Evolutionary Economic Geography After Rapid Expansion: Focusing, Extension or Stretching?

Han Chu, Jingxuan Gui, Robert Hassink and Xiaomian Dai

No 2617, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Since its launch in 2006, evolutionary economic geography (EEG) has been successfully expanding into the main paradigm of economic geography proper. Such rapid expansion of a paradigm might have negative consequences, as it can potentially lead to conceptual and paradigmatic stretching. Such stretching can lead to the dilution of the original paradigmatic meanings and hence fuzziness, weakening explanatory power. With the help of a bibliometric analysis and literature review, this study maps the expansion and evolutionary trajectory of EEG, examines whether this expansion predominantly takes the form of stretching or the more cumulative processes of focusing and extension, and identifies the substantive characteristics of these three forms of paradigmatic evolution. We find that EEG remains a highly vibrant paradigm: most of its literature contributes through focusing and extension by consolidating or further developing its theoretical mechanisms. Stretching has increased but remains less prominent.

Keywords: evolutionary economic geography; paradigm; expansion; focusing; extension; stretching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08, Revised 2026-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg2617.pdf Version August 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:2617

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).