The Limits to Globalization Theory: A Geographic Perspective on Global Economic Change
Author(s)
Yeung, Henry Wai-Chung
Abstract
Rather than formulate a definitive framework on geography and globalization, the article seeks to open up a debate among geographers (and other social scientists) who are interested in studies of global economic change. It contributes to the current efforts in critical geography to move beyond “first-wave” analyses of globalization as a geographic phenomenon. Cognizant of the enormous amount of globalization studies, I did not intend this article to be a literature review or even a critical assessment of the globalization literature that is extremely diverse and, perhaps, chaotic. Instead, my aim is to develop a geographic perspective on globalization. I argue that globalization is an inherently geographic phenomenon, and therefore its alleged causality and outcomes may be better understood and accurately assessed from this perspective. Here, globalization processes are conceived as spatial tendencies that are contingent on, and accounted for by, certain stringent and necessary requirements, some of which are geographic, while others are political, economic, and/or technological.
