Editing Economic geography (section)

==Approaches to study==
As economic geography is a very broad discipline, with economic geographers using many different methodologies in the study of economic phenomena in the world some distinct approaches to study have evolved over time:
*''[[Theoretical economic geography]]'' focuses on building theories about spatial arrangement and distribution of economic activities.
*''[[Regional geography|Regional]] economic geography'' examines the economic conditions of particular regions or countries of the world. It deals with economic [[regionalization]] as well as local [[Economic growth|economic development]].
*''[[Historical economic geography]]'' examines the history and development of spatial economic structure. Using historical data, it examines how centers of population and economic activity shift, what patterns of regional specialization and localization evolve over time and what factors explain these changes.
*''[[Evolutionary]] economic geography'' adopts an [[evolutionary]] approach to economic geography. More specifically, Evolutionary Economic Geography uses concepts and ideas from [[evolutionary economics]] to understand the evolution of cities, regions, and other economic systems.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Boschma | first1 = Ron | last2 = Frenken | first2 = Koen |year = 2006 | title = Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? Towards an evolutionary economic geography | journal = Journal of Economic Geography | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 273–302 | doi=10.1093/jeg/lbi022| doi-access = free | url = https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/387397/Why_is_economic_geography_not_an_evolutionairy_science.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y }}</ref> 
*''[[Critical geography|Critical]] economic geography'' is an approach taken from the point of view of contemporary [[critical geography]] and its philosophy.
*''[[Behavioral geography|Behavioral]] economic geography'' examines the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, locational decision making, and behavior of firms<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Schoenberger | first1 = E | year = 2001 | title = Corporate autobiographies: the narrative strategies of corporate strategists | journal = Journal of Economic Geography | volume = 1 | issue = 3| pages = 277–98 | doi=10.1093/jeg/1.3.277}}</ref> and individuals.

Economic geography is sometimes approached as a branch of [[Human geography|anthropogeography]] that focuses on regional systems of human economic activity. An alternative description of different approaches to the study of human economic activity can be organized around spatiotemporal analysis, analysis of production/consumption of economic items, and analysis of economic flow. Spatiotemporal systems of analysis include economic activities of region, mixed social spaces, and development.

Alternatively, analysis may focus on production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of items of economic activity. Allowing parameters of space-time and item to vary, a geographer may also examine material flow, commodity flow, population flow and information flow from different parts of the economic activity system. Through analysis of flow and production, industrial areas, rural and urban residential areas, transportation site, commercial service facilities and finance and other economic centers are linked together in an economic activity system.

===Branches===
Thematically, economic geography can be divided into these subdisciplines:
* [[Agricultural geography|Geography of agriculture]]
It is traditionally considered the branch of economic geography that investigates those parts of the Earth's surface that are transformed by humans through primary sector activities. It thus focuses on structures of agricultural landscapes and asks for the processes that lead to these spatial patterns. While most research in this area concentrates rather on production than on consumption,[1] a distinction can be made between nomothetic (e.g. distribution of spatial agricultural patterns and processes) and idiographic research (e.g. human-environment interaction and the shaping of agricultural landscapes). The latter approach of agricultural geography is often applied within regional geography.
* Geography of industry
* Geography of international trade
* Geography of resources
* [[Transportation geography|Geography of transport]] and communication
* [[Geography of finance]]

These areas of study may overlap with other [[geography|geographical sciences]].

===Economists and economic geographers===
Generally, spatially interested economists study the effects of space ''on the economy''. Geographers, on the other hand, are interested in the economic processes' impact ''on spatial structures''.

Moreover, economists and economic geographers differ in their methods in approaching spatial-economic problems in several ways. An economic geographer will often take a more holistic approach to the analysis of economic phenomena, which is to conceptualize a problem in terms of space, place, and scale as well as the overt economic problem that is being examined. The economist approach, according to some economic geographers, has the main drawback of homogenizing the economic world in ways economic geographers try to avoid.<ref name="Coe">{{cite book |last1=Yeung |first1=Henry W. C. |last2=Kelly |first2=Phillip |year=2007 |title=Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]}}</ref>

===The New Economic Geography===
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With the rise of the [[New Economy]], economic inequalities are increasing spatially. The New Economy, generally characterized by globalization, increasing use of information and communications technology, the growth of knowledge goods, and feminization, has enabled economic geographers to study social and spatial divisions caused by the rising New Economy, including the emerging [[digital divide]].

The new economic geographies consist of primarily service-based sectors of the economy that use innovative technology, such as industries where people rely on computers and the internet. Within these is a switch from manufacturing-based economies to the digital economy. In these sectors, competition makes technological changes robust. These high technology sectors rely heavily on interpersonal relationships and trust, as developing things like software is very different from other kinds of industrial manufacturing—it requires intense levels of cooperation between many different people, as well as the use of [[tacit knowledge]]. As a result of cooperation becoming a necessity, there is a clustering in the high-tech new economy of many firms.

Diane Perrons<ref>{{cite journal|last=Perrons|first=Diane|title=Understanding Social and Spatial Divisions in the New Economy: New Media Clusters and the Digital Divide|journal=Economic Geography|year=2004|volume=80|issue=1|pages=45–61|doi=10.1111/j.1944-8287.2004.tb00228.x|s2cid=144632958}}</ref> argues that in Anglo-American literature, the New Economy Geography consists of two distinct types. 
* New Economic Geography 1 (NEG1) is characterized by sophisticated spatial modelling. It seeks to explain uneven development and the emergence of [[Business cluster|industrial clusters]]. It does so through the exploration of linkages between centripetal and centrifugal forces, especially those of [[economies of scale]].
* New Economic Geography 2 (NEG2) also seeks to explain the apparently paradoxical emergence of industrial clusters in a contemporary context, however, it emphasizes relational, social, and contextual aspects of economic behaviour, particularly the importance of tacit knowledge. The main difference between these two types is NEG2's emphasis on aspects of economic behaviour that NEG1 considers intangible.

Both New Economic Geographies acknowledge transport costs, the importance of knowledge in a new economy, possible effects of externalities, and endogenous processes that generate increases in productivity. The two also share a focus on the firm as the most important unit and on growth rather than development of regions. As a result, the actual impact of clusters on a region is given far less attention, relative to the focus on clustering of related activities in a region.

However, the focus on the firm as the main entity of significance hinders the discussion of New Economic Geography. It limits the discussion in a national and global context and confines it to a smaller scale context. It also places limits on the nature of the firm's activities and their position within the global value chain. Further work done by Bjorn Asheim (2001) and Gernot Grabher (2002) challenges the idea of the firm through action-research approaches and mapping organizational forms and their linkages. In short, the focus on the firm in new economic geographies is undertheorized in NEG1 and undercontextualized in NEG2, which limits the discussion of its impact on spatial economic development.

Spatial divisions within these arising New Economic geographies are apparent in the form of the [[digital divide]], as a result of regions attracting talented workers instead of developing skills at a local level (see [[Creative Class]] for further reading). Despite increasing inter-connectivity through developing information communication technologies, the contemporary world is still defined through its widening social and spatial divisions, most of which are increasingly gendered. [[Danny Quah]] explains these spatial divisions through the characteristics of knowledge goods in the New Economy: goods defined by their infinite expansibility, weightlessness, and [[Nonrival good|nonrivalry]]. Social divisions are expressed through new spatial segregation that illustrates spatial sorting by income, ethnicity, abilities, needs, and lifestyle preferences. Employment segregation is evidence by the overrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in lower-paid service sector jobs. These divisions in the new economy are much more difficult to overcome as a result of few clear pathways of progression to higher-skilled work.