The Dictionary of Human Geography

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(Stiglitz, 2002, pp. 89–132). Third, the rise of

neo-conservatives to power in Washington

since 2000 has generated new contradictions,

since many supporters of neo-conservatism

claim in principle to favour free trade while

openly calling for hightariffbarriers and

other forms of protection for national indus-

tries threatened by foreign competition

(Harvey, 2005, pp. 81–6).

The purported hegemony of US-led global

neo-liberalism – the neo-liberal grand slam as

one commentator put it – came crashing to a

halt in late 2008 with the failure of a number of

major US investment banks, the bankruptcy of

a number of insurance houses, the discrediting

of the credit rating agencies and the Security

and Exchange Commission (purportedly or-

ganizations designed to regulate financial insti-

tutions) and a $700 billion bailout by the

outgoing Bush administration. While triggered

by a US housing bubble and a crisis in the

mortgage industry, the crisis quickly became

global in scope. It remains unclear whether

massive infusions from central banks will un-

freeze the credit sector, and most commenta-

tors expect the world economy to enter into a

deep recession comparable perhaps to that of

the 1930s. The high tide of neo-liberalism has

passed, and many of the G8 countries now

openly talk of the need for Keynesianism and

more government regulation. jgl

Suggested reading

Cypher and Dietz (1997); Dume ́nil and Le ́vy

(2004); Friedman (2002 [1962]); Harvey

(2003b, 2005); Hayek (1981); Peck and Tickell

(2002); Ricardo (1992); Smith (1976 [1776]);

Stiglitz (2002); Toye (1987).

neo-Ricardian economics A modern school

of economics that draws upon and reworks the

ideas of the English classical economist David

Ricardo (1772–1823). The founding text is a

slim monograph by an Italian economist at

Cambridge University, Piero Sraffa (1898–

1983),The production of commodities by means

of commodities(1960). Sraffa’s model of the

economy consists of two components:

(1) Production is conceived as circular and

interdependent where the output in one

production period is used as an input for

the next production period.

(2) When outputs exceed inputs, a ‘‘sur-

plus’’ exists that forms the basis of the

social conditions of income distribution.

Sraffa subtitled his bookPrelude to a critique

of economic theory. Although he did not engage

in the critique himself, his model has provided

the basis for subsequent criticisms of both

neo-classical economicsandmarxist eco-

nomics. These were first taken up in the ‘cap-

ital controversy’, where the neo-classical

theory of profit (profit is the marginal product

of capital) was shown to be logically unten-

able, and later in the ‘value controversy’,

where the Marxistlabour theory of value

was shown to be redundant in calculating

prices. A number of economic geographers

have elaborated Sraffa’s work since Scott’s

(1976b) pioneering paper linking Su ̈raffa’s

model of production withvon thu ̈nen’s the-

ory of agriculturalrent. But the formal, min-

imalist style of Neo-Ricardianism is out of

synch with the more expansive, empirically

grounded, and less formaleconomic geog-

raphyof today, and connections have been

few, and even more rarely taken further. tb

Suggested reading

Sheppard and Barnes (1990).

network society A term coined by Manuel

Castells (1996b, 1997, 1998) in an influential

trilogy of books to describe globalizing soci-

eties dominated by accelerated economic,

cultural and socialflows, mediated predom-

inantly by information technologies (see also

globalization). The trilogy explored the

growth of networked enterprises, global pro-

cesses ofsocial exclusionand the changing

nature oftimeandspace,identityandstate

formation. Its key argument was thatnetwork

societies are dominated by a separation of the

space of flows– the globalized and accelerated

domains that are orchestrated through new

information and communications technolo-

gies – fromthe space of places– geographically

confined sources of individual and collective

identity. sg

Suggested reading

Castells (1996b).

network(s) A particular kind of spatial

arrangement that consists of a collection of

linked elements which typically exhibit a de-

centred and non-hierarchical form. With the

word ever more ubiquitous in popular, busi-

ness and academic usage, it is increasingly

important to recognize that the proliferation

of the basic topologicalmetaphorof the net-

work can conceal a range of very different

analytical commitments, both explicit and

implicit. At least the following approaches

may be usefully distinguished, each with

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_N Final Proof page 498 31.3.2009 3:13pm Compositor Name: ARaju

NEO-RICARDIAN ECONOMICS