Evolutionary economic geography, institutions and political economy

In this response to MacKinnon et al. (2009), I argue that the theoretical development of evolutionary economic geographies is necessary in order to evaluate its unique contribution to an understanding of the uneven development of the space economy; that the distinction between evolutionary and institutional economic geographies is overdrawn; that the neglect of class, power, and the state reflect empirical rather than theoretical shortcomings of the evolutionary approach; and that there is significant potential overlap between evolutionary and political economy approaches.