Deck 16: Economic Geography: Intellectual Journeys and Future Horizons

Question 1

Positivism and the push for more advanced approaches to quantitative economic geography stemmed from the desire for:

A) More "scientific" modes of knowledge production
B) Universal "laws" that underpinned spatial patterns of economic activity
C) Objective truths
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 1

All of the above

Question 2

Which of the following classics in the German tradition contributed to spatial analysis and regional science during the positivist era?

A) The agricultural land-use theories of Johan von Thünen
B) Walter Christaller's central place theory
C) Alfred Weber's industrial location theory
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 2

All of the above

Question 3

Rather than understanding the world through observation and measurement, structural approaches attempt to uncover hidden structures that shape and constrain people's actions in the world and create differences of power. Proponents of these approaches often seek to develop ____________________.

A) Solutions to persistent inequality
B) Structures ensuring social justice
C) Normative agendas
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 3

All of the above

Question 4

Structural approaches generally share a belief in the existence of underlying structures of power that are:

A) Contestable
B) Described in theoretical writing and revealed through empirical research
C) Socially constructed
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 5

Post-structural approaches argue that knowledge is always:

A) Partial
B) Situated
C) Contingent
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 6

Increasing flows of migration, both permanent and temporary, have become a reality in many parts of the world. They will likely heighten issues of unequal access to economic resources on the part of minority populations who are marginalized because of:

A) Immigration/citizenship status
B) Ethnic difference
C) Racialized identities
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 7

The volatility of global financial capital exhibited in recent years is likely to persist well into the future-prompting attempts at:

A) Regulating the workings of financial markets
B) Implementing collective oversight of national government fiscal policies
C) Intervening when crises arise in national banking systems
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 8

The impacts of a changing global climate will be significant and include the costs of:

A) Dealing with shifting zones of cultivable land, and coastal inundation affecting certain areas of the globe
B) Replacing existing technologies with green technologies such as wind power, fluorescent lightbulbs, electric/hybrid fuel cars, and solar panels
C) Biodiversity loss
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 9

How did the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism coincide with the development of positivism, structuralism, and post-structuralism as approaches to understanding economic geography?

Question 10

Provide three examples of how the "cultural turn" in economic geography has shifted the focus of academic research to new subjects of inquiry today.

Question 11

Discuss three ways in which the continuing anglo-dominance of economic geography in academic circles limits our understanding of a changing global economy.