Stability and instability: the uncertainty of economic geography

This paper questions whether the 'new economic geography's 'specification of change in industrial economies is accurate, or whether it is overly driven by a search for processes of change within a capitalist system characterised by crisis and instability. We suggest that some of the processes that might engender stability are recognised but under-valued within a perspective dominated by a political economy approach. This contention is explored at the three levels of inter-personal and intra-organisational relations, structures of business enterprise, and inter-organisational collaboration and co-ordination, including regulation theory. We suggest, in conclusion that stability and certainty should be seen to represent more than the absence of crisis. A geography of economic stability may be long overdue.