Totality must be defended

Abstract

Across multiple theoretical traditions that treat economies as geographically differentiated, the notion of totality has come under attack from those who dismiss it as an authoritarian concept, a Eurocentric idea, or insist that it cannot grasp the inherently pluriversal character of everyday life. By contrast, this article makes an intervention in economic geography debates by refuting this analysis as largely misguided. The article makes the case for an explicitly open notion of concrete totality. We argue that a conception of concrete totality is especially useful for understanding our contemporary conjuncture of crisis across debates in and beyond economic geography.