of the complexity, contingency, and embeddedness of economic life. Contemporary economic geography understands that economic processes are not autonomous or purely rational, but are deeply intertwined with social relations, cultural norms, political institutions, technological trajectories, and environmental contexts. This multi-faceted lens allows for a more nuanced understanding of phenomena ranging from global production networks and regional innovation systems to the geographies of inequality and the implications of financialization. By moving beyond simplistic economic determinism and embracing interdisciplinary dialogue, modern economic geography offers crucial insights into the spatial dynamics of capitalism and informs efforts to foster more equitable, resilient, and sustainable forms of economic development across different scales.