ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part assesses critically what the 'cultural turn' has meant for political economic analyses. It argues that changes in the global economy and the ways in which academics study it have become intimately linked through the discipline and practice of Economics. The part examines the formation and meanings of transnational trading blocs such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Association. It also argues that these are at once 'political', 'economic' and 'cultural' processes from which member states have gained certain forms of legitimacy and are, in a sense, created. The part provides sustained arguments from quite different perspectives, and combines themes from the 'new economic geography' in distinct, overlapping and often contradictory ways. It considers a sense of the wide variety of methodological, theoretical and political approaches which are part of the mix in this important area of human geographical enquiry.
