Economic Geography – serie

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of gateway cities in contemporary circuits of global production. Apart from facilitating the interlinking of economic activities in the surrounding regions with the global economy, gateway cities have enormous implications for how certain regions participate in the global economy. Based on a case study of the oil and gas industry in Southeast Asia the book maps gateway cities, explores why these cities have come to occupy a gateway role, and evaluates their implications for regional economic development. To this aim, the book links components from research on the World City Network with Global Production Network research and demonstrates how this intersection creates synergies for studying the role of cities in economic globalization. The main audiences that this book appeals to are researchers and students interested in debates on regional development and the role of cities in the global economy. The book is also attractive to scholars interested in the organization of extractive industries.

This monograph offers a unique conceptual bridge between economic geography and Middle Eastern political economy. Arab economies are confronted with enormous structural difficulties such as high rates of youth unemployment in a challenging demographic context, exacerbated by intense spatial disparities. These structural problems demonstrate the breakdown of the "Arab social contract", a social arrangement centered on a strong role of the state in welfare and employment provision, for which regimes demanded acquiescence to authoritarian rule.The book argues that the Arab social contract can be understood in terms of regulation theories known in economic geography and sociology. It uses the approaches such as the regulation school, national systems of innovation, social systems of production, and varieties of capitalism to analyze the structural difficulties of Arab economies and current reform efforts. The basic assumption is that Arab economies are currently faced with a structural crisis. After the breakdown of the Arab social contract, there is a mismatch between the economic and institutional spheres of society. The challenge is for Arab societies to develop new forms of socio-institutional regulation.The book proposes ways towards such new modes of regulation by developing a framework for regulation specifically targeted towards Arab societies, and by applying it to the cases of Tunisia and Jordan.

This monograph offers a unique conceptual bridge between economic geography and Middle Eastern political economy. Arab economies are confronted with enormous structural difficulties such as high rates of youth unemployment in a challenging demographic context, exacerbated by intense spatial disparities. These structural problems demonstrate the breakdown of the "Arab social contract", a social arrangement centered on a strong role of the state in welfare and employment provision, for which regimes demanded acquiescence to authoritarian rule.The book argues that the Arab social contract can be understood in terms of regulation theories known in economic geography and sociology. It uses the approaches such as the regulation school, national systems of innovation, social systems of production, and varieties of capitalism to analyze the structural difficulties of Arab economies and current reform efforts. The basic assumption is that Arab economies are currently faced with a structural crisis. After the breakdown of the Arab social contract, there is a mismatch between the economic and institutional spheres of society. The challenge is for Arab societies to develop new forms of socio-institutional regulation.The book proposes ways towards such new modes of regulation by developing a framework for regulation specifically targeted towards Arab societies, and by applying it to the cases of Tunisia and Jordan.

The book analyzes the financialization of the Brazilian territory to identify its main actors, technical systems and processes. The work is divided into three parts, which correspond to the three main scales of analysis of the national financial system: 1. the global scale, which defines the relative position of Brazil in the international division of financial work, emphasizing the role of São Paulo as an international financial centre; 2 the national level, which demonstrates the recent development of the financial and banking system (after 1964), with emphasis on the location and regionalization of bank headquarters and branches, as well as the new electronic channels for the provision of banking services (ATMs, points-of-sales, mobile and Internet banking); and 3. the local scale, which shows how these new financial agents and technical systems affect the Brazilian urban population, emphasizing the indebtedness of the lower income classes,as well as the emergence of alternative ways of using finance, such as fintechs, credit cooperatives and community banks.

the local scale, which shows how these new financial agents and technical systems affect the Brazilian urban population, emphasizing the indebtedness of the lower income classes,as well as the emergence of alternative ways of using finance, such as fintechs, credit cooperatives and community banks.

T​his edited volume offers a descriptive analysis of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and cumulative stock, industrial composition, and important spatial trends for each successor state of former Yugoslavia: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. The chapters are written by academic experts on the topic from each of these countries and are organised systematically in order to facilitate comparison between the states. The aim of this book is to advance scholarly knowledge about FDI in Southeastern Europe 25 years after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.Each chapter includes a summary of scholarly contributions published on the topic in English-language and local language journals, a discussion of origins, composition by industry, and location choice within the country from 1995-2018, using Dunning's (1980) eclectic paradigm as a discussion framework. The chaptersconclude with prospects for FDI over the next twenty-five years with emphasis on economic growth projections, EU integration, and other relevant country-specific considerations the local authors deem relevant. Special attention is given to specific companies operating in Yugoslavia prior to its breakup and how these firms have been impacted by dissolution, recession, efforts toward European Union membership. The authors also examine the past and potential impact of FDI from unforeseen events such as the Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19. This book appeals to scholars of geography, international business, economics, and economic history of the former Yugoslavia as well as professionals working in the region and on related topics elsewhere.

T​his edited volume offers a descriptive analysis of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and cumulative stock, industrial composition, and important spatial trends for each successor state of former Yugoslavia: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. The chapters are written by academic experts on the topic from each of these countries and are organised systematically in order to facilitate comparison between the states. The aim of this book is to advance scholarly knowledge about FDI in Southeastern Europe 25 years after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.Each chapter includes a summary of scholarly contributions published on the topic in English-language and local language journals, a discussion of origins, composition by industry, and location choice within the country from 1995-2018, using Dunning's (1980) eclectic paradigm as a discussion framework. The chaptersconclude with prospects for FDI over the next twenty-five years with emphasis on economic growth projections, EU integration, and other relevant country-specific considerations the local authors deem relevant. Special attention is given to specific companies operating in Yugoslavia prior to its breakup and how these firms have been impacted by dissolution, recession, efforts toward European Union membership. The authors also examine the past and potential impact of FDI from unforeseen events such as the Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19. This book appeals to scholars of geography, international business, economics, and economic history of the former Yugoslavia as well as professionals working in the region and on related topics elsewhere.

While the economic evidence is clear that secure property rights are a necessary condition for catalysing broad-based economic development, the governance process by which those rights are secured is less clear.

This book discusses the conditions that underpin configuration of specific places as resource peripheries and the consequences that such a socio-spatial formation involves for those places.

This book discusses the conditions that underpin configuration of specific places as resource peripheries and the consequences that such a socio-spatial formation involves for those places.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of contemporary issues of regional development. It places particular emphasis on its socio-economic and socio-political determinants which accompany the problem of existing and ever-widening differences in the level of regional development in various parts of Europe. In order to diagnose the scale of those differences and to indicate the main forces behind the divergence of development, the authors propose an original systematisation of regional development factors, drawing attention to the need to consider them within the framework of present-day socio-economic megatrends. The proposed approach to the development factors is also used for the author's operationalisation of the concept of territorial capital, which is at the centre of regional place-based policy.The wide spatial aspect of the analysis (national and local) and its extensive temporal scope (2004-2019) yields unique results and creates an important element of added value for this book, which shows the regularities of the process of regional development in Europe at three spatial levels - pan-European, national and intra-regional. Furthermore, it indicates the challenges faced by regionalists who attempt to carry out research on different territorial levels with a diverse number of units (205 EU regions, 16 Polish voivodeships, 2,478 Polish local units) and extended observation periods (2004-2017). The solutions proposed by the authors, who show the potential of overcoming the barriers resulting from limited access to complete and comparable statistical data series, should be inspiring for many researchers. The unique results of direct research carried out on a large sample of respondents and entrepreneurs via diverse field research techniques constitute a valuable source of information on local conditions that impact contemporary development processes in less developed regions. Their value is even greater because they were carried out in a unique laboratory created by the authors for testing the regularity of formation and impact of socio-economic development factors in various locally determined conditions of this process. It consists of purposefully selected test units (LAU2). Located in a less developed region, they represent all growth types and functional test units identified in the course of the research. Consequently, the results obtained may be generalised and applied to other areas showing similar features of territorial capital.The monograph is addressed primarily to a wide group of regionalists connected with economic and social sciences as well as to practitioners involved in the implementation of development policies at various levels.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of contemporary issues of regional development. It places particular emphasis on its socio-economic and socio-political determinants which accompany the problem of existing and ever-widening differences in the level of regional development in various parts of Europe. In order to diagnose the scale of those differences and to indicate the main forces behind the divergence of development, the authors propose an original systematisation of regional development factors, drawing attention to the need to consider them within the framework of present-day socio-economic megatrends. The proposed approach to the development factors is also used for the author's operationalisation of the concept of territorial capital, which is at the centre of regional place-based policy.The wide spatial aspect of the analysis (national and local) and its extensive temporal scope (2004-2019) yields unique results and creates an important element of added value for this book, which shows the regularities of the process of regional development in Europe at three spatial levels - pan-European, national and intra-regional. Furthermore, it indicates the challenges faced by regionalists who attempt to carry out research on different territorial levels with a diverse number of units (205 EU regions, 16 Polish voivodeships, 2,478 Polish local units) and extended observation periods (2004-2017). The solutions proposed by the authors, who show the potential of overcoming the barriers resulting from limited access to complete and comparable statistical data series, should be inspiring for many researchers. The unique results of direct research carried out on a large sample of respondents and entrepreneurs via diverse field research techniques constitute a valuable source of information on local conditions that impact contemporary development processes in less developed regions. Their value is even greater because they were carried out in a unique laboratory created by the authors for testing the regularity of formation and impact of socio-economic development factors in various locally determined conditions of this process. It consists of purposefully selected test units (LAU2). Located in a less developed region, they represent all growth types and functional test units identified in the course of the research. Consequently, the results obtained may be generalised and applied to other areas showing similar features of territorial capital.The monograph is addressed primarily to a wide group of regionalists connected with economic and social sciences as well as to practitioners involved in the implementation of development policies at various levels.

Employing a practice theoretical approach, this study centers on how German multinational enterprises transfer three selected production-related training practices to their subsidiaries in emerging economies: onboarding of new employees, shop floor inducting of machine operators, and German-style dual apprenticeship training for specialized technicians. Empirical findings are drawn from three research regions: Greater Shanghai Area (China), Metropolitan Areas Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore (India), and Central Mexico (Mexico).In doing so, this study contributes to debates about the internationalization of multinational enterprises conceptualizing internationalization through the lens of practice transfer. Practice transfer is still an understudied phenomenon in economic geography while international business studies have a long-standing research interest in this area. This study provides a bridge between these two disciplinary fields connecting debates in economic geography on proximity/distance and knowledge transfer with organization studies-based research in international business studies – all the while providing a unique new perspective by developing a practice theoretical approach to explain practice transfer across distance and between territories.

Employing a practice theoretical approach, this study centers on how German multinational enterprises transfer three selected production-related training practices to their subsidiaries in emerging economies: onboarding of new employees, shop floor inducting of machine operators, and German-style dual apprenticeship training for specialized technicians. Empirical findings are drawn from three research regions: Greater Shanghai Area (China), Metropolitan Areas Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore (India), and Central Mexico (Mexico).In doing so, this study contributes to debates about the internationalization of multinational enterprises conceptualizing internationalization through the lens of practice transfer. Practice transfer is still an understudied phenomenon in economic geography while international business studies have a long-standing research interest in this area. This study provides a bridge between these two disciplinary fields connecting debates in economic geography on proximity/distance and knowledge transfer with organization studies-based research in international business studies – all the while providing a unique new perspective by developing a practice theoretical approach to explain practice transfer across distance and between territories.

The analysis covers the key aspects of this transformation, illustrated with references to the concepts and theories of development, domestic and foreign literature, own empirical research and existing or newly developed model approaches to transformation in the territorial dimension.

This edited volume analyses and discusses the systematisation of Polish socio-economic transformations of the last three decades using selected examples of the most important changes.  1989 marked the onset of the political transformation process in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The transition involved a shift from a socialist system to a parliamentary democracy and from a command economy to a market one. Due to the deep economic crisis that culminated in 1988 and the peaceful model of change developed and implemented in Poland, the magnitude and manner of implementing various initiatives was unprecedented and had specific implications. This transformation opened Polish society and the Polish economy to the impact of global social and economic changes, triggering successive transformations, often overlapping in terms of their causes and consequences. This publication aims to present the course and effects, in particular territorial, of Poland's socio-economic transformation in the years 1990–2020. The analysis covers the key aspects of this transformation, illustrated with references to the concepts and theories of development, domestic and foreign literature, own empirical research and existing or newly developed model approaches to transformation in the territorial dimension. The book appeals to researchers and student in the fields of geography, spatial management, economics and business, sociology and political sciences, public and private economic research institutes, employees of governmental bodies and corporations, consultants in public administration, journalists and policymakers.

This book puts Indian garment workers and their organisations at the centre of the analysis. Taking the Bangalore export-garment cluster as a case study, the book explores the conditions that enable but also constrain the capacities of garment workers’ unions to build collective power vis-à-vis employers and thereby improve their conditions. Drawing on theoretical concepts from labour geography, relational economic geography, and Global Production Network (GPN) analysis, the book highlights, on the one hand, how the complex labour control regime in the Bangalore export-garment cluster poses manifold challenges and constraints for workers’ and unions’ collective agency. On the other hand, the book illustrates the various networked agency strategies that local garment unions in Bangalore have developed over the years to overcome these constraints by tapping into coalitional power resources from worker, consumer and labour rights organisations in the Global North.This book is therefore highly relevant for economic geographers and other scholars interested in dynamics of labour and development in GPNs as well as for unionists and labour rights activists committed to improving working conditions in the global garment industry.This is an open access book.

This book puts Indian garment workers and their organisations at the centre of the analysis. Taking the Bangalore export-garment cluster as a case study, the book explores the conditions that enable but also constrain the capacities of garment workers’ unions to build collective power vis-à-vis employers and thereby improve their conditions. Drawing on theoretical concepts from labour geography, relational economic geography, and Global Production Network (GPN) analysis, the book highlights, on the one hand, how the complex labour control regime in the Bangalore export-garment cluster poses manifold challenges and constraints for workers’ and unions’ collective agency. On the other hand, the book illustrates the various networked agency strategies that local garment unions in Bangalore have developed over the years to overcome these constraints by tapping into coalitional power resources from worker, consumer and labour rights organisations in the Global North.This book is therefore highly relevant for economic geographers and other scholars interested in dynamics of labour and development in GPNs as well as for unionists and labour rights activists committed to improving working conditions in the global garment industry.This is an open access book.

This edited volume systematically interrogates the Chinese investment presence in Africa, focusing on land and agriculture, mining and other infrastructural projects. In doing so, the form and extent of Chinese debt will be brought into perspective, with comparisons made to investments in Africa emanating from metropolitan capitalism. The volume examines the development potential of these investments by focusing on the labour regimes created and the effects of investments on the land-based agricultural livelihoods of the African peasantry. This entails the use of a political economy approach which incorporates the state, international actors and local communities into the analysis, with gender dynamics also of great significance. Overall, the contributions in this volume focus on an array of African nations (with a specific focus on Zimbabwe) and they deploy a large wealth of primary field-based data collected over a number of years by established and emerging scholars living andworking on the continent.

This edited volume systematically interrogates the Chinese investment presence in Africa, focusing on land and agriculture, mining and other infrastructural projects. In doing so, the form and extent of Chinese debt will be brought into perspective, with comparisons made to investments in Africa emanating from metropolitan capitalism. The volume examines the development potential of these investments by focusing on the labour regimes created and the effects of investments on the land-based agricultural livelihoods of the African peasantry. This entails the use of a political economy approach which incorporates the state, international actors and local communities into the analysis, with gender dynamics also of great significance. Overall, the contributions in this volume focus on an array of African nations (with a specific focus on Zimbabwe) and they deploy a large wealth of primary field-based data collected over a number of years by established and emerging scholars living andworking on the continent.

This book provides a wider understanding of the geographies of the platform economy, focusing on the critical perspectives that have emerged on this new economic and digital context.

This book provides a wider understanding of the geographies of the platform economy, focusing on the critical perspectives that have emerged on this new economic and digital context. Technological development, particularly the emergence of big data in combination with platforms, additive manufacturing, advanced robotics, machine learning and the internet of things, has created conditions for the appearance of a new economic context predominantly based on new forms of services. This new economic context has been described as the platform economy or platform capitalism. Other designations have also appeared to describe particular consequences of this new phenomena, such as the gig economy or the sharing economy.There is a significant diversity of scientific fields that are studying topics related to the platform economy. Several studies have emerged from different fields, including, but not limited to, geography, economy, sociology, information science, management, marketing, or the humanities. However, geography has become an important field to understand the platform economy given its critical position over the economic, cultural, and social issues that stem from this new economic context. The purpose of this book is to approach these discussions and offer a critical view of the platform economy from the perspective of geography, stemming from the different subfields of the discipline and not restricted to what has been referred to as Digital Geography.This book will appeal to scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences. It will be particularly relevant to those with research interests in digital geographies and economic geography, economics and business.

The book examines the challenges that local, regional, national, and global value chains at different levels pose to territorial development. Rethinking and developing urban and regional spaces require new understanding and research methods in economic geography. This is achieved by exploring how value chains influence and address territorial development. It is argued that territorial development is closely connected to local control of production networks, especially concerning social and environmental sustainability. This argument is supported by ten case studies from various countries (Argentina, Ecuador, the United States, and several from Spain or authored by Spanish scholars). The chapters offer readers a chance to explore the different elements that make up value chains. The book also provides an opportunity to understand the usefulness of value chains in relation to current economic geography dynamics. The case studies employ both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, covering various sectors and economic activities across different geographical scales (local, regional, national, and cross-national cases). The findings are particularly relevant for urban and regional development planning. This publication targets an audience familiar with new trends in economic geography and other social sciences. Chapter “Following in the Footsteps of Inditex: Relocation and Adaptation of Urban Retail as a Competitive Strategy in its Value Chains” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Chapter “Sustainable Food Networks and Mainstream Agrifood Value Chains: Testing a Comparative Conceptual Framework” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Chapter “The Economic Impact of the Global Covid-19 Crisis on the Metropolitan Areas: Employment and Unemployment in Spanish Metropolitan Areas” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The book highlights the significance of a distinct category of underdeveloped areas, known as the inner periphery, in understanding contemporary spatial disparities in socio-economic development and the challenges posed to future cohesion policy. The origins, conditions, and evolving disparities in regional development are frequently analyzed from the perspectives of economics and economic geography, where effective strategies for achieving spatial convergence in social and economic development are explored. This book contributes to this ongoing dialogue by focusing on persistently marginalized areas, commonly referred to as inner peripheries in relevant literature. These areas are widespread across Europe, regardless of a country’s or region’s development level. The peripheral status of these areas is primarily due to their limited connectivity with surrounding environments, which significantly impacts their developmental processes. In recent years, numerous significant developmental shocks have occurred, one of which is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These shocks have shaped the social and economic consequences that affect local development in specific areas. These consequences are likely to alter the characteristics of the territorial capital of individual 4 areas, the condition of public finances, and the local development policies influencing them. The book's objective is to present research findings on the patterns of socio-economic development changes in selected inner peripheries, particularly focusing on their vulnerability and resilience to the impacts of the SARSCoV-2 crisis. It also aims to offer recommendations for modifying the directions and methods of implementing development policy interventions. The research results from Poland, the largest beneficiary of European cohesion policy, serve as a foundation for proposing recommendations regarding the challenges of targeting development intervention post-2027.

This book examines the role of cars and the space connected with their production and presentation in tourism development. It describes the role played by experiences and experience societies formed in the 20th c. in the development of contemporary tourism, including tourism related to cars. The book explores the influence of experiencing unusual events, such as car races, car fairs, visits to car industry museums or multifunctional spaces connected with producing and exhibiting cars (e.g. Autostadt or Audi Forum) on the development of a new type of tourism, i.e. car tourism. This kind of tourism is novel in two ways: firstly, it is a new phenomenon in science, as so far it has not been thoroughly studied or described, apart from various short articles. Secondly, this type of tourism has developed on a large scale only in recent years, mainly due to the huge investments made by powerful European car manufacturers (e.g. Autostadt, Audi Forums, Porsche Museum, Lamborghini Museum etc.). The book presents cars and the spaces related to them as tourist assets (sites, events) and as tourist products that satisfy tourists’ needs. Moreover, it connects the issue of car tourism to the marketing strategies of large car manufacturers and discusses the theory of tourism space, highlighting the main tourism spaces in which car tourism develops. It presents multifunctional spaces (factories, adventure centres – Autostadt in Wolfsburg), museums, car exhibitions, and race tracks. In the next chapter, following an introduction to the problem of events, the author describes events related to car tourism, including races, rallies, driving schools and car fairs. The book ends with a summarizing chapter, which includes a model of the function of car tourism as a separate type of tourism, as well as a discussion presenting the main features, advantages and disadvantages of car tourism in the context of the tourism space theory.

Moreover, it connects the issue of car tourism to the marketing strategies of large car manufacturers and discusses the theory of tourism space, highlighting the main tourism spaces in which car tourism develops.

The book provides the first detailed account of the complex geographical dynamics restructuring China’s manufacturing industries from the evolutionary economic geography perspective. These geographical and industrial shifts have enormous implications in and beyond China for what is possible in the post-crisis global economy. The book demonstrates that the interface between evolutionary economic geography approaches and other approaches (e.g. global value chain, global production network, institutional economic geography) could be a fertile area for further consideration.The two main audiences that this book appeals to are economic geography and regional science. The topics covered in the book are also relevant to development studies, economics, economic sociology and international studies, offering academics, international researchers, post-graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these fields an accessible, grounded, yet theoretically sophisticated account of the evolutionary economic geography in China and its interaction with firm performance and regional economic development. The book is also attractive to national policy makers, since it engages directly with economic and industrial policy issues, such as industrial competitiveness, regional and national development, industrial and employment restructuring, and trade regulation.

This book examines industrial upgrading in China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD), with a specific focus on how strategic coupling impacts industrial upgrading from the perspective of relational economic geography.

This book examines industrial upgrading in China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD), with a specific focus on how strategic coupling impacts industrial upgrading from the perspective of relational economic geography.