ABSTRACT
Economic spaces are an expression of economic institutions in society as well as spatial processes and forms of economic practices. Economic spaces are analyzed in terms of the relationships and networks created among different economic agents, such as nation states, firms, institutions, organizations, local authorities, trade unions, and consumers. New spatial processes and forms of economic practices have evolved in the global society during the last two decades with the development of a knowledge-based economy in relation to the techno–economic paradigm shift. Economic spaces cannot be organized by only a single criterion of economic rationality. The processes of shaping economic spaces have become diverse over time and in regions. The changes in economic spaces have been well recognized during the last quarter of a century at various spatial scales through the emergence of the following: “new industrial spaces” (Scott, 1988) or “sticky places in a slippery space” (Markusen, 1996), shift of the economic gravity center (Park, 1997), development of spatial innovation systems (Oinas and Malecki, 1999), diverse clusters (e.g. temporary and virtual clusters) (Park, 2005; Torre, 2008; Bathelt and Glückler, 2011), and the global financial market (Clark and Wójcik, 2007). These changes are closely related to techno–economic paradigm shifts that have distinctive characteristics in production, business, and innovation systems. Spatial dynamics have been reinforced with the development of information and communication technology (ICT) and a knowledge-based economy in the twenty-first century. In the next twenty years, climate change and the progress of an aging society will surely affect the reshaping of economic spaces in the global society. This condition suggests that new theoretical frameworks for understanding new economic spaces are necessary.
