ABSTRACT
If we look at international exchange - or intercountry production and trade or the world division of labour and property - what do we have to explain? What do we want to explain? These questions are, I claim, inextricably linked. Concepts, classifications, or 'facts' are not independent of theory - indeed they follow from as well as inform the theory. A presentation is part of a particular theoretical perspective. For example, if the world is presented in map form using Mercator's projection, it appears as something quite different from a world presented through Peters's projection - as shown in Figure 1.1. The projection of Mercator (the adopted Latinized name of the sixteenth-century Flemish cartographer Gerhard Kremer) is one of the most widely used projections. It is accurate in terms of direction and is, therefore, useful for navigation but if you want it for some other purpose than sailing around the world, it may be less than useful. As a Christian Aid poster puts it: 'His [Mercator's] cartographic representation distorts the earth in favour of countries inhabited by white people' (Christian Aid, 1977).
