World Economic Geography

Instructor: Dr. Truong Thi Kim Chuyen

Email: worldeconomicgeography@gmail.com

Weblog: www.socialscience09.wordpress.com

World Economic GeographyPaul Knox (2008),The geography of the world

economy, Routledge; 5th editionNeil M.Coe, Phillip F Kelly, Henry W.C. Yeung (2007),

Economic Geography, Blackwell PublishingReadings: Fellmann – Getis - Getis (1998). Human

Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities. Brown & Benchmark.

Course OutlineThe geography of the

world economyEconomic Geography

Conceptual foundations

01/ Conceptual foundations Page 1-25

Dynamics of economic space

02/ The changing world economy04/ Patterns of Development and Change05/ Services going global

03/ Commodity chainsPage 87-115

04’/ Technology 04’/ Technology and and agglomerationagglomeration

Actors in economic space

10/ International and supranational institutionalized integration

06/ The state Page 187-21907/ The transnational corporationPage 223-25108/ Labour power Page 254-28109/ Consumption

04’/ 04’/ TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY AND AGGLOMERATION: AGGLOMERATION: DOES TECHNOLOGY DOES TECHNOLOGY

ERADICATE DISTANCE?ERADICATE DISTANCE?

Aims: To demonstrate how certain kinds of technologies can be used to transcend time and space

To appreciate the limits of the spatial impacts of technology on economic systems

To understand why proximity still matters of many different kinds of economic activity

To reflect on the importance of relational proximity in shaping contemporary economic geographies

OUTLINEOUTLINE

Introduction The rise of “Placeless” Production? Understanding technological changes and their

geographical impacts Proximity matters: traded and untraded

interdependencies within clusters Neither here nor there: thinking relationally Summary

IntroductionIntroduction

The end of geography Relational proximity Node in global networks

The rise of “Placeless” Production?The rise of “Placeless” Production?

Understanding technological changes and their Understanding technological changes and their geographical impactsgeographical impacts

Technology must be seen not as a technical process with a life of its own, but rather as a social process through which individuals and organizations deploy technologies to achieve certain ends.

Different kinds of technology: Space-shrinking transport and communications technologies

Different levels of technological change:

Understanding technological changes and their Understanding technological changes and their geographical impactsgeographical impacts

Technological change needs to be placed in a long-term or evolutionary perspective: The different spatial outcomes of each wave of new technology have interacted with patterns of activity left over form the preceding wave.

Space-shrinking technologies: Production process technologies:

Space-shrinking technologies:- Transportation systems: The advent of commercial jet aircraft,

The advent of containerization- Communications systems: satellite and optical fibre

technology, the Internet, mobile telecommunications, electronic mass media

Call centres Offshoring of services

Production process technologies:- An  appropriate technique of production needs to be

selected, and in particular to precise combination of labour and capital

- The scale of production must be determined.- The location of production needs to be decided

Over the past three decades, Fordism has been augmented by new modes of production, the chief

characteristic of which is production flexibility.

Flexibly specialized production system are skilled craft workers using flexibly machinery to produce small volumes of customized goods

Proximity matters: traded and untraded interdependencies within clusters

Proximity matters: traded and untraded interdependencies within clusters

Agglomeration economies: urbanization economies, localization economies

Economic bases of agglomeration: traded interdependencies

- Vertical disintegration, - Core competencies The social and cultural determinants of

agglomeration: untraded interdependencies- Tacit knowledge- Codified knowledge

Six interacting ways that knowledge is disseminated:- Staff turnover- Shared suppliers- Firm births and deaths- Informal collaboration- Industry gossip- Trackside observation

A typology of agglomerations- Labour-intensive craft production clusters- Design-intensive craft production clusters- High-technology innovative clusters- Flexible production hub-and-spoke clusters- Production satellite clusters- Bussiness services clusters- State-anchored clusters

Neither here nor there: thinking Neither here nor there: thinking relationallyrelationally

Global cities Nodes in global networks Institutional proximity Cultural proximity Organizational proximity Relational proximity

SummarySummary

Interactions between new technologies and economic geography.

Internet is in reality full of spatial inequalities and contradictions of different kinds.

Technology can help to at least overcome geographic separation. The ability to move people, money, products, and technologies quickly, efficiently, and cheaply around the world has been highly significant in enabling the globalization of economic activity.

The contemporary global economy operates through complex combinations of near and distant relations, and technology plays an important but not determining, role in its operation.