Workshop and Related Acctivities for Developing Research Protocols or the Study of Global Economic Change; Worcester, Massachusetts; November 2001

世界各地经济活动的巨大变化，以及研究全球经济变化的地理维度的新途径和方法，使近几十年来的经济地理学家感到兴奋。研究人员的工作取得了很大进展，他们试图采用扩大的“经济”概念，并在社会理论和科学哲学的新发展基础上再接再厉。然而，在全球经济变化的许多方面仍然存在重大问题，包括扩大对全球经济变化的标量动态的分析，特别是对经济全球化进程本身的分析；通过研究全球经济变化整合自然-社会和空间-社会研究传统；经济地理学家更多地参与政策进程以及更广泛的治理问题。该项目将通过三套相关的活动促进经济地理学家之间的交流，这些活动旨在刺激和促进未来关于全球经济变化的工作。这三组活动是：(1)讨论和制定研究全球经济变化的研究方案，这将由互联网上的“虚拟”研究社区进行；(2)专题研讨会(将于2001年11月在马萨诸塞州伍斯特的克拉克大学举行)，介绍初步研究，讨论议定书的使用，并考虑如何“建立”从个别研究到关于全球经济变化的更广泛的综合陈述；这一项目将把许多不同的经济地理学家聚集在一起，通过更协调的努力，帮助组织研究，并对新的和已有的研究人员的初步研究提供反馈，从而对先前的议程制定活动采取后续行动。除了解决理论和概念框架问题外，将参与这一活动的学者网络将通过制定研究方案，促进对与全球经济变化有关的复杂、多尺度进程以及随之而来的地理结果的多样性进行比较研究，从而解决方法和体制障碍。通过这些活动，将通过合作研究和个人研究人员进行更有意义的研究，对全球经济变化的地理层面进行更有意义的研究。

Dramatic changes in economic activity around the world and new approaches and methods for studying the geographic dimensions of global economic change have made recent decades exciting ones for economic geographers. Much progress has resulted from the work of researchers who have sought to employ an enlarged concept of the "economic" and build upon new developments in social theory and the philosophy of science. Major questions remain regarding many facets of global economic change, however, including expanded analysis of the scalar dynamics of global economic change, and especially of economic globalization processes per se; integration of nature-society and space-society research traditions through the study of global economic change; and increased engagement by economic geographers with policy processes, and more generally issues of governance. This project will facilitate communication among economic geographers through three related sets of activities designed to stimulate and facilitate future work on global economic change. The three sets of activities are (1) the discussion and development of research protocols for the study of global economic change, which will be undertaken by a "virtual" research community over the Internet; (2) a focused workshop (to be held in November 2001 at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts) to present initial research, discuss use of the protocol, and consider ways to "build up" from individual studies to broader synthesizing statements on global economic change; and (3) ongoing maintenance of a Web site as a depository and clearinghouse for linked research projects.This project will bring many different economic geographers together to follow-up on prior agenda-setting activities through more coordinated efforts that assist in the organization of research and that provide feedback on initial studies by both new and established researchers. In additional to addressing issues of theoretical and conceptual framing, the network of scholars who will engage in this activity will address methodological and institutional obstacles by developing research protocols that facilitate comparative research on the complex, multi-scalar processes associated with global economic change as well as the diversity of attendant geographical outcomes. Through these activities, more meaningful research on the geographic dimensions of global economic change will be evident through both collaborative research and through more meaningful studies by individual researchers.