Over the last few decades, circuits of capital have been stretched through processes of economic globalization, leading to complex and hybrid outcomes that result in different modes of production and consumption. Understanding these new economic configurations and their geographic patterns requires incorporating new theoretical arguments based on, for example, chain and network concepts. This edited volume brings together theoretically-informed analysis from Asia, Europe and North America to illustrate the way in which new economic configurations have been developed and to understand individual, local and regional responses to a variety of global challenges, threats and opportunities. The different examples presented illustrate that economic structures and flows have changed dramatically over the past decades with profound impacts for the economic and regional actors involved.

Contents: Researching new economic configurations: theory and context, Christine Tamásy and Mike Taylor; Impeding industrial development? Regional trade arrangements as response to quota abolition in the textile and garment industry, Hege Merete Knutsen; Crossing juridical borders: relational governance in international package tourism from Germany to Jordan, Sabine Dörry; Global distribution and cluster development: Hollywood and the German connection, Ivo Mossig; Foreign direct investments in development strategies: Norwegian FDI and the tendency for agglomeration, Arnt Fløysand and Håvard Haarstad; Multinational investment in UK regions, Dimitra Dimitropoulou, Simon Burke and Philip McCann; Globalising commercial property markets: the development and evolution of the listed property trust sector in New Zealand, Laurence Murphy; The new international division of labour and the changing role of the periphery: the case of the Polish automotive industry, Boleslaw Domanski, Robert Guzik and Krzysztof Gwosdz; Toyotaism travels to Poland: a case study of a hybrid factory, Tomasz Majek and Roger Hayter; Spatial division of competencies and local upgrading in the automotive industry: conceptual considerations and empirical findings from Poland, Johannes Winter; Analysis of the automobile cluster in a multi-dimensional spatial framework: the case of Ulsan, Jeong Hyop Lee; The identification of potential cluster areas using local indexes of spatial autocorrelation, Michael C. Carroll, Bruce W. Smith and Joseph P. Frizado; The role of an antecedent cluster, academic R&D and entrepreneurship in the development of Toledo's solar energy cluster, Frank J. Calzonetti; The restructuring of metal manufacturing in the West Midlands region of the UK: an emerging new geography, Michael Taylor and John Bryson; Labour market intermediation, James W. Harrington and Nicholas Velluzzi; Globalisation, skilled migration and the mobility of knowledge, Christine Tamásy; Rural development and social embeddedness: banks and businesses in Thuringia, Germany, Sabine Panzer; A spatial investigation of the Governor's opportunity fund in Virginia, John R. Lombard; A new alternative to air travel in Malaysia: low-cost carriers and their impacts on mobility and full-service airline, Abd Rahim Md Nor and Nor Ghani Md Nor; Globalisation and local flavour in business organisations: the case of Norwegian elite football clubs, Stig-Erik Jakobsen, Arnt Fløysand and Hallgeir Gammelsæter; Commodity chains, natural disasters, and transportation infrastructure: from Kobe to Katrina, Julie Cidell; Reconsidering commodities in international trade and economic growth: the case of New Zealand, David Hayward; Influencing global economic participation? 'After-neoliberal' policy practices and discursive alignments in Auckland's regional governance, Steffen Wetzstein; Auckland's metro project: a metropolitan governance strategy for regional economic development?, Richard Le Heron and Philip McDermott; Christmas in a box: unravelling the Christmas catalogue commodity chain, Juliana Mansvelt and Caroline Miller; Index.

About the Editor: Dr Christine Tamásy is Heisenberg Research Fellow at the School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand and Mike Taylor is a Professor of Human Geography in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK

Reviews: 'This comprehensive, multi-disciplinary edited collection provides globally diverse, closely integrated, and theoretically informed empirical analyses of economic globalisation. The contributions illustrate a dynamic, restless, ever adapting phenomenon and the ways in which economic geographers and others are identifying different paradigms and new ways of understanding a complex process.'
Peter Daniels, University of Birmingham, UK

'This book provides fresh, new insights into processes of globalisation. It draws together an exciting range of theoretical perspectives and case studies that reinterpret the ways in which globalising forces are reshaping economies and societies, focussing not just on the global core of Europe and North America, but also those areas hitherto given more limited attention. It is a must read for those interested in contemporary processes of economic change.'
Matthew Tonts, University of Western Australia, Australia

'…a useful compendium of cases for students and academics interested in evidence for the diverse economies that have taken shape in the globalizing world.'
Economic Geography Research Group website

'…Globalising Worlds is valuable in providing regional and sectoral case studies from around the world, along with methodological highlights such as that afforded by Carroll et al. It is well edited, purposively written and presented with uniformly-succinct chapters. The style is empirical and to-the-point, such that planners can move quickly to glean - and share - the insights which are contained in the various case studies.'
Australian Planner

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Full contents list

Chapter 1 - Researching New Economic Configuration: Theory and Context

Index