erc/metu
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS  IV
September 13-16, 2000, Ankara

The Limits to Globalisartion: Taking Economic Borders Seriously

Grahame Thompson (Open University, UK)

Abstract

In this paper I raise some issues about the nature of economic borders and their continued pertinence in the context of the debate about ‘globalization’. In large part this has to do with borders around national economies. It is concerned with both the conceptual implications of the way economics has set about thinking the nature of borders as well as the effects of such national borders on the economic interactions that take place across and around those borders. In looking at these issues I ask the question ‘Are there any limits to globalization?’ The strong globalization thesis would seem to imply an ever expanding universe of economic interdependency and integration between national economies, so that the pertinence of national borders for economic activity disappear, but why should this be the case?

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