Transcript A-level and university economic geography: some issues for

Economic geographies of global
(under)development
Roger Lee
Department of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
[email protected]
GA Annual Conference
University of Manchester 17 April 2009
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geography QMUL
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Economic geographies?
three ways of thinking Economic
Geography/economic geographies
• doing Economic Geography
cartographies, technologies, theories, methodologies
• living economic geographies
practices of lived economic geographies
• constructing economic geographies
relations and practices in the construction of
economic geographies
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geography QMUL
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practices of lived economic geographies?
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geography QMUL
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practices of lived economic geographies?
Photograph of two Russian men
removed for copyright reasons:
Market economics: two old men sell
household items in Kaliningrad
market to make a few roubles to buy
food. Ulrike Preuss
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geography QMUL
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relations and practices in the construction
of economic geographies?
materialities
circuits of value
socialities
circuits of capital - ‘access to the gods’
spatialities
territorial
absolute
relative
topological
relational
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geography QMUL
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materialities: circuits of value?
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geography QMUL
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socialities: circuits of capital/access to the
gods?
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geography QMUL
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spatialities?
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global (under)development?
Globalisation (and hence global
(under)development) is a process not a
condition. It involves the multiple
interactions of more (or less)
geographically expansive circuits of
value, especially circuits of capital,
diverse networks of influence, social
relations, metrologies and semiotics with
local circumstances and the resultant
social and material contradictions and
contested transformations of the local
and the global.
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geography QMUL
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global (under)development?
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geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies
relations and practices
the world is a big economic
geography
global GDP = $54,35 trillion
World Bank 2008 web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS accessed 09 12 08
BUT …..
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roger lee department of
geography QMUL
(trillion = 1000 billion
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constructing economic geographies
relations and practices
… an even bigger financial
geography
global securities markets = $149,10
trillion
B of E Financial Stability Report Issue 22 October 2007 pp 20 - 21
ie ‘fictitious’ capital =
$149,10 trillion - $54,35 trillion = $94,75
(trillion = 1000 billion)
and global financial markets produce and trade
ca 2.5 - 3 TIMES global GDP …..
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roger lee department of
geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies - relations and practices
sources: BIS, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, European Securitisation Forum, Eurostat, Fitch Ratings Ltd, McKinsey Global Institute, ONS, Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association, Standard and Poor’s, World Federation of Exchanges and Bank calculations.
from B of E Financial Stability Report Issue 22 25 October 2007 pp 20 - 21
(a) All data are global at end-2006 unless stated.
(b) Euro area, the United Kingdom, the United States and international money market instruments outstanding.
(c) Excludes local government debt and government agency debt. In the United States, for example, agency and municipal debt totalled $4.6 trillion at 2007 end-Q1.
(d) End-2005 except for the United Kingdom and the United States.
(e) Aggregate of Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
(f) Aggregate of euro area, the United Kingdom and the United States.
(g) Aggregate of Europe and the United States.
(h) Aggregate of Europe and the United States. Includes securitised home equity loans, auto loans, consumer loans, credit card debt, student loans and other sorts of
non-mortgage loans.
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geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies - relations and practices
….. with major consequences for
risk
estimate of losses (to October 2008)
B of E 2008 Financial Stability Report Issue 24 October 14
$2.8 trillion = 4 - 5% global GDP
(trillion = 1000 billion)
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geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies - relations and practices
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geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies - relations and practices
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geography QMUL
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constructing economic geographies - relations and practices
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geography QMUL
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conclusions
… if you don’t understand how money
goes round the world, you don’t
understand the world at all.
Gillian Tett The Guardian G2 31 10 2008 12
but this must involve a geographical
critique of political economy, including
…
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geography QMUL
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conclusions
geographies of
regulation ……
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conclusions
….. and protest
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conclusions
…. as
well as
an understanding
of the
social
construction
of financial
markets as …….
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conclusions
… complex
assemblages
and webs of
institutions
taking place in
financial spaces
and
staffed by
people as well
as machines…
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geography QMUL
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conclusions
… working
through social
geographies and
bringing
multiple values
(if gendered) to
bear
but …
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geography QMUL
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conclusions
… working
above all with
information to
produce
relational
knowledge
BUT all of this
requires …..
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conclusions
… requires
socialisation,
spatialisation,
democratisation
and
transparency ie
engagement in the lived
geographies of finance
radically to re-shape
Mishkin’s 2006
‘next great globalisation’
[ie finance!]
for a democratic political
economic geography
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geography QMUL
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