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Global Shift
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Global Shift
Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy

Sixth Edition
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632 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This sixth edition of Global Shift has been completely revised and updated using the latest available sources. Each chapter has been extensively rewritten, and new chapters introduced, to take account of recent empirical developments, new ideas on production, distribution, and consumption in the global economy and the implications of the global financial crisis.

The now standard work on economic globalization provides:

• the most comprehensive and up-to-date explanation of economic globalization available, examining the role of transnational corporations, states, labour, consumers, and organisations in civil society and the unequal power relations between them

• a clear guide to how the global economy is being transformed through the  operation of global production networks involving transnational corporations, states and interest groups and technology

• detailed  discussion of different theories of economic globalization in the larger context of a world of winners and losers and the creation/destruction of value in different places

• a new chapter on the environmental impacts of globalizing processes

• extended discussion of problems and institutions of global governance in the context of the global economic crisis and of the role of corporate social responsibility

• broadened sectoral case studies including a new case study on resource-extractive industries, and an extended chapter on financial and advanced business services

The extensive use of graphics, lack of jargon and clear definition of terms, makes Global Shift the key resource on economic globalization in the social science literature.

 
Introduction: Questioning Globalization
What in the World Is Going on?

 
Conflicting Perspectives on 'Globalization'

 
Grounding 'Globalization': Geography Really Does Matter

 
 
PART ONE: THE SHIFTING CONTOURS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
 
Global Shift: Changing Geographies of the Global Economy
What's New? The Imprint of Past Geographies

 
Roller-Coasters and Interconnections

 
The Changing Contours of the Global Economic Map: Global Shifts in Production, Trade and FDI

 
The Dynamic Global Economic Map

 
 
PART TWO: PROCESSES OF GLOBAL SHIFT
 
Tangled Webs: Unravelling Complexity in the Global Economy
An Analytical Point of Entry

 
Institutional Macrostructures of the Global Economy

 
Global Production Networks

 
Even in a Globalizing World, Economic Activities Are Geographically Localized

 
Networks of Networks

 
 
Technological Change: 'Gales of Creative Destruction'
Technology and Economic Transformation

 
Processes of Technological Change: An Evolutionary Perspective

 
Time-Space Shrinking Technologies

 
Technological Innovations in Products and Processes

 
Geographies of Innovation

 
 
Transnational Corporations: The Primary 'Movers and Shapers' of the Global Economy
Why Firms Transnationalize

 
How Firms Transnationalize

 
TNCs as 'Networks within Networks'

 
Configuring the TNCs' Internal Networks

 
TNCs within Networks of Externalized Relationships

 
Perpetual Change: Reshaping TNCs' Internal and External Networks

 
The Myth of the 'Global' Corporation

 
 
The State Really Does Matter
'The State Is Dead' - Oh No It Isn't!

 
States as Containers

 
States as Regulators

 
States as Competitors

 
States as Collaborators

 
 
The Uneasy Relationship between TNCs and States: Dynamics of Conflict and Collaboration
The Ties That Bind

 
Bargaining Processes between TNCs and States

 
 
PART THREE: THE PICTURE IN DIFFERENT ECONOMIC SECTORS
 
'Making Holes in the Ground': The Extractive Industries
Beginning at the Beginning

 
Production Circuits in the Extractive Industries

 
Global Shifts in the Extractive Industries

 
Volatile Demand

 
Technologies of Exploring, Extracting, Refining, Distributing

 
The Centrality of State Involvement in the Extractive Industries

 
Corporate Strategies in the Extractive Industries

 
Resources, Reserves and Futures

 
 
'We Are What We Eat': The Agro-Food Industries
Transformation of the Food Economy: The 'Local' Becomes 'Global'

 
Agro-Food Production Circuits

 
Global Shifts in the Agro-Food Industries

 
Consumer Choices - and Consumer Resistances

 
Transforming Technologies in Agro-Food Production

 
The Role of the State

 
Corporate Strategies in the Agro-Food Industries

 
 
'Fabric-ating Fashion': The Clothing Industries
Changing Rules

 
The Clothing Production Circuit

 
Global Shifts in the Clothing Industries

 
Changing Patterns of Consumption

 
Production Costs and Technology

 
The Role of the State and the Multi-Fibre Arrangement

 
Corporate Strategies in the Clothing Industries

 
Regionalizing Production Networks in the Clothing Industries

 
 
'Wheels of Change': The Automobile Industry
All Change?

 
The Automobile Production Circuit

 
Global Shifts in Automobile Production and Trade

 
Changing Patterns of Consumption

 
Technological Change in the Automobile Industry

 
The Role of the State

 
Corporate Strategies in the Automobile Industry

 
Regionalizing Production Networks in the Automobile Industry

 
 
'Making the World Go Round': Advanced Business Services - Especially Finance
The Centrality of Advanced Business Services

 
The Structure of Advanced Business Services

 
Dynamics of the Markets for Advanced Business Services

 
Technological Innovation and Advanced Business Services

 
The Role of the State: Regulation, De-Regulation, Re-Regulation

 
Corporate Strategies in Advanced Business Services

 
Geographies of Advanced Business Services

 
 
'Making the Connections, Moving the Goods': Logistics and Distribution Services
Taking Distribution for Granted

 
The Structure of Logistics and Distribution Services

 
The Dynamics of the Market for Logistics Services

 
Technological Innovation and Logistics and Distribution Services

 
The Role of the State: Regulation and Deregulation of Logistics and Distribution Services

 
Corporate Strategies in Logistics and Distribution Services

 
Logistics 'Places': Key Geographical Nodes on the Global Logistics Map

 
 
PART FOUR: WINNING AND LOSING IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
 
'Capturing Value' within Global Production Networks
Placing Places in GPNs

 
Creating, Enhancing and Capturing Value in GPNs

 
Upgrading (or Downgrading) of Local Economies within GPNs

 
 
'Destroying Value': Environmental Impacts of Global Production Networks
Production-Distribution-Consumption as a System of Materials Flows and Balances

 
Disturbing the Delicate Balance of Life on Earth: Damaging the Earth's Atmosphere

 
Fouling the Nest: Creating and Disposing of Waste

 
 
Winning and Losing: Where You Live Really Matters
Location Matters

 
Incomes and Poverty

 
Where Will the Jobs Come From?

 
Populations on the Move

 
 
Making the World a Better Place
Global Shifts: Pasts and Futures

 
'The Best of All Possible Worlds'?

 
TNCs and Corporate Social Responsibility

 
States and Issues of Global Governance

 
A Better World

 

Supplements

Companion Website

The website for the sixth edition has been expanded to offer tailored resources for lecturers and students in geography, international business, sociology and politics. Online readings from SAGE Journals have been provided for each discipline, in addition to the resources designed for all of Global Shift’s readers.

Many thanks to Henry Yeung, Paul James, Fiona Moore and Matthew Caygill for their contributions here.

A magnificent achievement. Since the publication of the first edition of Global Shift in 1986, Peter Dicken has constructed in successive editions a phenomenal record of the changing geography of capital accumulation on a world scale. This wholly new sixth edition of 2010, is an essential companion for anyone concerned to understand the rapid geographical shifts occurring in the world's economic power relations in these stressful and troubled times
David Harvey
Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, New York


A masterful new edition of a masterful text. Once again, Peter Dicken is at the cutting edge of the analysis of economic globalization and global trends. Global Shift is the authoritative text on these issues
David Held
Co-Director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE


Global Shift, sixth edition, continues to deconstruct globalization to show that distance (economic geography) still matters. Dicken uses insights from international business research to demonstrate that world business activity is more regional than global. Multinational enterprises are at the hub of global production networks and service delivery; they interact with governments and generally act as agents of economic development. In short economic geography and international business are closely aligned in their approach to globalization
Alan Rugman
Henley Business School, University of Reading


I am impressed by how this book continues to evolve. It has opened out to new sectors and new themes, including extractive industries and the environmental implications of a globalized economy. Global Shift is a tremendous resource; it covers a vast empirical range but is always closely attentive to the underlying processes, impacts, and meanings of globalization. Dicken's approach beautifully integrates the economic and the political with problems of equity and ethics - a rare accomplishment. Ideal for undergraduate classes across the social sciences
Erica Schoenberger
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University


The premier text for middle and upper-level courses in economic geography and globalization. The sixth edition provides detailed treatment of the current global financial crisis and a thorough assessment of globalization’s winners and losers. It contains entirely new chapters on mineral extractive industries and on the environmental implications of global production networks. Global Shift continues to be a 'must read' for all students of the global economy
Robin Leichenko
Department of Geography, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey


I am among the privileged to read and use Dicken's Global Shift as a reference text for my writings and as an elective text in my Urban Geography courses since its 1986 first edition...Global Shift's sixth edition is a vital text comprehensively reviewing how global economy functions and how enjoyable or unpleasant are its impacts on people and places. In the sixth edition Dicken offers an updated critical analysis of globalization followed by the continuing theoretical, in some respect political, on the debate on its nature, impact and durability.

Baruch A. Kipnis
The University of Haifa, Geography Research Forum Journal

Good topic on globalization. Updated data as well. But it is better to include more cases for student to master. And it is better to offer more teaching materials.

Dr Jia Li
School of Business & Economics, Swansea University
April 22, 2015

Excellent concise, clear and yet theoretically rich textbook.

Ms Anna Hawkins
Urban Studies , Sheffield Hallam University
February 12, 2015

This book covers an economic dimension of globalisation comprehensively. Excellent text.

Dr Jung Woo Lee
Institute for Sport, Physical Education & Health Sciences, College Of Medicine & Vet Medicine
February 6, 2015

The Global Shift is still the benchmark for many courses on international business. The industry cases never fail to appeal to the imagination of our students.

Dr Robert Goedegebuure
econometrics, statmind
December 8, 2014

Great Book, perfect for this class that combines economics and business.

I would love to use it even more by getting access to the companion website.

Dr Julia Püschel
Business and Economics, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin
November 26, 2014

A very comprehensive book covering most of the key themes of the Strategy course.

I have also adopted this book as essential reading for the BMAN10770 Digital Innovation in International Buisness. course which will begin in January 2015

I particularly value the chapters on technological change and the State. From a student perspecctive the book is very well laid out and the use of graphics provide an added dimension along with the companion website to the teaching experience.

Also the examples provided such as the Automobile Industry are very welcome and useful.

Dr Paul Evans
Manchester Business School, Univ. of Manchester
September 21, 2014

A fantastic book that really allows the student to understand both the concepts and issues based around Globalisation.

Mr Andrew Alton
Business Administration , Weston College
September 3, 2014

Good book, but the slides for teaching use are a bit too simple.

Dr Jessie Ren
Faculty of Sport Business & Enterprise, Southampton Solent University
August 21, 2014

Peter Dicken

Peter Dicken is recognized as a leading world authority on economic globalization. He is Emeritus Professor of Geography in the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester, UK, and has held visiting academic appointments at universities and research institutes throughout the world. He is an Academician of the Social Sciences, a recipient of the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), the Centenary Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Uppsala, Sweden. More About Author