Skill

Abstract

The concept of skill has been closely linked to some of the most significant debates in the social sciences over the past half‐century including the “deskilling debates” of the 1970s and 1980s regarding the growing levels of income inequality and ideas emanating from human geography about creativity and innovation. Yet it is a difficult term to define and has been studied in many different ways across various academic disciplines. This entry details how skill has been studied in the economic sphere and the particular contribution that geographers have made to understanding the locational dynamics of differentially skilled workers.