ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to summarize recent research that attempts to construct a descriptive model of the geography of those multi-sectoral production, transportation and trading patterns that develop as a result of private entrepreneurial behaviour in a capitalist society. I shall attempt to introduce two bodies of literature. The first constructs an analytical Marxian model describing production and social relations in capitalist society; a constructive alternative to neo-classical models (Section 5.2). This draws on original research, notably by English and Italian economists (Joan Robinson, Ian Steedman, Luigi Pasinetti, Piero Garegnani, Luigi Spaventa and Piero Sraffa), developing multi-sectoral production models which avoid the logical contradictions of neoclassical analysis. This foundation was subsequently broadened into a Marxian framework by Morishima, Nuti, Roemer, Abraham-Frois and Berrebi. The second body of literature attempts to develop a unified approach to the geography of spatial configurations as the result of spatial interaction patterns. This is based on potential theory in all its various forms as developed in physics, differential geometry, and probability theory (Section 5.3).
