Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Advance Access first published online on August 6, 2008
This version published online on August 12, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn017
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This article appears in the following Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society issue: The World is Not Flat [View the issue table of contents]
Globalization, uneven development and capital: reflections on reading Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat
Department of Geography, Ohio State University, 1106 Derby Hall, 154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. cox.13{at}osu.edu
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In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman postulates notions of flatness that combine to suggest, on the one hand, tendencies towards an equalization of chances of economic development; and on the other, a displacement of vertical forms of organization by more horizontal ones, notably of states by markets. Drawing on historical geographical materialism, it is shown that geographically uneven development is a necessary outcome of the accumulation process; and equally, states are inevitably implicated in this outcome.
Keywords: geographically uneven development, accumulation, the state, capitalism, historical geographical materialism
Received on October 8, 2007. Accepted on June 10, 2008.
JEL codes:: O18, O19, P10, P26