Cultural Political Economy and Spatial Dynamics

The field of cultural political economy integrates the study of discursive formations, institutional structures and material processes to illuminate how economic activity is both meaningfully constructed and spatially organised. It examines the narratives, norms and imaginaries that shape policy frameworks, investment patterns and everyday practices, and how these in turn produce and are conditioned by geographical configurations ranging from neighbourhoods to global networks. Central to this approach is the co-constitution of power and place, revealing how governance regimes, regulatory architectures and cultural narratives give rise to uneven development, socio-spatial differentiation and contested urban and rural landscapes. By emphasising the dynamics of scale—from transnational circuits to local sites of resistance—it foregrounds the performativity of economic imaginaries, the territorial reach of state apparatuses and the mobility of capital. This perspective has become indispensable for understanding challenges such as climate adaptation, regional inequality and infrastructure planning. By bridging theoretical rigour with empirical insight, cultural political economy enriched by spatial dynamics offers practical pathways towards more inclusive and sustainable models of economic governance.

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Cultural Political Economy and Spatial Dynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in cultural political economy and spatial dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Cultural political economy: An interdisciplinary approach examining how cultural narratives, institutional rules and material practices co-constitute economic processes and spatial formations.

Economic imaginary: A collectively held vision or narrative that shapes perceptions of value, guides policy choices and influences economic behaviour across spaces.

Socio-spatial structure: The patterned interrelation between social processes and spatial configurations, encompassing the organisation of territories and social hierarchies.

Archipelagic spatial figure: A metaphor for spatial organisation characterised by a network of distinct yet interconnected zones of production, exchange and governance.

Spatial dynamics: The processes through which spaces are produced, negotiated and transformed by social, political and economic forces.

References

1. Climate change imaginaries: Representing and contesting sea level rise in Fairbourne, North Wales. Political Geography (2023).
2. The rise of the owners and the neo-accumulationist imaginary: Changing perceptions of private wealth in Finnish business media, 1981–2021. Economy and Society (2024).
3. The global division of labour as enduring archipelago: thinking through the spatiality of ‘globalisation in reverse’. Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society (2022).