Economic Geography

A Contemporary Introduction

Neil M. Coe, Philip F. Kelly, Henry W. C. Yeung

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119389583
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Geography
• Index: Social Sciences

A revised and updated edition of the leading introductory text on the geography of economic life, from the local to the global

Economic Geography is an engaging and accessible introduction to the different ways modern economic geographers understand, analyze, and interpret economic processes. This comprehensive text addresses significant questions relevant to contemporary economic life, from the activities of transnational corporations to issues surrounding workplaces and consumption. It encourages readers to explore how spatial patterns, places, networks, and territories shape large-scale economic processes. Accessible, highly-illustrated material presents fresh insights from the field—complemented by relatable, real-world examples that help students understand the social, cultural, and political contexts underpinning global economic processes.

Now in its third edition, this extensively revised and updated textbook retains the features and thematic structure that have proved popular with students and instructors alike, while adding exciting new content. New chapters explore how the global economy and global development are institutionalized and governed, the economic geographies of global climate change, economic practices outside the capitalist mainstream, the role of migrants in labour markets, global production networks, and more.

• Introduces economic geography with a thematic approach including major concepts, current debates, and case studies
• Revised and updated to enhance international coverage, including three entirely new chapters on international development, alternative economies, and global climate change
• Substantial new content on labour migration, global production networks, and recent intellectual trends such as evolutionary economic geography
• Highly illustrated with diagrams and photographs closely integrated into the text
• Pedagogical aids including key case studies, learning objectives, text boxes, chapter essay questions, summaries, and further reading
• Core geographical concepts – such as place, networks and territory – are closely integrated into all chapters.

Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction is an invaluable source of up-to-date knowledge for students new to the field, for those requiring a solid foundation, as well as for a broader academic and public readership with interest in this area of study.

PART I
CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER 1
GEOGRAPHY: How do we think spatially?

Aims

• To introduce the core geographical themes of our analysis: spatial patterns; the distinctiveness of place; connections across space; and territorial power.
• To illustrate these geographical themes through a detailed study of bottled water as a controversial but ubiquitous commodity.

1.1 Introduction: Message in a Bottle

There are a few objects that appear in university classrooms the world over. Laptop computers and smartphones are now standard equipment; a cup of coffee may be perched on the edge of the desk; and, of course, pens and paper are still used by a few traditionalists. Blending into the background scenery of the classroom, or poking out of pouches in backpacks, there will also usually be numerous bottles of water. Some may be reusable metal containers, perhaps emblazoned with a university logo, but many will be made of disposable plastic – bought from a convenience store, supermarket, or vending machine. Much of this water will have been bottled locally, often by the branch operation of a large transnational corporation. Some of it may have been shipped considerable distances – from France, Norway, New Zealand, Fiji, or Canada (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Bottled water for sale in a Toronto grocery store: some bottled from local tap water (Nestlé's Pure Life, Coca‐Cola's Dasani, and PepsiCo's Aquafina), but also spring water from France, Fiji, Norway, and New Zealand

Source: the authors.

We tend to give little thought to the rise of bottled water in our everyday lives. While we often reflect on the emergence and impact of computer technology, the Internet, and smartphones, we usually ignore the simple plastic water bottle. Yet, like computer hardware and software, bottled water has proliferated as a widespread commodity only within the last generation. The growth rates in bottled water production and sales have been astonishing. In 1970, the average person in the United States consumed just 5.5 l of bottled water per year (mostly from large water coolers) (Hawkins and Emel 2014). Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and even the 1990s, it would have been rare to see a water bottle in a university lecture hall. By 2015, however, US consumption had increased to 138 l per person – a 25‐fold increase. In 2017, bottled water consumption in the United States exceeded that of carbonated soft drinks for the first time. A similarly dramatic growth in consumption is evident in the United Kingdom, where the total consumption of bottled water grew from 30 million litres in 1980, to 1.4 billion litres in 2000, and 3.2 billion litres by 2016. The UK bottled water business is worth over US$3 billion per year. Meanwhile, in the Global South, even more dramatic increases have been seen. In China, total bottled water consumption grew from 2.7 billion litres in 1997 to over 77 billion litres in 2015. Globally, it is estimated that the bottled water industry will generate annual sales of US$280 billion by 2020 (Elmhirst 2016).

These trends reflect a number of processes. In the Global South, including China, there has been a huge expansion of middle‐class consumers with disposable income to spend. At the same time, many governments have failed to provide accessible and safe drinking water to their expanding populations. This has led to an increased dependence on bottled water (especially home and office delivery of large‐format containers – see Figure 1.2). In the Global North, where incomes were already relatively high, and safe tap water is widely available, the growth of bottled water consumption is related in part to a deepening focus on personal health and fitness. Water is seen as a healthy alternative to sugary soft drinks. In all contexts, packaging technology, and especially the development of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle in the 1990s, has made bottled water easier and cheaper to transport. In 2016, more than 480 billion plastic drinking bottles were used across the world (for water and other drinks), up from about 300 billion in 2004. If these bottles were placed end to end, they would reach more than halfway to the sun (Laville and Taylor 2017). The expansion of the industry has happened alongside the emergence of large bottled water companies that have the expertise and the capital to invest in producing, distributing, and marketing bottled water products. These include major corporations such as Nestlé, Coca‐Cola, Pepsi, and Danone (see Box 1.1).

Figure 1.2 Home or office delivery of bottled water in Guangzhou, China

Source: the authors.

The bottled water industry provides an example of a rapidly growing sector that revolves around a relatively simple product. As such, it provides a good case study for us to use throughout this chapter as we explore geographical approaches that can be applied to the economy all around us. In Section 1.2, we will examine some of the controversies that have swirled around the growth of bottled water, including questions of environmental impact and economic fairness. These questions allow us to see that economic processes are also contentious and political processes. Our goal in the rest of the chapter will then be to demonstrate how a geographical approach can provide a systematic and illuminating perspective on these issues of contention. This geographical approach is developed through four questions about space:

• How are economic activities distributed unevenly across space and how do we explain the unevenness of economic life (Section 1.3)?
• How do the unique features of specific places shape the form and development of economic activities (Section 1.4)?
• How are economic activities across space connected together so that what happens in one place profoundly affects what happens in another (Section 1.5)?
• How does power over space, especially in the form of territory controlled by governments (‘the state’), influence economic lives and landscapes (Section 1.6)?

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CASE STUDY

Box 1.1 The corporate world of bottled water

There are four major corporate producers of bottled water who dominate many markets around the world:

• The British–Swiss food and drink giant Nestlé produces bottled water in 34 countries and owns brands such as Perrier (France), San Pellegrino (Italy), Poland Spring (USA), Arrowhead (USA), Buxton (UK), and Nestlé Pure Life. In 2016, Nestlé sales of bottled water amounted to about US$8.8 billion, representing around 11 per cent of global bottled water sales.
• The French food producer Danone owns brands such as Evian, Volvic, and Danone Aqua. Danone's water business recorded around US$5 billion in global sales in 2016 – the second largest by volume after Nestlé. The company's largest markets in 2016 were China, Indonesia, and France.
• The Coca‐Cola company, based in Atlanta, Georgia (United States), owns brands such as Dasani, Glaceau Smart Water, and Glaceau Vitamin Water. In addition, since 2002, Coca‐Cola has been the distributor of Danone's brands within North America. In 2016, Dasani was the single largest brand of bottled water in the United States. Mount Franklin, also owned by Coca‐Cola, is the single largest brand in Australia.
• PepsiCo, headquartered in Harrison, New York, owns many food and beverage businesses, but its largest revenue source is its North American beverage division, which includes brands such as Aquafina. Aquafina had sales of over US$1 billion in the United States in 2016 and is produced in 40 bottling locations across the country. Like the other major water bottlers, Aquafina has moved extensively into marketing flavoured, sweetened, and carbonated versions of its basic products.

While these firms are the dominant players in the global bottled water business, their significance varies across different markets. In India, for example, Bisleri,...