Abstract databases as information sources in economic geography

Abstract

The limitations of existing information sources on mergers/acquisitions within the EU are a serious obstacle to the study of the restructuring of the European production system. The experience of using a computerized abstracting service as a source of information on mergers/acquisitions in the chemical industry is reviewed. This experience informs an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of similar databases as information sources in economic geography. The proliferation of such databases, together with advances in text management software, suggests that their potential has not been fully appreciated. This potential is considerable in providing easy access to detailed factual information on economic events and processes at continental and global scales. It is, however, strictly limited when it comes to interpreting the corporate strategies and motivations responsible for these developments.

Practicing New Economic Geographies: A Methodological Examination

“…All these data and information may be reliably obtained from existing intellectual and popular publications, public speeches, and policy statements. Even the Internet and abstract databases may be a useful source of data for discourse analysis in new economic geographies (see Pritchard 1999;Chapman and Edmond 2001). These kinds of data may be ''unconventional'' in much of economic geography, but they may enable new economic geographers to be more reflexive, and they promise to unravel the underlying power structures and social relations in the (re)production of our geographical knowledge.…”