Clusters have become a key focus of urban and regional policy in advanced economies as regional specialisation in particular industries has come to be regarded as advantageous in the context of debates about globalization and the knowledge economy. In particular, spatial proximity between associated firms and organisations facilities is claimed to stimulate processes of innovation and learning. Consequently, governments have promoted dynamic clusters as a means of generating competitive advantage in particular cities and regions. In this collection, these claims are critically assessed by drawing upon the work of leading specialists from Western Europe and North America. Going beyond the celebrated 'hot-spots' of economic development, the book draws upon evidence from a broader range of cities and regions to help fill some important gaps in our knowledge of how clusters operate within the contemporary global economy. Cluster dynamics are situated in time and space; interrogating both how firms, organisations and actors within clusters adapt to changes over time, and how clusters are embedded within broader spatial divisions of labour at regional, national and international scales. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

In the context of great economic turmoil and uncertainty, the emergent conflict between continued globalisation and growing economic nationalism means that a geographical economic perspective has never been so important. An Introduction to Economic Geography guides students through the key debates of this vibrant area, exploring the range of ideas and approaches that invigorate the wider discipline. This third edition includes new chapters on finance, cities and the digital economy, consumption and the environment. Underpinned by the themes of globalisation, uneven development and place, the text conveys the diversity of contemporary economic geography and explores the social and spatial effects of global economic restructuring. It combines a critical geographical perspective on the changing economic landscape with an appreciation of contemporary themes such as neoliberalism, financialisation, innovation and the growth of new technologies. An Introduction to Economic Geography is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in Economic Geography, Globalisation Studies and more broadly in Human Geography. It will also be of much interest to those in Planning, Business and Management Studies and Economics.

In this collection, innovative and eminent social and policy analysts, including Colin Crouch, Anna Coote, Grahame Thompson and Ted Benton, challenge the failing but still dominant ideology and policies of neo-liberalism. The editors synthesise contributors' ideas into a revised framework for social democracy; rooted in feminism, environmentalism, democratic equality and market accountability to civil society. This constructive and stimulating collection will be invaluable for those teaching, studying and campaigning for transformative political, economic and social policies.

In the context of great economic turmoil and uncertainty, the emergent conflict between continued globalisation and growing economic nationalism means that a geographical economic perspective has never been so important. An Introduction to Economic Geography guides students through the key debates of this vibrant area, exploring the range of ideas and approaches that invigorate the wider discipline. This third edition includes new chapters on finance, cities and the digital economy, consumption and the environment. Underpinned by the themes of globalisation, uneven development and place, the text conveys the diversity of contemporary economic geography and explores the social and spatial effects of global economic restructuring. It combines a critical geographical perspective on the changing economic landscape with an appreciation of contemporary themes such as neoliberalism, financialisation, innovation and the growth of new technologies. An Introduction to Economic Geography is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in Economic Geography, Globalisation Studies and more broadly in Human Geography. It will also be of much interest to those in Planning, Business and Management Studies and Economics.

*** Winner of the Myrdal Prize for Evolutionary Political Economy *** The last few years have seen the spectacular failure of market fundamentalism in Europe and the US, with a seemingly never-ending spate of corporate scandals and financial crises. As the environmental limits and socially destructive tendencies of the current profit-driven economic model become daily more self-evident, there is a growing demand for a fairer economic alternative, as evidenced by the mounting campaigns against global finance and the politics of austerity. Reclaiming Public Ownership tackles these issues head on, going beyond traditional leftist arguments about the relative merits of free markets and central planning to present a radical new conception of public ownership, framed around economic democracy and public participation in economic decision-making. Cumbers argues that a reconstituted public ownership is central to the creation of a more just and sustainable society. This book is a timely reconsideration of a long-standing but essential topic.

This book provides a critical investigation of what has been termed the 'global justice movement'. Through a detailed study of a grassroots peasants' network in Asia (People's Global Action), an international trade union network (the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers) and the Social Forum process, it analyses some of the global justice movement's component parts, operational networks and their respective dynamics, strategies and practices. The authors argue that the emergence of new globally-connected forms of collective action against neoliberal globalisation are indicative of a range of place-specific forms of political agency that coalesce across geographic space at particular times, in specific places, and in a variety of ways. Rather than being indicative of a coherent 'movement', the authors argue that such forms of political agency contain many political and geographical fissures and fault-lines, and are best conceived of as 'global justice networks': overlapping, interacting, competing, and differentially-placed and resourced networks that articulate demands for social, economic and environmental justice. Such networks, and the social movements that comprise them, characterise emergent forms of trans-national political agency. The authors argue that the role of key geographical concepts of space, place and scale are crucial to an understanding of the operational dynamics of such networks. Such an analysis challenges key current assumptions in the literature about the emergence of a global civil society. -- .