Dear colleagues,
The organisers are looking for a few more papers to fill a second
session (see below).
Please send abstracts or expressions of interest to Neil, Martin or Marina.
Best,
Mark
------------------------------------------
Mark Graham, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
1 St Giles
Oxford OX1 3JS
Telephone +44 (0) 1865 287 203
Fax +44 (0) 1865 287 211
www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/faculty.cfm?id=165
www.geospace.co.uk
www.wikichains.com
twitter.com/geoplace
****
Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers
(RGS-IBG)
Conference 2010, 1-3 September 2010, London
CALL FOR PAPERS
Global Production Networks, Labour and Development
Organisers: Neil Coe (University of Manchester), Martin Hess
(University of Manchester) and Marina Prieto-Carrón (University of
Portsmouth)
Sponsored by EGRG (Economic Geography Research Group) and DARG (The
Developing Areas Research Group)
Economic geography research has a rich tradition of analysing the
global economy and the places and spaces connected to it or excluded
from it, but often the dominant geographical focus has been the
advanced
and emerging economies, with comparatively little theoretical and
empirical attention paid to the Global South. Development geography
and
development studies, on the other hand, have by and large followed
different epistemologies and hence there was not much of a real
connection between these literatures. The Global Production Networks
(GPN) approach and related network concepts could arguably bridge this
gap by mobilising a relational concept of space and both its material
and metaphorical production. We consider it important for
non-reductionist understandings of development to draw from political
economy as well as from more postmodern conceptualisations of culture,
difference and meaning as deployed for instance in the
post-development
literature. While providing useful analytical frameworks, GPN and
cognate approaches have hitherto tended to marginalise some important
aspects of development, one of which is a much more explicit
recognition
of labour agency and the livelihood strategies of workers and
households. In this context, there is a need to unpack ‘labour’ in
GPN analysis and to differentiate between various groups of workers
and
their agency in various spatial and temporal contexts.
We will have two sessions that theoretically, methodologically and
empirically address the existing and perceived gaps in our knowledge
by
exploring the following issues:
● The potentials and limits of GPN research to integrate different
epistemologies prevalent in economic geography, labour geography and
(post-) development studies.
● The centrality of labour for global production networks through an
enhanced dialogue between GPN research, labour and development
geography.
● Understanding the agency of workers in GPNs under the conditions of
neoliberalism and globalisation.
● Re-addressing the lack of attention to gender issues in GPN studies
and recognizing the extent and significance of reproductive labour.
● Investigating GPNs from the “bottom up” starting with some of
the diverse groups of workers in the Global South.
● The ways in which GPNs link and alter the nature of labour markets
in the Global North and Global South.
● The impact GPNs have on the livelihoods of peripheral workers.
● The possibilities for social upgrading in GPN.
● The livelihood strategies of workers and households included in and
excluded from GPNs.
Interested people need to submit 250 words abstracts to us by January
31st 2010. We also welcome enquiries and ideas.
Neil Coe ([log in to unmask]); Mart
in Hess,
([log in to unmask]); Marina Prieto-Carrón,
([log in to unmask])
___________________________________________
BEFORE PRINTING THINK OF THE ENVIRONMENT
ANTES DE IMPRIMIR, PIENSA EN EL MEDIO AMBIENTE
___________________________________________
Dr Marina Prieto-Carron
Senior Lecturer in Development Geography
Department of Geography
University of Portsmouth
Buckingham Building
Lion Terrace
Portsmouth PO1 3HE
tel/fax: +44(0)23 9284 2503/2512
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