09GYP005 GLOBALIZATION: KEY DEBATES AND ISSUES WITH DR JOHN HARRION - REGIONAL WORLD

Beginning 9 November 2009, Dr John Harrison will take over the globalization module on the topic REGIONAL WORLD. The objective of this section is to assess the role of regions in globalization. Against the backdrop of accounts heralding the transition to a ‘borderless’ world made up of transnational flows of knowledge and capital, a body of literature known as ‘the new regionalism’ appropriates how in globalization regions have become more, not less, important in a global era. This section will look at the distinction between ‘new regional spaces’ and ‘new spaces of regionalism’. This will be done through reading-centred seminars.

As well as specific readings for each session, there is one key reading for the block which is:

· Jones, M and MacLeod, G (2004) ‘Regional spaces, spaces of regionalism: territory, insurgent politics, and the English question’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 29, 433–452.

Session One: New regional spaces

This session will focus on the importance of regional economies in the global era. The readings to be discussed in the session are:

· Storper, M (1997) The Regional World – Territorial Development in a Global Economy. Guildford: New York [Chapter 1 – The resurgence of regional economies, 10 years later (pp. 3-25)]

· Jones, M and MacLeod, G (2007) ‘Territorial, scalar, networked, connected: ‘In what sense a ‘regional world’?’ Regional Studies, 41, 1177-91.

Session Two: New spaces of regionalism

This session will focus on the notion of ‘region building’ in the global era. The reading to be discussed in the session is:

· Paasi, A (2001) 'Europe as a social process and discourse - Considerations of place, boundaries and identity.' European Urban and Regional Studies, 8, 7-28.

Dr John Harrison has done put together some questions which should help us to focus on what we need to take away from the readings. Try to answer the questions as best we can (some are easier than others and he has tried to put page numbers so we can see where in the article the answer lies). We will be using these papers, and in particular the questions/answers to guide discussion/debate in the seminar next week, so it is important that have read them and attempted to answer the questions.