‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Recent literature concerning regional development has placed significant emphasis on local institutional structures and their capacity to ‘hold down’ the global. Conversely, work on inter-firm networks – such as the global commodity chain approach – has highlighted the significance of the organizational structures of global firms’ production systems and their relation to industrial upgrading. In this paper, drawing upon a global production networks perspective, we conceptualize the connections between ‘globalizing’ processes, as embodied in the production networks of transnational corporations, and regional development in specific territorial formations. We delimit the ‘strategic coupling’ of the global production networks of firms and regional economies which ultimately drives regional development through the processes of value creation, enhancement and capture. In doing so, we stress the multi-scalarity of the forces and processes underlying regional development, and thus do not privilege one particular geographical scale. By way of illustration, we introduce an example drawn from recent research into global production networks in East Asia and Europe. The example profiles the investments of car manufacturer BMW in Eastern Bavaria, Germany and Rayong, Thailand, and considers their implications for regional development.

Globalizing regional development: aglobal production networks perspective

This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike.

Governance in global value chains

Growing up global: economic restructuring and children's everyday lives

The challenge of sustainability: incentives for brownfield regeneration in Europe

Globalization and the water-energy-food nexus – Using the global production networks approach to analyze society-environment relations

Depending on location, size and former use, brownfields in the Ruhr have different potentials. Besides brownfields where viable regeneration projects are possible there are many sites that are not attractive to the market. One type of use for this category is post-industrial nature (e.g. industrial forests). Following the overall concept of sustainable development, these sites offer potentials for creative ‘place-making’ by local residents. The approach of ‘place-making’ is embedded in the discussion of establishing local governance in urban districts of the Ruhr. Introducing one best-practice-case (the Rheinelbe industrial forest in Gelsenkirchen), the paper focuses on the discussion of ‘place-making’ as a strategy for innovative brownfield development and local governance using the example of the former Lohberg colliery in Dinslaken.

/pdf/place-making-and-green-reuses-of-brownfields-in-the-ruhr-281poyukvc.pdf

Place-making and ‘green’ reuses of brownfields in the ruhr

In many developing economies, a partial or full liberalization of the retail trade has encouraged the establishment of supermarkets. This innovation and the consequent shifts in market share can evoke protest from a spectrum of traditional and small-scale retailers, wholesalers, farmers and market workers whose organized resistance can influence the investment policies and decisions of governments and corporations. Yet, so far, resistance is rarely considered in global production networks analysis. The paper uses the case of the ongoing resistance and protest against the entry of modern supermarket operations in cities in India to show how such resistance and protest groups have influenced retail investors and public opinion, and gained collective power. In the Indian democracy, these mobilizations have developed a strong enough political influence in certain geographic regions to curtail the operations of transnational corporations and induce shifts in corporate expansion strategies.

The role of resistance in a retail production network: Protests against supermarkets in India

Brownfield regeneration, involving the reintegration of derelict and abandoned sites into their economic environments, is a key element of sustainable urban development. To realize the full potential brownfield regeneration offers to sustainable urban development, the parameters that influence the degree of sustainability within brownfield regeneration itself have to be understood. An analysis of eight sites in four European countries identified strengths and weaknesses in current brownfield regeneration practice. Among other outcomes, criteria for sustainable brownfield projects and the “Sustainability Assessment Tool for brownfield regeneration projects” (SAT) were developed. The tool is based on a framework of objectives, indicators and best practices that reflect the multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder complexity that characterizes brownfield regeneration. The SAT would be one option to implement sustainability criteria without waiving the local and regional context. The SAT offers one wa...

Martin Franz

Papers

The challenge of sustainability: incentives for brownfield regeneration in Europe

Globalization and the water-energy-food nexus – Using the global production networks approach to analyze society-environment relations

Place-making and ‘green’ reuses of brownfields in the ruhr

The role of resistance in a retail production network: Protests against supermarkets in India

Sustainable development and brownfield regeneration. What defines the quality of derelict land recycling