ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE - AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIAL-GEOGRAPHY

Research within industrial geography has illuminated the relationship between the restructuring of manufacturing and the reshaping of urban space. Industrial geographers have paid little attention, however, to the dramatic social and economic changes occurring throughout rural Am erica. I contend that evident sectoral and urban biases mask an underl ying issue: a persistent conceptual schism between agriculture and ind ustry, in which agriculture is comparatively undertheorized as an aren a of capitalist development. As a result, a significant part of the st ory of economic restructuring-the transformation of farming and the cr eation of new forms of rural development-remains largely unexamined. T his paper sets out to bridge the gap separating industrial restructuri ng. I argue that the incorporation of agriculture into industrial geog raphy involves much more than a simple mapping of industrial theory on to farm terrain; it requires an exploration of the distinctive process of industrialization surrounding farm production. A careful treatment of agricultural development allows farming to be reclaimed from the c onceptual backwater, while also providing an opportunity to scrutinize industrial theory from a forgotten perspective. Drawing on recent pol itical economic research in geography and allied fields, I focus on th ree themes that emerge from the study of agriculture and discuss the l essons they impart to industrial geography: (1) the importance of sect oral difference to regional development, (2) the multiplicity of indus trialization paths, and (3) the importance of locality. Each theme is illustrated using examples drawn from the Midwest.