World Economic Geography Instructor: Dr. Truong Thi Kim Chuyen Weblog:

World Economic Geography Paul Knox (2008),The geography of the world economy, Routledge; 5th edition Neil M.Coe, Phillip F Kelly, Henry W.C. Yeung (2007), Economic Geography, Blackwell Publishing Readings: Fellmann – Getis - Getis (1998). Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities. Brown & Benchmark.

Course Outline The geography of the world economy Economic Geography Conceptual foundations 01/ Conceptual foundations Page 1-25 Dynamics of economic space 02/ The changing world economy 04/ Patterns of Development and Change 05/ Services going global 03/ Commodity chains Page ’/ Technology and agglomeration Actors in economic space 10/ International and supranational institutionalized integration 06/ The state Page / The transnational corporation Page / Labour power Page / Consumption

04’/ T ECHNOLOGY AND AGGLOMERATION : D OES TECHNOLOGY 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

OUTLINE 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

Introduction The end of geography Relational proximity Node in global networks

The rise of “Placeless” Production?

Understanding technological changes and their geographical 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 geographical 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

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

Summary 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.