The New Geography of Capitalism: Firms, Finance, and Society

In The New Geography of Capitalism, Adam D. Dixon sets out to approach the fundamental question of how to conceptualize the relationship between ‘local’ and ‘global’ amongst complex processes of economic restructuring. Situated within contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship in economic geography and comparative and heterodox political economy, drivers of economic metamorphoses are investigated, the appropriate scale for analysis is thoroughly questioned, and empirical case studies are presented to establish a well-informed analytical framework to examine the evolving geography of finance. Firms and financial markets play an increasingly ubiquitous role in influencing nearly all aspects of political-economic activity and sociocultural life. Notably, firms are converging in practice and becoming interdependent, production networks are global, and financial integration intertwines the prospects of nation-states, regions and individuals with the performance of financial markets. In the wake of these changes, prior perceptions of national ‘varieties of capitalism’ and national systems of production have been rendered somewhat erroneous, and national systems of social protection are evolving. Perhaps detrimentally, the implications of convergence, interdependence and integration are not addressed authentically until economic crises ensue—including the subprime crisis of 2007–2008 and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis—and serve to catalyse debate.