Call for papers for the Global Conference on Economic Geography, University of Cologne, July 24 – 28, 2018
URBAN ECONOMIC AGGLOMERATION IN THE AGE OF INFORMALITY, EPHEMERALITY AND VIRTUALITY, AESTHEATICISATION OF PLACE
Chair: Prof Nick Phelps (UCL, Bartlett School of Planning) & Stefania Fiorentino (UCL, Bartlett School of Planning).
The theory of agglomeration or clustering continues to be focus of significant theoretical innovation over the years. Yet there continue to be blind and underexplored theoretical spots with regard to agglomerative processes with regard to informality, the ephemerality of key activities and events, the impacts of information and communications technology and the intangible effects of urban amenity and the quality of the built environment.
For example, literature on joint action and clustering in developing countries is actually poorly attuned to the majority of informal businesses to be found there (Harris, 2014; Moreno-Monroy, 2012; Phelps and Wijaya, 2016). Theory might also be developed to elaborate different aspects of what Duranton (2001) some time ago noted as the centrality of ‘personal networks’ as the contemporary institution supporting agglomeration. Papers might explore the links between agglomeration/de-agglomeration and the creeping informality found in the global north in the form of the increasing precariousness of formal employment, the shadow or black economy and the ‘gig economy’.
A rapidly emerging body of research has begun to explore the contributions of formally instituted but ephemeral events such as trade fairs (Bathelt et al. 2014) to processes of industry agglomeration or temporary clustering (Maskell et al., 2006). These emerging ideas can be further explored with regard to the greater variety of informally constituted temporary or pop-up events that are now a feature of many cities.
The need to refigure economic geography around issues virtuality was noted some time ago (Thrift and Olds, 1996). However, the precise implications of the likes of e-commerce and the digital basis of the activities of ‘makers’ for existing agglomerations or the emergence of new agglomerations remains underexplored. It appears clear, for example, that e-commerce in China has promoted many new ‘Taibo’ village-level industry specialisations but less clear whether and how these same developments have contributed to the survival and further development of existing major clusters in China and elsewhere.
Finally, diverse strands of literature speak to the role of amenity (Clarke et al, 2002), the quality and even the active aestheticization of places and the built environment (Scott; Zukin, 1998) to the revival of urban economies even if their precise connections to urban economic agglomeration remain underspecified.
We invite papers that speak to some of the following topics:
• temporary clusters such as trade fairs, pop-up
• e-commerce and its relationship to urban economic agglomeration
• informality and urban economic agglomeration
• The contribution of the built environment to urban economic agglomeration
Organizers:
Nicholas Phelps
Professor of Urban and Regional Development
[log in to unmask]
Stefania Fiorentino
PhD candidate
[log in to unmask]
UCL Bartlett School of Planning
Central House
14 Upper Woburn Place
London
WC1H 0NN
If interested in the session please submit your abstract online through the conference website between
November 15, 2017 and March 15, 2018:
https://www.gceg2018.com/call-for-sessions-and-papers.html
or email it to:
[log in to unmask]
for any other queries please also contact Stefania Fiorentino.
|