2nd Call for Papers: AAG Los Angeles, 9th–13th April 2013
Labour Flows: Exploring the Intersections of Global Production Networks and Migration
Session Organizers: Neil M. Coe (National University of Singapore) and Martin Hess (University of Manchester, UK)
The geographies of global production networks (GPNs) have changed considerably over the last decade. There are multiple and by now well-known reasons for these shifts, including the continuing organisational and spatial fragmentation of value chains through outsourcing and offshoring, the growth of emerging economies as sites of both production and consumption, and not least the global financial crisis and its ongoing impacts on the world economy. The results of these developments, however, are geographical shifts not only in the flows of materials, products, services and investment, but also in the flows of workers through processes of international and intra-national labour migration. While GPN research to date has produced a strong body of work analyzing many of these changes, much of this literature has tended to focus on networks of firms at the expense of a more comprehensive interrogation of labour and development in the places connected together by GPNs. This lacuna has started to be addressed more recently, however, with a small but growing body of work investigating the central role of labour and it’s agency within GPNs.
That being said, labour mobility and its impact on shaping GPNs and their geographies still deserves more attention than it has received to date. Although labour has to ‘go home’ every night, and consequently is said to be less mobile than capital, the movement of people is nevertheless crucial in shaping GPNs, in various ways and across different scales. Not only are migrant workers attracted to key production nodes within GPNs, but corporate actors will actively reconfigure GPN structures in response to shifting migration landscapes. At the same time, the regulation of labour flows by the multi-scalar state is highly selective and new forms of facilitating labour migration – for instance through the use of a wide range of profit-seeking intermediaries – have emerged, with profound implications for both sending and receiving regions. The purpose of this session therefore is to continue the dialogue between economic and labour geography in exploring the multiple intersections between GPNs and migratory flows. We welcome paper submissions addressing (but not limited to) one or more of the following topics:
· The connections between migration and changing GPN dynamics;
· Labour mobility within and across GPNs;
· Different modes of migration associated with GPNs (e.g. short-term versus long-term);
· Different geographies of migration associated with GPNs (e.g. local versus international);
· Temporary migration and secondment of managers and ‘experts’ within GPNs;
· Knowledge transfers associated with worker migration within GPNs;
· Derived demand for migrant workers in GPNs;
· The collective organization of migrant workers and GPNs;
· The agency of migrant workers within GPNs;
· The involvement of labour market intermediaries in GPN-related migration;
· Global (re)production networks and remittances;
· Migration regulation responses to changing GPN configurations and geographies;
· The (il)legality of migration flows associated with GPNs;
· National/local labour control regimes and migrant workers in GPNs;
· The monitoring and protection of migrant workers within GPNs.
Anyone interested in presenting a paper in this session should submit an abstract of up to 250 words to both Neil Coe ([log in to unmask] ) and Martin Hess ([log in to unmask] ) by 15th October 2012.
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Dr Martin Hess
Geography, School of Environment and Development
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
UK
Phone: +44 (0)161 275 3643
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/geography
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