GEOG2230 09_19

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School

University of Guelph *

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Course

2230

Subject

Geography

Date

Oct 30, 2023

Type

pdf

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Uploaded by ConstableFireLeopard45

Economic Geography ● ‘The economy’ is an idea arising from a certain time and place. The way we commonly understand it excludes a lot of important things ● The ‘economy’ reflects the assumption that there is something called the ‘economy’ that is a solid and/or tangible thing but who gets to define what that is? ● The sense that there is a tangible ‘thing’ out there is reinforced by the various ways in which the economy is defined and measured ● Economic Geography takes a broader view of the ‘economy’ GDP ● The economy is defined and measured most commonly in gross domestic product (GDP), which adds together the total market value of the production of goods and services in particular economy (i.e., the total output) ● Something only contributes to GDP if it can be quantified/counted ● Mostly involves wage labor produce for a market in a capitalist firm ● Moral dilemma associated with GDP ambiguity, ‘oil spills contribute to GDP’ Common Ideas regarding The Economy ● An external sphere - separate from the rest of our lives (a machine or organism) ● Independent of social, political, and cultural processes ● National scale - the responsibility of national governments to manage (now sometimes international) ● Something that can be maintained or managed by government intervention Consequences (normative assumptions) ● We only count some things (gendered effects - house work & environmental effects - nature) ● We often understand things in market terms (e.g, ecosystem services) ● We often assume growth of economy is necessary/good ● We forget about geographic variability of economies The need for economic geography ● The economy is a complex intersection of sociocultural, political, legal, and ‘economic’ forces, and it is the separation of these dimensions in the social sciences today that is often problematic (text p.59) ● The economy can only work through geography, making and remaking places as it does so (p. 64) ● Geography is integral (not external) to the economy (p. 64) Raworth’s Doughnut ● Main point: there are other ways to understand the economy that are not based on GDP ● This shows that the ‘economy’ and ‘GDP’ are ideas made by humans and not natural entities ● Raworth begins by redrawing the economy. She embeds it in the Earth’s systems and in society, showing how it depends on the flow of materials and energy, and reminding us that we are more than just workers, consumers, and owners of capital

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