2007 Annual Symposia: Workshop Report
University of Sussex
6th-7th June
Overview
This years symposium brought together over 30 postgraduate research students,researchers, practitioners, and university lecturers conducting research across a widenational and international spectrum.
The presentations and discussion forums over the two days focussed upon a numberof key contemporary research themes in economic geography. Key themes included:(i) impacts of emerging forms of governance and relations in global value chains andproduction networks on firms, society, and communities; and (ii) the incorporation ofsocial and cultural geographies into research on economic globalisation.
Overall the symposium generated a great deal of insightful and stimulating debate,drawing input from all participants, each of whom clearly drew useful experience andknowledge from the event.
Key Themes
1. Global firms and location decisions
The first two series of presentations were given by research students at various stagesof their research. During the first session there was a general network based emphasison the production location decisions of firms and TNCs. More specifically, thesession highlighted changing behaviours of firms in light of macro economic factorsand globalisation of production and consumption. The effects of such activities wereelucidated through impacts on regional development, utilisation of peripheraleconomic locations, and how global networks are being shaped by local contexts. Theresearch and discussion demonstrated a growing recognition of the need to understandrelations in global production networks, for instance in highlighting knowledge flowswithin and between economic spaces, and the role of governance typologies inshaping linkages between economic actors.
2. Employment, migration, and labour
The second session turned the spotlight away somewhat from firms and institutionsand toward the individual. In particular there was a focus upon the impacts ofchanging economic geographies on employment, migration, and labour decisions. Asa result of national, regional, and international policy, employment opportunities andchoices are directly affected. Changing employment spaces may create socialinequalities, wage differentials, and impact upon social reproduction. Employmentchoices and labour policy are not always market driven, but increasingly as a result ofsocial and cultural factors. Furthermore, the impact of civil societys involvement inlabour markets may be creating opportunities for hitherto disempowered individuals.
3. Governance, conventions, complex geographies, embeddedness
During the second day a number of key papers were given by prominent academicresearchers. Generally the papers touched and expanded upon many of the themesraised on the first day. A summary of key themes follows:
- New forms of governance inside and outside of Global Value Chains (GVCs) areemerging as a result of the introduction of a plethora of private and publicstandards used in global food supply chains. This is also due to the creation of anethical learning economy driven by increased ethical consumption and corporateresponsibility in GVCs. Reference was made to the emergence of varioustypologies of governance within a chain and the use of conventions theory todevelop further understanding of these forms of governance.
- Global civil society is introducing new forms of governance into corporate drivenvalue chains that challenge market norms but also introduce complexity andpressures of cost and conformity on suppliers. Empirical research suggests thatincreasing use of ethical trading initiatives is resulting in some positive impacts onlabour conditions in the global south, but is failing to address issues of freedom ofassociation and conditions of migrant and casual labour.
- An increasing body of work that employs a Global Production Network (GPN)framework views both firm and non-firm agents as integral to a network. Thisintroduces complex geographies incorporating a variety of regulatory institutions,corporate cultures, and labour and consumption geographies. The discussionhighlighted a particular gap in the literature related to migration.
- Arguably, embeddedness in some regional GPNs counters the notion ofunchecked globalisation and a race to the bottom in global production locationdecisions. Empirical research highlights the need to understand complexities in aparticular industry and increasing recognition of the influence of qualityconventions. Also cultural geographies emanating from particular places ornotions such as national identity are embedded within the production andconsumption geographies of particular industries and have an impact upon localand regional development.
David Phillips
Geography, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne