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2026 Vol.32, Issue 3 Preview Page
Economic Geography in the Age of AI: Disciplinary Relevance and the Rationale for Economic Geography Education

AI 시대, 경제지리학의 유용성과 경제지리 교육의 존재 이유

이종호1 · 조철기2

Lee, Jong-Ho1 · Cho, Chul-Ki2

1제1저자, 경상국립대학교 지리교육과 교수
2교신저자, 경북대학교 지리교육과 교수
1First Author, Professor, Department of Geography Education, Gyeongsang National Univerity
2Corresponding Author, Professor, Department of Geography Education, Kyungpook National Univerity
31 August 2026. pp. 234-251
PDF Citation
Abstract
This study reexamines the disciplinary relevance of economic geography in the age of AI and, on that basis, proposes a direction for economic geography education. Generative AI is expanding the automation and assistance of structured quantitative tasks in economic geography, including spatial data analysis, location optimization, and regional forecasting; approaches in geographical economics centered on deductive modeling are relatively more exposed to this pressure. At the same time, AI is itself a new phenomenon that economic geography must explain. The spatial concentration of data centers, semiconductor clusters, and AI talent demonstrates that the technology is deeply rooted in particular places, accelerating uneven development. The conceptual resources of economic geography—agglomeration economies, embeddedness, and path dependence—remain effective analytical tools for accounting for these new geographies of inequality. This study conceptualizes the ability to interpret and contextualize phenomena unfolding in economic space through economic-geographical concepts—a capacity distinct from GIS- or geomedia-centered spatial literacy—as “economic-geographical literacy,” and the capacity to pursue and enact spatial justice, grounded in insight into an unequal world, as “critical spatial citizenship,” positioning the former as the epistemological foundation of the latter. Ultimately, the relevance of economic geography in the age of AI lies in its capacity to interpret spatial inequality in context, and cultivating this interpretive capacity as literacy and fostering it into critical spatial citizenship constitute the rationale for economic geography education.
Keywords
economic geography
economic geography education
uneven development
spatial justice
economic-geographical literacy
critical spatial citizenship
본 연구는 AI 시대 경제지리학의 학문적 유용성을 재검토하고, 이를 토대로 경제지리 교육이 나아가야 할 방향을 제안한다. 생성형 AI는 공간 데이터 분석, 입지 최적화, 지역 예측 등 경제지리학의 계량적 영역을 빠르게 자동화하고 있으며, 보편 법칙을 지향하는 지리경제학적 접근일수록 이 압력에 더 취약하다. 동시에 AI는 경제지리학이 설명해야 할 새로운 현상이기도 하다. 데이터센터, 반도체 클러스터, AI 인재의 공간적 집중은 기술이 특정 장소에 깊이 뿌리내려 있음을 보여주며 불균등발전을 가속하고 있다. 집적경제, 뿌리내림, 경로의존성 등 경제지리학의 개념적 자원은 이러한 새로운 불균등을 해명하는 유효한 분석 도구다. 본 연구는 경제공간에서 전개되는 현상을 경제지리 개념으로 해석·맥락화하는 능력을 ‘경제지리 문해력’으로, 불균등한 세계에 대한 통찰을 토대로 공간 정의를 지향·실천하는 역량을 ‘비판적 공간 시민성’으로 정의하고, 전자를 후자의 인식론적 토대로 규정한다. AI 시대 경제지리학의 유용성은 공간 불균등을 맥락적으로 해석하는 능력에 있으며, 그 해석 능력을 문해력으로 함양하고 비판적 공간 시민성으로 배양하는 것이 경제지리 교육의 존재 이유이다.
키워드
경제지리학
경제지리 교육
불균등발전
공간 정의
경제지리 문해력
비판적 공간 시민성
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Information
  • Publisher :The Korean Association of Regional Geographers
  • Publisher(Ko) :한국지역지리학회
  • Journal Title :REGION AND GEOGRAPHY
  • Journal Title(Ko) :지역과 지리
  • Volume : 32
  • No :3
  • Pages :234-251
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.26863/JKARG.2026.8.32.3.234
Journal Informaiton REGION AND GEOGRAPHY REGION AND GEOGRAPHY
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