SEMINAR: Mathematical Dialectics: Exploring the Spatial Dynamics of Capitalism

Abstract: In this presentation, we articulate a distinctively geographical approach to understanding the dynamics of capitalist economies, unpacking the concept from the perspective of an ontology that is grounded in socio-spatial dialectics. We conjecture that there is potential added-value from conceptualising the capitalist space economy as a structurally complex and evolving system in which spatial structures shape interdependencies which are, in turn, shaped by those interdependencies. That is, as a socially constructed socio-spatial dialectic in which space is both uneven and endogenous to the economy. We demonstrate the difference this can make to thinking about the evolution of economic landscape using the example of price dynamics in oligopolistically competitive spatial markets. We content that the interdependencies between complex structures and nonlinear dynamics increases the likelihood of persistent and endogenously generated nonequilibrium space-time trajectories that can be substantially disrupted by external “shocks”. Indeed, conceptualising the capitalist space economy as a socio-spatial dialectic may mean that search for spatial price equilibrium may be a process of creative destruction, producing its own internal contradictions and unintended consequences.