Author Description

This volume was born of conference sessions at the 2015 meeting of the American Association of Geographers and the 2015 Global Conference on Economic Geography. [...] Romance, crime, and of course new economic interactions blos- somed on what Standage (1998) refers to as "the Victorian Internet." A proposal in the mid-nineteenth century to connect cities on both sides of the Atlantic led one commentator to speculate that now "all of the inhab- itants of the earth would be brought into one intellectual neighborhood, and be at the same time perfectly freed from t [...] Just as it is clear that growth in the 19th and 20th centuries was driven by networks of railways and highways, growth and development in the 21st century is being defined and driven by digital highways and ICT-led value-added services. [...] This framing enables us to arrive at explanations of how the local and global are mutually influencing, and are being influenced by, rapid changes in connectivity, the digitalization of economic activities, and digi- tal production. [...] This collection of opinions from economic and develop- ment thought leaders, who are themselves based variously in the public sector, the private sector, and academia, illustrates some of the diversity of positions on the topic.