CALL FOR PAPERS

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES OF ASIA

A Special Session at the 98th Annual Meeting of the Association of American
Geographers, Los Angeles, 19 - 23 March 2002
(Sponsored by Economic Geography, China Specialty Group, Asia Speciality
Group, Economic Geography Specialty Group, and Socialist Specialty Group)

Theme: Economic Geographies of Asia
Organizers:
Henry Wai-chung Yeung, Department of Geography, National University of
Singapore
Fulong Wu, Department of Geography, University of Southampton, UK
George Lin, Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong

The economic geographies of Asia are highly fascinating, not least because
Asia's immense population, great cultural diversity, and rapid pace of
changes have no parallel among other continents.  Asia has increasingly
emerged as a significant economic player in all three spheres of global
competition: production, consumption and circulation. This dynamic mosaic of
economic landscapes in Asia is further complicated during and after the
recent 1997/1998 economic crisis. While some aspects of these economic
geographies of Asia have received research attention, the complex
geographical processes of these economic landscapes in Asia have been
under-theorized in the literature. On the one hand, the theorization of
dynamic changes in Asia may entail the adaptation of economic-geographical
theories developed elsewhere in the Anglo-American context. On the other
hand, certain geographical processes in Asia may require fundamentally new
approach to theorization that potentially can contribute to theory
development in economic geography. While it has been understood that
existing discourses of economic geography established in the West may not
offer sensible and adequate explanations for what has been taking place in
Asia without necessary modifications, it remains a pressing task for
geographers interested in the region to move beyond the traditional
empirical arena of "area studies" and develop contextually sensitive
theoretical alternatives. Because of its sheer pace of change, empirical
studies on Asia's changing economic geographies present challenging and
promising research opportunities. The economic dynamism of Asia therefore
provides a very useful site for theory development and empirical
understanding in contemporary economic geography.

The purpose of this special session is to bring together experienced
geographers interested in Asia to examine how capital, labor, and land under
different institutional contexts have (re)shaped Asia's economic geographies
and in what manner changes in production, consumption, and circulation have
reconfigured the economic landscapes in the region. We are particularly
interested in theoretically-informed empirical papers that address some of,
but not limited to, the following dimensions of changing economic
geographies in Asia:

*       International and cross-border production, trade and investment.
*       Location of firms, corporate strategy and firm networks.
*       Financial integration and development of financial centers.
*       Geographies of producer services, control functions, and knowledge
economies
*       Circulation and consumption of goods and services.
*       Geographies of innovation: national and localized learning;
industrial districts and regional innovation systems.
*       Competition for hi-tech talents, the segmentated labor markets, and
transnationalism.
*       Land economics, land system, land market, and land development.
*       Infrastructure and economic development
*       Economic restructuring of Japan, the NICs, and transitional
socialist economies.
*       Political economy of local and regional development and their social
and institutional limits
*       Asian economies and the Pacific Asian region in the tri-polar global
system

Please take note that selected papers will be invited for submission to a
special issue of Economic Geography on the same theme which will be
published in 2003.

You may visit the AAG website <http://www.aag.org> to find out more about
the annual meeting. We need a) title and short abstract (no more than 250
words and with 3 keywords) in the AAG conference format; and b) a filled AAG
conference registration form with registration fee (i.e. Credit Card #) by
31 July 2001. Please email them to George Lin <[log in to unmask]>.

If you have any enquiries about the session, please email Henry Yeung
<[log in to unmask]>.



Fulong Wu

----------------
[log in to unmask]