Robert Hassink ([log in to unmask]), Kiel University, Germany
Xiaohui Hu ([log in to unmask]), Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, China
Natsuki Kamakura ([log in to unmask]), The University of Tokyo, Japan
East Asia is currently considered to be the most dynamic economic region in the world, which has been caused by a shift of manufacturing industry from Japan, the first industrializing nation in East Asia, to neighboring Taiwan, South Korea and China, and more recently to countries in South East Asia. This shift has been accompanied by restructuring problems and policies in traditional and mature industry clusters in the different economies of East Asia (Hassink et al. 2017). At the same time, these clusters have become increasingly interconnected due to the increasing economic integration in East Asia. Investment and trade flows have intensified between East Asian economies where mature industry clusters are not only embedded in global production networks, but increasingly also in East Asian production networks (Aoyama 2016). The restructuring of mature industry clusters is also strongly affected by differing industry and innovation policies at the national and regional level. These policies might also support industrial efficiency through Industry 4.0 or similar industry-transformation strategies (e.g. in particular, tenglong huanniao; jiqi huanren; and tese xiaozhen in China).
Against this background, we aim at exploring restructuring processes and policies in mature industry clusters in East Asia, as well as their similarities and differences. Theoretically, we particularly welcome papers working with both evolutionary concepts (Boschma and Frenken 2018), such as path dependence, path creation, lock-ins, adaptability and resilience, concepts around global production networks and strategic coupling (Coe and Yeung 2016), as well as concepts embedded in the broader integrative paradigm of economic geography (Hassink and Gong 2017). Potential topics on the restructuring of mature industry clusters in East Asia include but are not limited to the following:
Based on the presentations, we aim at publishing a special issue in a SSCI journal.
References
Aoyama, Y. (2016). Reorienting the drivers of development: alternative paradigms. Area Development and Policy, 1, 295-304.
Boschma, R., Frenken, K. (2018) Evolutionary Economic Geography. In G. Clark, M. Gertler, M. P. Feldman, D. Wójcik (eds) The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coe, N.M., Yeung, H.W.C. (2015). Global production networks: Theorizing economic development in an interconnected world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hassink, R., Gong, H. (2017). Sketching the Contours of an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography. Lund: CIRCLE, Papers in Innovation Studies, Paper no. 2017/12.
Hassink, R., Hu, X., Shin, D. H., Yamamura, S., & Gong, H. (2017). The restructuring of old industrial areas in East Asia. Area Development and Policy, 1-18.
Zhu, S., Pickles, J. (2014). Bring in, go up, go west, go out: Upgrading, regionalisation and delocalisation in China’s apparel production networks. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 44(1), 36-63.
Please submit proposals for papers in the form of a 250-word abstract (text only) through the RSA conference portal by 28th February 2018. Proposals will be considered by the session organisers against the criteria of originality, interest and subject balance.
https://members.regionalstudies.org/lounge/Meetings/Meeting?ID=193