Economic geography
One is Marxist political economy, stemming from the contributions of scholars like David Harvey, which offers a critical perspective on spatial economics.
[3] Early approaches to economic geography are found in the seven Chinese maps of the State of Qin, which date to the 4th century BC and in the Greek geographer Strabo's Geographika, compiled almost 2000 years ago.
As cartography developed, geographers illuminated many aspects used today in the field; maps created by different European powers described the resources likely to be found in American, African, and Asian territories.
The earliest travel journals included descriptions of the native people, the climate, the landscape, and the productivity of various locations.
[citation needed] Fred K. Schaefer's article "Exceptionalism in geography: A Methodological Examination", published in the American journal Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and his critique of regionalism, made a large impact on the field: the article became a rallying point for the younger generation of economic geographers who were intent on reinventing the discipline as a science, and quantitative methods began to prevail in research.
Contemporary economic geographers tend to specialize in areas such as location theory and spatial analysis (with the help of geographic information systems), market research, geography of transportation, real estate price evaluation, regional and global development, planning, Internet geography, innovation, social networks.
Spatiotemporal systems of analysis include economic activities of region, mixed social spaces, and development.
The New Economy, generally characterized by globalization, increasing use of information and communications technology, the growth of knowledge goods, and feminization, has enabled economic geographers to study social and spatial divisions caused by the rising New Economy, including the emerging digital divide.
The new economic geographies consist of primarily service-based sectors of the economy that use innovative technology, such as industries where people rely on computers and the internet.
Both New Economic Geographies acknowledge transport costs, the importance of knowledge in a new economy, possible effects of externalities, and endogenous processes that generate increases in productivity.
Further work done by Bjorn Asheim (2001) and Gernot Grabher (2002) challenges the idea of the firm through action-research approaches and mapping organizational forms and their linkages.
Spatial divisions within these arising New Economic geographies are apparent in the form of the digital divide, as a result of regions attracting talented workers instead of developing skills at a local level (see Creative Class for further reading).
Employment segregation is evidence by the overrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in lower-paid service sector jobs.
Sahara Desert needed some trade routes that were strictly depended on the oases while Himalayas separated some places like Tibet.
For instance, the Mediterranean environment creates employment in the Southern Europe through the promotion of the sale of olive oil and wines.
Colonial powers during the period of exploration were able to take advantages of the geographical opportunities, while the initial farm based communities were found to be developed in the Fertile Crescent.
Sea channels connected continents for the primary aim of the acquisition of resources in the Atlantic Slave trade.
