La división del trabajo como una relación socio-espacial, o cómo reconciliar la ciencia económica y la geografía

Abstract

In economics, not enough attention is being paid to space and geography. In this document I claim that the idea of the division of labor is well suited to overcome this shortcoming and to re-insert geographical thinking in economic analysis. Each division of labor takes place in and is developed through spatial juxtapositions of economic activities, and that is why it consists of socio-spatial relations and processes at various geographical scales, including the home, the city and the global economy. However, a comprehensive analysis of the division of labor, understood not as an abstract principle, but as a real economic practice, not only reveals the geography of the economy. Rather, it is also a powerful tool for analyzing relationships of production. Any division of labor consists of a set of socio-spatial relationships, and it is through these socio-spatial relationships that economic activities, social groups that perform them, and the places in which they so it, are hierarchized. Therefore, in the cross-border division of labor uneven development is the result of a differentiated integration of persons or societies and their locations or regions.