World Development Report 2009: reshaping economic geography

The World Development Reports published annually by the World Bank are always an important occasion for reflective commentary on the Bank's current understanding of developmental realities and, more importantly, about its evolving strategic approaches to development policy. To be sure, no single Report ever captures the full complexity of the Bank's positions on things, but each of them offers as clear a guide to its thinking as it is possible to get from so unwieldy and far-flung an institution as this. The most prominent feature of the 2009 Report is its resolute focus on the spatial dimensions of development processes, and, in particular, on the role of cities and regions in promoting increased levels of prosperity in low- and medium-income countries. Geographers have long recognized the critical importance of these issues, and they will no doubt welcome the fact that the World Bank has evidently come to share their awareness even though most of the Report appears to have been written by economists.