Distant Yet Linked Places – A Theoretical Outlook on Geography of Contemporary Economic Activity

As number of studies show, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become important factor of economic activity worldwide.

This article presents a proposal of a theoretical approach to contemporary geography of economic activity – a phenomena narrowed here to business processes usually referred to as information or knowledge-based sector of the economy. The reasoning is based on a theoretical model presented by Michael Storper that has been developed further. The output shows the existence of a distinctive paradox of digital era: the ICT potentially being able to overcome spatial barriers, lead to refocusing on spatial dimension of business. It is concluded that ICT introduce new dimension of division of business process and labor, namely a spatial one. It is leading to worldwide reconfiguration of the geography of economic activity developed under fordist regime of production – hitherto separate areas and territories are being transformed into network economy of distant yet linked places.