Emerging Themes in Economic Geography: Outcomes of the Economic Geography 2010 Workshop

Spatial variation in energy attitudes and perceptions: Evidence from Europe

“…Hence, rather than the costs and cost-effectiveness of different policies, they might be framed in terms of these aspects. These non-linear interactions between built environment characteristics, socioeconomic factors and social interactions highlight the need for more multidisciplinary research to assess economic-environmental processes and outcomes in terms of how 'just', 'natural' or 'good' they are [60]. Despite opportunities presented by smart grids in enabling a cost-effective transition to a low carbon economy [61], the implementation of their capabilities is expected to be geographically uneven [55].…”

Fragmented or engaged pluralism in economic geography?

“…Subsequently, Barnes and Sheppard (2010) lamented that intra-disciplinary plurality and variegation in economic geography have resulted in fragmented pluralism in which a range of insular coteries mainly produce monologues and hence rarely engage in dialogue. This diagnosis of fragmented pluralism has been subsequently uttered by other economic geographers, as well (see Aoyama et al, 2011a;Clare and Siemiatycki, 2014;Muellerleile et al, 2014;Sheppard et al, 2012;Suwala, 2023). In a reaction, Barnes and Sheppard (2010) suggested engaged pluralism with the help of trading zones, and recently, Martin (2021) similarly suggested boundary objects and bridging concepts as a solution to fragmented pluralism.…”

“…Barnes and Sheppard (2010: 193) argued that “economic geography has become increasingly fragmented into a series of intellectual solitudes that has created isolation, producing monologues rather than conversation, and raising the question of how knowledge production should proceed.” They called this situation fragmented pluralism. Moreover, according to Aoyama et al (2011a: 111) “the increasingly specialized and fragmented nature of the discipline and the resulting ‘disappearing of the middle’ lead to fewer dedicated scholars, which, in turn, endangers the survival of the discipline.” Relatedly, this would lead to difficulties “to isolate a disciplinary core” (Muellerleile et al, 2014: 11), coming at “the expense of disciplinary cohesiveness, which is sorely lacking” (Clare and Siemiatycki, 2014: 6). Similarly, fragmented pluralism in economic geography led to the question of the raison-d’être of economic geography vis-à-vis geographical economics and other neighboring social sciences (Sheppard et al, 2012; Peck, 2015: 32).…”

Do the Channels of Access to Finance Differ with Regard to the Income Level of Countries?

“…Based on the aforementioned, economic geographers have directed their research towards exploring the spatial concentration and unequal distribution of financial markets since the late 1990s (Clark, 2005;Leyshon and Thrift, 1994;Leyshon and Thrift, 1995;Leyshon et al, 2008). Especially after the crisis of 2007-2008, numerous geographers emphasize that finance and financialization should be injected into economic geography (Aoyama et al, 2011;Engelen and Faulconbridge, 2009;Lee et al, 2009;Pike and Pollard, 2010;Sokol, 2013). Despite an expanding literature on access to finance in the fields of business and financial economics, as highlighted by Lee and Luca (2019), very few studies have taken into account how access to finance varies geographically.…”