Michael Samers

Bio: Michael Samers is an academic researcher from University of Kentucky. The author has contributed to research in topics: Immigration & European union. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 35 publications receiving 1211 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael Samers include University of Nottingham & University of Liverpool.

Spaces of Work: Global Capitalism and Geographies of Labour

Abstract: Orientations PART ONE: GEOGRAPHIES OF LABOUR The Social Relations of Labour Working in a Capitalist World Placing Labour in an Interdependent World Spacing and Scaling Labour PART TWO: LABOUR IN PLACE Re/placing Labour Varieties of Localism PART THREE: RE-SCALING LABOUR Dis/placing Labour Up-scaling Worker Action PART FOUR: WORKERS, GEOGRAPHICAL SCALE AND IN/JUSTICE The Geographical Dilemmas of Justice

Islamic banking and finance: postcolonial political economy and the decentring of economic geography

Abstract: A significant trend in global finance over the last 15 years has been the rapid growth of Islamic banking and finance (IBF), which has gathered momentum to become a significant feature of the financial landscape in the twenty-first century. This paper explores the increasingly ‘Western’ character of IBF and has two key aims. First, we address the remarkably under-theorized status of IBF by considering how various economic geographical and social theories might conceptualize its development. Second, and emerging from our reservations with these literatures, we argue that IBF exposes some of the limits of Western-centred readings of economic geographies and we chart a path towards a postcolonial political-economic geography. Postcolonial critiques are useful in two senses. First they provide a different set of lenses for understanding IBF as a self-consciously ‘other’ set of economic and social practices and second, they push us to reconsider or ‘provincialize’ our understandings of normative, hegemonic economic practices and knowledges, including ‘conventional’ banking and finance. In essence, the growth of IBF is a stimulus for economic geographers to consider how, for what purposes and from where they theorize – a task that is long overdue.

An Emerging Geopolitics of 'Illegal' Immigration in the European Union

Abstract: There is now a wide and ample literature which has explored the relationship between a racialised, ethnicised and xenophobic construction of European identity, an emphasis on security, the absence of proactive human rights legislation, and the development of restrictive immigration policies in Europe (e.g. Balibar and Wallerstein, 1991; Cholewinski, 2003; Huysmans, 2000; Karyotis, 2003; Kostakopoulou, 2000; Tesfahuny, 1998). While these critical analyses are absolutely essential as an antidote to current EU policies, few academic studies have explored comprehensively European policy developments with respect to ‘illegal’ immigration since the Treaty of Amsterdam (exceptions are Cholewinski, 2000, 2003; and Mitsilegas, 2002). This paper seeks to redress this lacuna and outlines a new geopolitics of (‘illegal’) immigration that concerns both a re-scaling of decision-making (often referred to as ‘communautarisation’) and a little explored re-scaling of control to third countries. In both cases, the evidence of ‘securitarianism’ is strong. As Cholewinski (2003) points out, overall, the bulk of legally-binding measures and ‘soft law’ that has emerged since 1999 has neglected human rights and is mainly concerned with preventing migrants without the necessary documents from entering the EU or facilitating their return or expulsion if they do. Drawing on some familiar concepts within the migration literature, and a theory of political economy from economic anthropology, I present a new conceptual frame for situating this securitarianism. Specifically, I deploy a set of processes that I shall call the ‘three Vs’: ‘virtualism’, ‘venue-

Immigration and the Global City Hypothesis: Towards an Alternative Research Agenda

Abstract: The debate around the ‘Global City Hypothesis’ (GCH), and particularly the research agenda of the ‘Globalization and World Cities’ network, have been preoccupied recently with the business and technological dimensions of so–called ‘global cities’. This article seeks to recover the role of immigration in large urban economies. Using mainly observations from European metropolises, I argue first that the GCH requires significant revision insofar as it can be used as a tool for addressing issues of inequality, and I offer five propositions for a renewal of the existing contours of the GCH. Second, beyond these revisions, I suggest a complete reformulation of the debate by linking it with ideas emanating from the literature on transnationalism. Le debat sur ‘l’Hypothese de la ville globale’, et notamment sur le programme de recherche du reseau ‘Mondialisation et Villes mondiales’, s’est recemment soucie des dimensions economiques et technologiques des dites ‘villes planetaires’. Cet article tente de reveler le role de l’immigration dans les grandes economies urbaines. A partir d’observations de metropoles europeennes principalement, il affirme d’abord que, dans la mesure ou cette hypothese peut servir d’outil pour aborder les questions d’inegalite, elle requiert une importante revision; sont donc exposees cinq propositions pour en renouveler les profils existents. Il suggere ensuite une reformulation complete du debat en l’associant a des idees emanant de travaux sur le transnationalisme.

Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany.

Abstract: Preface Introduction: Traditions of Nationhood in France and Germany I. The Institution of Citizenship 1. Citizenship as Social Closure 2. The French Revolution and the Invention of National Citizenship 3. State, State-System, and Citizenship in Germany II. Defining The Citizenry: The Bounds of Belonging 4. Citizenship and Naturalization in France and Germany 5. Migrants into Citizens: The Crystallization of Jus Soli in Late-Nineteenth-Century France 6. The Citizenry as Community of Descent: The Nationalization of Citizenship in Wilhelmine Germany 7. \"Etre Francais, Cela se Merite\": Immigration and the Politics of Citizenship in France in the 1980s 8. Continuities in the German Politics of Citizenship Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Global production networks: realizing the potential

Abstract: Understanding and conceptualizing the complexities of the contemporary global economy is a challenging but vitally important task. In this article, we critically evaluate the potential of one interpretive framework—the global production networks (GPN) perspective—for analysing the global economy and its impacts on territorial development. After situating the approach in relation to other cognate chain/network approaches, the article proceeds to review and evaluate a number of underdeveloped areas that need to be understood and incorporated more fully if the framework is to deliver on its early potential. The article concludes with a consideration of the key research issues facing work in this area.

‘Globalizing’ regional development: a global production networks perspective

Abstract: 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.