Finanzkrise in der Weltwirtschaft – Theoriekrise in der Wirtschaftsgeographie

Financial crisis in the world economy - theory crisis in economic geography? A comment on current crisis research in economic geography. Although some economic geographers have responded quickly to the recent world financial crisis, this paper identifies some major weaknesses in current theoretical thinking in economic geography. It differentiates between the understanding of the causes of a crisis and empirical research on its consequences. Deficits in the analysis of causes relate to a systemic view of the coherence of territories in the world economy, the macroperspective necessary to understand the world economy, the interconnectedness of the financial and real economy, and, finally, different dimensions of historical time as seen by Braudel and Wallerstein. Three recent theoretical concepts are discussed which seem to offer some understanding of the historical processes leading to crisis, i.e., neoschumpeterian innovation theory, evolutionary economic geography, and regulation theory. Finally, the paper offers two options for the current economic geographical analysis of the crisis which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: Either focusing on a macro-perspective of the world economy with the concept of regulation theory and/or strengthening the “traditional” competences of economic geography in a deeper analysis of the impacts of the crisis.