Globalization, grapes and gender: Women's work in traditional and agro-export production in northern Chile

Recent changes in the global political economy have had dramatic effects on the lives of women as they are incorporated into globalization processes, such as the expansion of agribusiness, in often marginal and unstable ways. However, it is vital to consider how these globalization processes are mediated by women in ways that reflect local geo-historical contexts. This paper explores the expansion of the fruit export sector, land tenure, community organization and female employment in agriculture in northern Chile. Agro-export production has marginalized but not destroyed the small-scale farming sector and large-scale export farms co-exist with small-scale domestically-orientated farms. Female labour has been very important in the success of fresh fruit exports and many rural women negotiate both waged work in the fruit export economy and unwaged work on family farms. The paper explores the women's perceptions of agricultural work and how these relate to their identities as unpaid workers on the family farm and as waged workers in the agro-export sector. The paper thus attempts to explore the multiplicity of ways that women experience rapid changes in the agrarian sector and how these changes relate to the maintenance of more 'traditional'practices and identities.     

How many seasonal workers from the Pacific have been employed in New Zealand since the RSE scheme began?

This Research Note provides the first reliable figures on the numbers of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands who participated in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme between July 2007 and June 2022. The method for deriving these figures is explained briefly before examining the frequency of return by men and women for employment in subsequent seasons from the nine participating Pacific states. Clarification of the numbers of seasonal workers involved in the scheme, as distinct from work visas issued each year for RSE employment, is timely for two reasons. Firstly, the RSE scheme is under review in March 2023 by Immigration New Zealand. Secondly, the three major sources of Pacific seasonal labour are raising questions in 2023 about the impact of the scheme on their domestic labour markets and economies. Robust data on numbers of Pacific seasonal workers during the scheme's first 15 years contributes important information in both these contexts.     

Learning and earning: relational scales of children's work

There is an important dissonance in recent studies of children's work between the global efforts to eradicate abusive forms of child labour on the one hand and, on the other hand, local settings where children's work plays an important role in social reproduction, socialization and skill acquisition. This research explores the reasons for this dissonance by eliding both the global perspectives of children's rights and the local realities of children's daily geographies. By closing the gap between global knowledge about children (from above) and children's knowledge and agency in their own environments (from below), we seek to present a relational account of children's work within the context of their daily geographies. We draw on data collected with child workers in Tijuana, Mexico to demonstrate the complex role that children's work often plays in the daily geographies of young people.     

Sectoral Shifts and Occupational Migration in the United States

This research is grounded in notions of differential economic restructuring across employment sectors and geographic space, as well as migration selectivity by occupation. A series of unconstrained competing‐destinations models were employed to analyze the response by workers in thirteen occupational categories to sectoral employment change, average wages, and distance. As was hypothesized, workers in occupations that require high levels of education and skills are more responsive, in terms of migration, to economic opportunities in alternative labor‐market areas. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that highly educated and skilled workers migrate longer distances. Further investigation suggests that opportunities for highly educated and skilled workers may be clustering in relatively few areas that are in relatively close proximity.     

Model employers and model cities?: Bangalore’s public sector and the rise of the neoliberal city

Bangalore is held up as a model for how cities, particularly in the global south, should develop in the globalized information age, in which entrepreneurs with new access to international capital fuel service-sector-driven development. Expanding market forces cultivate cities of skilled middle-class workers whose increased consumption generates broad developmental benefits. Now known as the “Silicon Valley of India,” Bangalore was previously the capital of India’s public sector enterprises (PSEs), which laid important groundwork for the city of today, including the IT sector. I show how, by providing access to homeownership along with high wages and benefits tied to secure employment, Bangalore’s PSEs created the foundation for the city today and its middle-class character. The skilled workforce that PSEs created helped the IT sector emerge in the city. By examining this erased history, we see the role of the state in development projects, and consider alternative models for urban change.     

Sectoral Shifts and Occupational Migration in the United States

Abstract

This research is grounded in notions of differential economic restructuring across employment sectors and geographic space, as well as migration selectivity by occupation. A series of unconstrained competing-destinations models were employed to analyze the response by workers in thirteen occupational categories to sectoral employment change, average wages, and distance. As was hypothesized, workers in occupations that require high levels of education and skills are more responsive, in terms of migration, to economic opportunities in alternative labor-market areas. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that highly educated and skilled workers migrate longer distances. Further investigation suggests that opportunities for highly educated and skilled workers may be clustering in relatively few areas that are in relatively close proximity.     

THE URBAN LABOR MARKET IN MEXICO: GLOBAL CHANGE,INFORMALITY, AND SOCIAL POLARIZATION

In this study I argue that Mexico's integration into the global economy has increased the dependent nature of its capitalist development and has resulted in the weakening of organized labor and growth of the informal sector. Neoliberal policies in Mexico have accentuated the disparities between the formal and informal sectors and between highly paid skilled workers and those working in unskilled and poorly paid occupations. New forms of geographic dispersion and agglomeration of economic activities contribute to the reproduction of differentiated labor markets in various regions and cities. This is particularly true in those areas most affected by the global economy, such as the major metropolitan areas and the northern regions of the country.

The main changes in the urban labor market associated with economic restructuring in Mexico during the 1980s are analyzed. The paper makes three main points: (1) the ability of the formal sector and especially industry to absorb labor has declined, and there is a clear trend toward a tertiarization of the economy; (2) the informal sector has experienced rapid growth, particularly in small firms and other less productive economic activities; and (3) the occupational structure displays more marginal employment and signs of polarization between the proportions of jobs with the highest and lowest levels of skill.     

Emulating The Celtic Tiger? A Comparison of the Software Industries of Singapore and Ireland

This article explores parallels between the economic development strategies of Ireland and Singapore through a study of the software sector. My central argument is that Singapore's embryonic software industry can learn important lessons from Ireland, which now exports over US$6 billion worth of products annually. Ireland's success has been achieved by attracting two forms of export-oriented foreign direct investment that are increasingly important due to globalisation trends in the software industry: software development centres, and software product manufacturing and localisation (translation and local adaptation) plants. Ireland has benefited from its position on the periphery of Western Europe, one of the largest software markets in the world, to emerge as a key production location for US transnational corporations. Singapore is perhaps now poised, with a similar range of financial, labour market and infrastructural attributes as Ireland, to benefit from rapid growth in the Asia-Pacific software market. Three corporate case studies from Singapore are used to illustrate this argument.     

NEW CORPORATE STRUCTURES, REGIONAL OFFICES AND SINGAPORE'S NEW ECONOMIC DIRECTIONS

The adoption of new organisational structures and methods for controlling subsidiaries is affecting the role and characteristics of regional offices. Since 1986 Singapore's economic strategy has given priority to the attraction of regional offices as part of a wider search for new economic directions. This shift coincided with the emergence of a new Southeast Asian division of labour associated with the adoption of a regional focus in multinational investment and the integration of subsidiary investment. A survey of regional offices awarded “operational headquarters” (OHQ) status by the government shows how changes in corporate structures and the formation of the regional division of labour are influencing regional office activity and organisation. This analysis identifies four types of regional office, of which the largest function as centres of logistics and service support, Barriers to the adoption of corporate control functions amongst Singapore OHQs are explained.     

Globalization, polarization and the informal sector: the case of paid domestic workers in London

Considerable debate has occurred over whether 'global cities' are witnessing polarization of their labour forces into highly paid professionals and low paid personal service workers. This paper offers evidence on paid domestic labour in London, some of which occurs in the informal sector, and considers its potential significance for the polarization debate.     

A new deal for lone parents? Training lone parents for work in West London

In this paper we explore the impacts of the training programmes offered to lone mothers with young children on the Government's 'New Deal for Lone Parents' in one local labour market: West London. Our research suggests that regulatory workfare policies are (re)producing and reinforcing gendered inequalities in the labour market by encouraging lone mothers to undertake training in feminised occupational areas such as childcare. We will argue that in a local economy such as West London where more childcare workers are desperately needed to enable other more highly skilled workers to take up employment opportunities, such training programmes may be doing little more than exacerbating the already gendered and class-based polarisation of the labour market – embedding low-skilled, poorly qualified lone mothers into low-paid jobs.     

Gender,migration and the organisation of work under economic devolution: Ecuador, 1982-90

This study examined the impact of economic deficits due to structural adjustment processes on shifts in the organization of work by gender and migration status in Ecuador. Work is organized according to Lawson's social hierarchy scheme: ownership; authority and control over employees; autonomy in one's own work; and the nature and range of skills used in production. After a brief review of the related empirical literature, the author describes the concepts, categories of, and study area of work and then begins the empirical analysis. Data were obtained from 1,884,816 individual records of economically active persons in 1982 and 2,946,547 persons in 1990, from the censuses of 1982 and 1990 for the entire nation, and from fieldwork observations by Lawson. Structural adjustment policies (SAPs) associated with devolution tend to further aggravate inequities, especially among the disadvantaged. Findings are presented for male and female nonmigrants, migrants, and female migrants. During the 1980s, female migrants experienced primary economic activity, especially as self-employed, family, or low skilled employees; and declines in high skilled public sector employment and service activity, especially in wage labor. The economic impact was greater by gender than by migration status. The shifts only improved the relative position of women in self-employed and ownership jobs. Females lost public-sector employment to males; overall wage declines were more severe in the informal sector. Down-sizing in the public sector and shifts toward capital-intensive production marginalized female migrants. Fieldwork operationalizes losses among females/female migrants.     

Wage inequality between financial hubs and periphery

The observation that large cities pay higher wages for the same skilled work has caught the attention of scholars recently. The urban wage premium thesis suggests that urban sorting, skill matching and learning externalities in large cities result in a spatial wage gap between large and small cities. In this paper, a different spatial lens of wage premium is examined. Specifically, we hypothesize that the wage premium phenomenon may be more prominent between networked and less networked cities than between large and small cities. We test this hypothesis on skilled financial workers and their human capital networks. The results indicate that the financial human capital network is structured spatially around hubs and peripheral cities. Wage inequality is significant between centrally located hubs and peripherally located cities compared to large and small cities. The findings provide evidence for a networked city wage premium, suggesting that information and resource connections structured by skilled individuals contribute to wage differences between cities.     

"Power Geometries

Feminist contributions to the geographical literature on capitalist restructuring have tended to emphasize the importance of examining women's experiences vis-a-vis those of men. This research in progress report on the telecommunications service industry in New Zealand suggests that assuming the relative homogeneity of ‘women’ as an analytical category, then assessing the experience of women against those of men using national data, may no longer be satisfactory in a context in which production, finance and labour markets have been internationalised.     

The Dynamics and Governmental Policies of Shanghai’s International Financial Center Formation: A Financial Geography Perspective

This article first provides a conceptual and theoretical analysis of international financial centers (IFCs) by focusing on IFCs’ main characteristics, categories, and policy regimes. It then reviews the policy initiatives driving Shanghai’s IFC, coming from the central and local governments, and evaluates their strategic effects. Finally, I emphasize the disadvantages of Shanghai’s IFC dynamics by focusing on the level of internationalization, the financial hinterland, the English professionals, and the legal system. The empirical study reveals that the construction of Shanghai’s IFC has achieved great advances, motivated by its policy dynamics since 1990, but its global impact is still limited compared to New York and London. This study sheds light on the dynamics of Shanghai’s IFC as a government-led model.     

The Asian financial crisis,women's work and forced migration

The effects of the deepening financial crisis in Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, led by the collapse of financial and currency markets, have spread beyond domestic boundaries to other Asian economies. Financial instability, devaluation and inflation are warning signals for other Asian countries in the process of repairing damage to their economies. The mobility of female labour, due to eviction and expulsion (forced migration), is related to forces of the new market mechanism in the era of the globalizing world. Two processes of forced migration are highlighted: between countries; and between urban and rural areas. Such processes have led to increasing mobility and to the eviction of immigrant labour and the female labour force, which has affected the local economy, type of work and gender relations. Thailand is examined as a case study, with supplementary data from other affected countries. There is a strong tendency for women especially to be priced out of the economy and forced to return either to their native villages within the host country or to their home countries. The type and pattern of migration and change of occupation helps in the understanding of the power of globalization, the dynamics of the crisis and its impact on women workers.     

粤港澳大湾区科技金融耦合度及其影响因素研究

科技创新与金融生态的紧密结合是社会经济取得高质量发展的重要基础和先决条件。粤港澳大湾区作为国家发展战略高地以及经济活力较高的区域之一,在推动科技创新、金融发展和产业融合方面已经取得了一定的成效。本文基于粤港澳大湾区各城市2009—2018年科技创新与金融发展的面板数据,通过测度粤港澳大湾区科技金融耦合协调度,并分析科技金融耦合协调发展的影响因素以及空间溢出效应。研究结果表明：粤港澳大湾区的公共科技金融和市场科技金融呈现了较快的发展态势,公共科技金融投入力度持续增大,市场科技金融形式不断创新,制度日趋完善;粤港澳大湾区各城市的科技金融耦合协调度呈现逐年优化趋势,但区域间仍存在明显的空间差异性;科技金融耦合协调度受到政府科技投入、金融效率、高新技术发展等因素的正向影响,但广东省及香港特别行政区内科技金融耦合协调度的空间溢出效应并不明显。最后,研究从政府机构、金融机构、科技型企业、科技金融服务部门等角度提出了政策建议。     

Managing the Smart City-State: Singapore Approaches the 21st Century1

Singapore has a remarkable reputation for its successful deployment of limited resources and for its strength and stability even during Asia's current economic crisis. Widespread recognition and attempts by other countries and cities at emulation of some of the strategies it has adopted have confirmed that Singapore has achieved longstanding aspirations for excellence in many areas. As Singapore positions itself to enter the new millennium the government's distinctive and sometimes controversial corporate management style is evidenced in its approach to such matters as growing the economy, enhancing the physical infrastructure, constraining residential segregation, and encouraging increased family size to enhance domestic labour supply. Sometimes it is the means of achieving the desired ends which attracts criticism, at others it is the goals themselves which are questioned. This paper examines some of the features of Singapore's drive to enhance its regional and global role in vastly different circumstances from those which confronted the same government at internal independence in 1959 and full independence in 1965.     

MAKING SUSTAINABLE CREATIVE/CULTURAL SPACE IN SHANGHAI AND SINGAPORE*

ABSTRACT. Shanghai and Singapore are two economically vibrant Asian cities that have recently adopted creative/cultural economy strategies. In this article I examine new spatial expressions of cultural and economic interests in the two cities: state‐vaunted cultural edifices and organically evolved cultural spaces. I discuss the simultaneous precariousness and sustainability of these spaces, focusing on Shanghai's Grand Theatre and Moganshan Lu and on Singapore's Esplanade—Theatres by the Bay and Wessex Estate. Their cultural sustainability is understood as their ability to support the development of indigenous content and local idioms in artistic work. Their social sustainability is examined in terms of the social inclusion and community bonds they engender; environmental sustainability refers to the articulation with the language of existing urban forms and the preservation of or improvements to the landscape. Although both Shanghai and Singapore demonstrate simultaneous precariousness and sustainability, Singapore's city‐state status places greater pressure on it to ensure sustainability than does Shanghai, within a much larger China in which Beijing serves as the cultural hearth while Shanghai remains essentially a commercial center.     

SMALL‐SCALE INDUSTRY AS A SPONGE? EMPIRICAL SURVEY IN THE CENTRAL REGION,GHANA

It has been posited that small‐scale industry – businesses with less than 30 workers – provides a large share of employment and income in Ghana. This paper examines the proposition that while such enterprises in the informal sector are said to act as a sponge to soak up surplus labour in marginal activities, they are unprofitable. Using data from a survey in 1998 of 175 micro and small‐scale enterprises in the Central Region of Ghana, the paper also confirms problematic aspects of employment in this sector including the lack of formal contracts, irregular pay, low remuneration, non‐existent social protection and only marginal employment growth. The implication is that the small‐scale industry sector is not economically sustainable in its present form in Ghana.