Capital, State and Space: Contesting the Borderless World

Abstract

The globalization of economic activities and transnational corporations (TNCs) has led us to think that we are entering a ‘borderless’ world. Some prophets of globalization argue that it has led to the end of geography. To them, the state has ceased to be an institution capable of exerting influences on the activities of transnational capital, which has also become increasingly ‘placeless’. This paper aims to contest the issue of the alleged end‐state discourse of a ‘borderless’ world. It argues that, despite the accelerated processes of globalization, national boundaries still matter in the decision‐making and global reach of capital. The notion of a ‘borderless’ world is more folklore than reality. Based on theoretical and empirical literature in international political economy and business studies, the paper offers a dialectical perspective that examines the changing relationship between capital and the state, and the embedded relationship between capital and space in the organization of the global space‐economy. Together, both arguments point to the importance of understanding dynamic transformations of the global economy, before considering its globalization tendencies.