The world-systems analysis and new trends in political geography

Since the late 1970s there has been a rapid growth in the study of political geography in the English-speaking countries. This growth seems to be in response to rising concern with political and social problems in the social sciences and increasing emphasis on studies from a political-economic perspective. There is much evidence of research efforts for the methodological and theoretical unification of political geography, and also a shift in the focus of research in the 1980s to the role of the state and topics of global scale. The author reviews this research trend, focusing on the works of Taylor, who introduced world-systems analysis to human geography, especially to political geography. Using world-systems analysis political geography has provided the capability of resolving problems traditionally regarded at three geographical scales (global, national, and local); the unification of traditional and new political geography in time-space dimensions; and the integrating of electoral geography into political geography. Further, it has extended the research area to Third World countries in the world-economy. The author thinks studies from the world-systems perspective in geography should contribute to the world-systems analysis by emphasising a spatial perspective. -from English summary