Apologies for cross-posting
John R. Bryson,
Professor of Enterprise and Economic Geography,
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences,
The University of Birmingham,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham,
B15 2TT
Tel: +44 (0)121 414 5549
Fax: +44 (0) 121 414 5528
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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AAG2006 CALL FOR PAPERS
Offshore, Onshore, Nearshore and Blended-Shore
Chicago, 7th-11th March 2006
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/Chicago2006/call_4_papers.cfm
Organiser:
John Bryson, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
The on-going development of new technologies and associated production and
management systems continues to offer the possibility for the development
of new international divisions of labour as firms develop and refine their
organisational geographies. Overtime, developed market economies have
experienced a transfer of manufacturing as well as services to low-cost
production locations. Conventionally, it was assumed that service
employment would not follow manufacturing work overseas, but the
interaction between services and new forms of information communications
technologies (ICT) has led to a relocation of some services to relatively
low cost labour locations, for example India and China. Service production
could thus be following manufacturing in the development of a ‘second
global shift’ or a "new international division of ‘service’ labour"
(NIDSL). This development has produced a major policy debate or even panic
in the USA and Europe as it has the potential to transfer service work
from developed economies to low cost locations. The NIDSL is still in its
infancy. Consumers may decide to switch to service suppliers that are
still using local labour and suppliers may find labour-economies that
accrue from the NIDSL to be ultimately false economies especially when
they involve direct voice communication between clients and providers
located in different countries. Service activities that involve the supply
of standardized services can be provided from centralised call centres or
back offices whilst face-to-face delivery is perhaps left to those that
can afford this level of service or to services that are impossible to
provide in this form.
The shift of manufacturing and service work offshore is complex as it
involves more than just a simple dualism between onshore/offshore
locations. In many instances, firms blend onshore, offshore and nearshore
delivery systems to maximise the benefits that accrue from each of these
locations. In some cases, retaining everything onshore may become a
marketing advantage associated with quality rather than cost of service
provision.
This session therefore aims to generate innovative debate and theory about
how geographers understand developments in the spatial organisation of
both manufacturing and service delivery systems. The session welcomes
papers that explore:
-theoretical contributions to understanding the evolving nature of
local/global production systems.
-Outsourcing geographies/outsourcing relationships.
-alterations in production systems/firm behaviour that involves new (or
old) ways of capitalising on differences that exist between places.
-theoretically informed case studies of offshoring, nearshoring and
blended shoring.
-the nature of the firm and the management of complex supply chains.
-the development and evolution of global supply networks.
-discussions of the offshore/onshore/nearshore decision making process.
-fast-track fashion production systems that requires production to be
maintained onshore or nearshore rather than offshore.
-service offshoring – from data warehouses to call centres.
-manufacturing offshoring – designing or managing brands in the USA/Europe
and manufacturing in China or elsewhere.
-Onshore and offshore as ways of manufacturing or delivering services by
developing a follow-the-sun’ geographical policy – the development of 24
hour integrated production systems.
These topics are offered as an indication and proposals are welcome from
contributors who consider that their work fits the wider themes of the
session.
The AAG website - http://www.aag.org - provides more information about the
annual meeting. Accepted papers will need to be registered online (paper
title and short abstract of no more than 250 words and with 3 keywords).
If interested in participating, please send abstracts (of not more than
250 words) for possible inclusion in this session to John Bryson at
[log in to unmask] by 7th October 2005.
Please forward to those who may be interested in participating.
Abstract instructions:
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/Chicago2006/abstract.cfm
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