Book dossier

Canada and the global economy

by John N. H. Britton

A collection of essays by twenty-three of Canada's leading economic geographers, Canada and the Global Economy is a comprehensive study of the evolving economic and geographic patterns of Canadian development. It provides a benchmark for research on the spatial development of the Canadian economy. The contributors explore four central themes: the locational impacts of the openness of the Canadian economy, Canada's relatively simple economic geography in terms of regional variations in resources and urban development, the problems of keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, and the role of government in maintaining a national market and assisting economic development. They outline the essential elements of Canada's contemporary economic geography and highlight the origins and spatial imprint of change in the Canadian economy; in particular they provide an assessment of Canada's participation in significant international patterns of economic change. Canada and the Global Economy is concerned not only with the economic size and location of consumption and production but also with institutional changes and shifts in employment, the sectoral composition of economic activity, and the organizational structure and locational behaviour of particular industries and firms. Special attention is given to the technological development of both established industries and new service and manufacturing activities. A timely addition to the field, it provides a geographic perspective on significant changes in jobs and types of work that result from the transformation of economic activities.