An Actor-Centered Approach to Regional Economic Change (<Special Issue> Toward a New Perspective of Economic Geography on the Methodological Reflection)

Abstract

To comprehend spatial change and counsel policies that might alter or enhance the consequences for societies, economic geographers develop and test causal theories. In much late 20th century scholarship, actors have been displaced by processes? causal roles are ascribed to such under-theorized phenomena as "learning" and "networks." I call for a renewal of emphasis on actors and decision making in economic geography. To illustrate an actor-centered approach, I focus on two types of actors: corporations as private decision-making units of capitalist societies and unions as major agents representing workers vis-a-vis their employers and governments. For each, I show how, within the evolved physical landscapes and structures of society, actor decision making and behaviors replicate and alter economic geographies, drawing upon some examples. In passing, l suggest how the new work on networks in economic geography could be strengthened by placing network actors more centrally in the analysis. I then turn to one area of recent interest? the city region? and show how an actor-centered economic geography would dramatically improve both the quality of intellectual work done in this area and its real world impact. With this example, I show the payoffs for geographers should we be willing to integrate some of the very best work from other fields and from practice into our theorizing.