Place of life stories in labour geography: Why does it matter?

Labour geography foregrounds the role of workers in shaping geographies of work by paying attention to the larger actions of labour in response to the capital and state. It however pays less attention to the everyday geographies of labour and the complexities of the ‘social being’ in trying to understand workers motivations and responses. This review argues for labour geography to look beyond the factory gates to understand the nuanced politics of labour as relations get ‘reworked’ within a patriarchal-capitalist society. It argues for paying close attention to the life stories and experiences of workers, to create linkages between lives as waged workers in a formal workspace with the informal nature of work-life outside, without losing sight of the larger struggles of labour and global processes, to develop a more grounded understanding of worker’s agency and actions.     

The spatial patterns of mass strikes: A labour geography approach

Labour geography aims to explore aspects of workers’ agency that have not yet been at the centre of research, this includes: the links between working-class politics and local communities, the interdependence of global economic networks and working-class activities, and the spatial dimension of workers’ organisations. Although these aspects are relevant for the dynamics of mass strikes, an analysis of mass strikes has been largely absent from debates in labour geography. Rosa Luxemburg’s seminal analysis of strikes in Russia demonstrated the rapid spatial expansion of these movements without any central organisation. Similar phenomena have occurred in recent mass strikes in the emerging economies. This text shows how mass strikes in Brazil, India and South Africa can be investigated through a labour geography lens and calls for a renewed debate on how a ‘strike wave’ is defined or understood.     

Transnational elites in global cities: British expatriates in Singapore's financial district

Skilled international migration is as an important process of both contemporary globalization and the global city. The establishment of a transnational elite of expatriate labour in international finance plays a vital part in the accumulation of capital within international financial centres (IFCs). Expatriate labour has become a major determinant of the IFC, creating financial capital through complex social relations, knowledge networks, practices and discourses. The principal argument being made in this paper is that expatriates are major agents in the accumulation and transfer of financial knowledge in the IFC, and that such processes are undertaken through expatriate global–local knowledge networks and other social practices. The paper is divided into three major parts. Following a discussion of transnational elites as expatriates in global cities, which also conceptualises their contribution to the spatialization of financial knowledge networks, the empirical study investigates the working, social and cultural knowledge networks and practices of British expatriates in Singapore. Finally, the paper revisits the conceptual work on transnational elites and suggests that expatriates were deeply embedded in global–local relations in the workplace and the business/social sphere through interaction with local ‘western educated/experienced' Singaporeans, but were disembedded from the local in the home and other household social spaces due to the invisibility of the local population in their interactions. Both the theoretical and empirical analyses suggests that expatriates are flow in the Castellian spatial logic of the network society.     

The evolution of the electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia): Strategic coupling,adaptiveness, adaptation,and the role of agency

Bringing together concepts from the global production networks and evolutionary economic geography literature, this article empirically examines the trajectory of the electrical and electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia). Based on trends in firm entries and exit as well as interviews with companies, we find limited robustness in the industry’s trajectory. While there is evidence of the role of ‘structure’ in this outcome, we argue that human agency – particularly the actions of subnational policy-makers – is key. This is manifest in a preference for fostering regional ‘adaptiveness’ through the often uncritical promotion of a diversity of economic sectors. This compromises the meaningful pursuit of regional ‘adaptation’ in the form of new and more complex branches emerging from existing industries. This arrested development, in turn, hinders an effective strategic coupling between the regional economy and multinational corporations, thus undermining regional resilience.     

Agency by exit: Swedish nurses and the “Not below 24,000” movement

Hirschman’s (1970) concepts of exit, voice and loyalty can be reworked to add further nuances to the understanding of labour agency. Agency by exit is of interest in demonstrating how agency is conditioned by structures and context that constrain and enable successful action. It may start as individual acts of coping and then enable and empower more collective actions of reworking and resistance. Agency by exit thereby expands our understanding of what strategies of coping, reworking and resistance entail. We base our arguments on a case study of the “Not below 24,000” movement among nurse students and newly graduated nurses for acceptable entry wages in Sweden. The movement has succeeded in raising the entry wage for a number of newly graduated nurses by turning individual and collective agency by exit into structural power. While the movement has managed to shake power relations, it has not fully changed the rules of the game.     

The rise of strategic partner firms and reconfiguration of personal computer production networks in China: Insights from the emerging laptop cluster in Chongqing

In recent theorization of the Global Production Network (GPN) framework, viz. “GPN 2.0 theory” (Coe and Yeung, 2015), firm-specific strategies namely intra-firm coordination, inter-firm control, inter-firm partnership and extra-firm bargaining are conceptualized to understand the changing dynamics and reconfiguration of global production networks. Drawing upon the extra-firm strategies in the GPN 2.0 theory, this paper examines the spatial and organizational reconfiguration of personal computer production networks in China since late 2000s. Based on the information and data collected from years of observation and in-depth interviews with various firms and extra-firm actors, particularly government officials during June 2014 and December 2016, this study explores the emerging laptop cluster in Chongqing, a centrally-governed municipality in West China, which produced 40% of the world laptop computers in 2015. This paper argues that the rapid development in Chongqing in a short span has been attributed to the rising power of strategic partner firms of lead firms, primarily Taiwan-based contract manufacturers (e.g. Foxconn). It sheds light on the emerging strategic coupling between strategic partner firms and local government in Chongqing, which has brought about the reconfiguration of laptop production networks from the prevailed lead-firm centric to the emerging strategic partnership pattern. This study enriches the developing literature on the rise of strategic partner firms by extending the firm-centric analysis to extra-firm strategies, which echoes the extra-regional dynamics advocated recently by the Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) perspective.     

Re-scaling collective bargaining: union responses to restructuring in the North American auto industry

Historically, political struggles to define the geographical scale at which labour relations and collective bargaining will be conducted have been of crucial significance to the labour movement. Today, workers and their unions face very difficult challenges. In many manufacturing industries changes in the organizational structure of production at different geographical scales have undermined the effectiveness of the organizing and collective bargaining strategies associated with traditional industrial unionism. This paper focuses on collective bargaining strategies developed by North American autoworkers’ unions to respond to the extensive restructuring of the automotive industry that took place during the 1990s. These strategies include innovations in the structure and content of collective bargaining and efforts to redefine the scale at which collective bargaining takes place. Following a brief discussion of the challenge posed by the integration of Mexico into a continent-wide production system, the analysis focuses on the strategies devised by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union during the 1996 and 1999 rounds of collective bargaining to address issues raised by outsourcing and modular manufacturing. With outsourcing, the automakers are not so much eliminating jobs as they are deciding who gets to do them, at what price, and under what working conditions. With modular manufacturing, the organizational boundaries between firms are blurring and the terms and conditions of work in one firm arguably are becoming dependent upon management decisions made in another firm. The CAW’s response has been to develop new collective bargaining strategies including the concepts of ‘work ownership’ and ‘satellite bargaining’ which involves redefining the traditional geographical extent of the bargaining unit. While the empirical focus is on the North American automobile industry, the general issues related to the re-scaling of production, and especially outsourcing and modular manufacturing, are common across a range of manufacturing industries.     

Moving players,traversing perspectives: Global value chains,production networks and Ghanaian football labour migration

This article examines the production and transnational export of Ghanaian football labour. It does so via a cross-disciplinary approach that utilises perspectives rooted in the sociology of development (global value chains) and economic geography (global production networks). The article is underpinned by two central arguments. Firstly, it contends that the GVC framework is useful in accounting for how Ghanaian players are produced and prepared for the international market, identifying the key agents and agencies involved, mapping the geography of production and export and assessing the institutional context within which the trade operates locally, nationally and internationally. The second draws on the GPN perspective to argue that while Ghanaian football labour migration remains a process contoured by uneven asymmetries of power that favour actors, stakeholders and entities in the global North, there are currently segments of the production–export chain where power is much more diffuse and some benefits are captured in the global South. The paper draws on interview data and observations gleaned from four periods of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana between January 2008 and June 2011.     

Locating international REDD+ power relations: Debating forests and trees in international climate negotiations

The Reduction of Deforestation and Forest Degradation initiative (REDD+) was initially hailed widely as a smart and cost-effective way to mitigate climate change and has moved quickly compared to other strands of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. Much of the initiative’s original appeal – and a good deal of subsequent controversy around it – relates to framing the world’s tropical forests as carbon sinks and compensating developing countries that manage to reverse or avoid deforestation. REDD+ negotiations can thus be seen a site where the standard divisions between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 (‘developed’ and ‘developing’) were being challenged and interrogated by the negotiating parties and the broader network of actors around the climate regime. This article suggests that such complex and changing global governance policy fields need to be analysed as ‘places’ in their own right, populated by actors engaged in field-specific power relations that may not reflect international hierarchies or power relations manifested in other international settings. Based in a unique set of interviews supplemented by primary data analysis, this article unpacks the power relations of REDD+ negotiations by examining how those involved seek to assume competence, designate and recognize leadership, and shape outcomes. In tracing the dynamics of claiming competence, the ‘competition’ between two disciplinary milieus around forests as an international policy object and also delegates’ shifting between reliance on expert knowledge and political ‘know-how’ in the negotiations themselves are identified. To understand the politics of recognition – that is to have a claim to competence or position acknowledged by others – the perceived qualities and resources of recognized leadership are examined and the absence of global superpowers amongst REDD+ leadership is problematized and discussed. Finally, in terms of wielding influence over outcomes, the fate of two quite similar ideas – one that has become incorporated into REDD+ methodology and another that is failing to be – further illustrate how the field is marked by internal power practices and that not all actors are equally well-positioned to achieve desired outcomes.     

国际地球科学与资源环境科学发展战略分析

介绍了国际主要地学机构（NASA、USGS、NOAA、NERC、BGS）、主要组织（ICSU、EU、OECD、UNESCO）、国际主要基金机构（NSF、ESF）21世纪初10～20年有关地球科学与资源环境科学的研究与发展战略的目标、研究计划、主要研究内容与优先研究领域。这些机构与组织的地学与资源环境科学发展战略，反映了国际上地球科学与资源环境科学的研究重点和发展趋势，对把握国际地球科学与资源环境科学发展方向、明确我国地球科学与资源环境科学的战略重点和优先领域具有重要的参考价值。同时，依据美国科学信息研究所（ISI）的基本科学指标数据库（ESI），分析了过去20年国际地学（geosciences）、环境／生态学（environment／ec ology）领域著名科学家的国别和机构分布状况，分析了国际地学、环境／生态学过去10年成果产出最多、论文被引频次最多、篇均被引频次最高的前10个研究机构，反映了过去10年国际地学、环境／生态学研究的影响力。最后，简要分析了国际地球科学与资源环境科学的优先研究领域与主要特点。     

Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry

Although the number of directions which geographical research on transport is taking has recently increased, the extent to which transport geography capitalises on theoretical advancements made in other sub-disciplines of human geography is still fairly limited. This especially pertains to economic geography which, in contrast to the predominantly positivist and quantitative transport geography, has developed over the last few decades a more post-positivist and qualitative profile. By means of focusing on passenger air transport – one of the most neglected industries in economic geography – this paper aims to help bridge this gap. Three under-researched aspects of air transport are identified and a combination of two economic-geographical approaches – global production networks (GPN) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) – is advocated as a useful conceptual basis for further, more qualitative and more critical research on this dynamic sector. The paper argues that GPN and EEG would help research on air transport to: (1) employ network thinking beyond the infrastructural understanding of networks of air connections and thus better explain the multi-actor nature of the aviation sector, (2) complement the research on supra-national and national regulatory frameworks with more attention to the array of sub-national environments that shape the aviation industry ‘from below’, and (3) explore how the relations between aviation and economic development are moulded by different place-specific institutional factors. To lay foundations under further research the paper conceptualises the aviation industry as a global production network and uses the example of Polish passenger air transport to highlight the paper’s key empirical implications.     

FDI policy and political spaces for labour: The disarticulation of the Bolivian petroleros

Recent literature asserts that labour movements worldwide have been disempowered as a result of the various processes and discourses linked to economic globalisation. But there is a need to explore more carefully the mechanisms by which these processes and discourses affect resources for and constraints on effective union organisation. The purpose of this paper is to understand the construction of political spaces for organised labour and how these have been influenced by one such discourse: the policy discourse on foreign direct investments (FDI). It analyses the relationship between this policy discourse and political spaces for Bolivian petrolero unions through a case study of the period from 1984 to 2006. The policy discourse shifted the function of the state, fragmented symbols of collective identity, introduced flexible contracts, decentralised negotiations, rewarded individual achievement, and fostered competition rather than cooperation between employees. The shift towards an internationally integrated, FDI-driven economy shapes political spaces that allow collective action to be restructured from the workplace-based demands of unions to demands for democratic and indigenous rights of NGOs and other non-labour civil society organisations.     

Labour imperialism in India: The case of SEWA

The Self-Employed Women’s Association is almost universally praised for its work in organizing women in India’s informal sector but has never been examined from a critical perspective. In this study, we critically assess the SEWA movement both in terms of its big picture strategy and the grass roots of its movement. We find that the strategies and tactics employed by SEWA expose the Indian working class to significant imperialist intervention through donations by highly politicized groups, which have given these groups significant leverage over the organization. We will argue that SEWA as an organization is a product of hegemonic forms of imperialism, both in terms of the trade union and hegemonic imperialism. SEWA’s rise to significance can be seen in the spread of SEWA to various parts of India, but also importantly, to different countries in the global South and on the international stage in the UN apparatus and in the international trade union movement. The case of SEWA as a model of trade unionism is therefore an extremely important one to consider in terms of its impact in India but also on global labour politics.     

Temporary skilled international migration of young professional cricketers: ‘Going Down-Under’ to move-up the career path

Recent theories of temporary skilled international migration tend to be predicated on intra-company overseas transfers and secondments. In this paper we present original findings from a study of cricket migrants to highlight another important form of temporary international movements that enable upskilling from strategic, channelled placements into a foreign club, to propel the careers of young professionals on return migration to their respective home club. Drawing upon interviews with 35 early-career English cricketers, we reveal that moving to Australia for 3–6 months during the English domestic off-season is an increasingly common practice to extend the number of months playing the sport in both distinctive work and climatic conditions. Encountering different overseas sporting cultures and environments is becoming a normative part of formative training and development of young professional cricketers to make the ‘‘unfamiliar’ more ‘familiar’’ and enhance skills and competencies. We argue that these flows of international migrants have been facilitated by the post-2001 professionalization of cricket, and the institutionalisation of global networks between cricket organisations and key actors in the sport. We suggest that there are parallels between cricket placements and other sports and occupational sectors, such as temporary overseas moves linked to loans (e.g. football), visiting fellowships, internships and secondments, in ever-competitive global professional labour markets.     

Mining and extractive urbanism: Postdevelopment in a Mozambican boomtown

Mozambique has attracted international attention in recent years following the discovery of huge reserves of coal and gas deposits. A major focus of Mozambique’s extractives boom is the province of Tete, once a remote outpost but now a hub of power generation for the southern African region and an emerging centre of global investment in coal extraction. Some of the world’s largest mining firms from both established and emerging economies have descended on Tete, investing billions of dollars in developing concessions to extract some of the world’s largest untapped coal reserves with wide-ranging implications for the region’s political economy and effecting significant shifts in relations between state, capital and territorial control. At the urban scale, Tete city and its expanding periphery are increasingly characterised by enclaves and spaces of enclosure, as some groups benefit from and are integrated into global circuits of production whilst others suffer displacement and dispossession. In seeking to trace the emergence of Tete’s resource economy, the paper contends that three distinctive spatialities have resulted from these developments, including the infrastructure networks being constructed around the extractive industries, the enclave spaces arising from the coal boom (and the particular labour geographies that shape them) and the new and distinctive urban geographies that are the product of Tete’s rapid urbanisation. The paper seeks to assess the impacts, stakes and challenges linked to investments in extractive activities and looks at how the costs and risks are being differentially distributed within and between the affected communities.     

Globalising knowledge networks: Universities,diaspora strategies,and academic intermediaries

As diaspora strategies have become an integral aspect of national economic development strategies, so too have universities begun to formally identify and mobilise diasporic scientists, researchers and scholars in an effort to create global knowledge networks. This paper will identify this new role for diasporic academics. It begins by emphasising the increasing internationalisation of the academic labour market, arguing that an increasing number of researchers have multiple national affiliations and relationships. It shows how diasporic academics have become central to the creation of global knowledge networks. These knowledge networks derive from multiple sources including the institutional ambitions of universities who are seeking to expand their research remits in increasingly resource constrained environments, international and national funding bodies who are increasingly focused on research ‘grand challenges’, and the aspirations of individual researchers for whom global networks are increasingly important to successful careers.     

Irregular migration,informal remittances: evidence from Ethiopian villages

Although Ethiopia has seen a reduction in refugee flows over the past decade, documented and undocumented labour migration has significantly increased. International migration has changed from that born out of conflict to irregular migration mainly driven by economic reasons. The source of migrants has expanded from urban centres to include rural areas, making them an important source of low-skilled labour for the international labour market. Based on a qualitative study, this paper explores the process and pattern of Ethiopian migration to South Africa, an emerging destination in the global South. This migration corridor is increasingly characterised by its irregularity. The paper also reflects how migration patterns shape the pattern of remittance flow, along with the way in which migrants and their networks substitute the function of financial institutions engaged in the remittance industry. It also highlights the features of remittances utilisation in emerging rural migrant community in Southern Ethiopia.     

"战略性矿产研究"专辑特邀主编寄语

近一个时期以来,国际地缘政治形势不断恶化,美国、欧盟、日本等经济体愈发重视矿产资源安全,陆续出台战略性矿产政策."十三五"期间,我国及时出台了战略性矿产政策,对保障国家资源稳定供应起到了重要作用.2020年是"十四五"矿产资源规划的编制年,战略性矿产是国家资源规划的核心,为了更好的支撑规划的编制,有关单位开展了深入研究,取得了一批重要成果.我们组织了长期从事战略性矿产研究工作的二十余家单位的60名专家,编写了22篇有关战略性矿产的文章,组成"战略性矿产研究"专辑.专辑包括综合篇、清洁能源篇、战略性大宗金属篇、战略性关键金属篇和战略性非金属篇5个部分,本文将对收录本专辑的文章做一简要介绍,对深入开展矿产资源相关研究工作以及国家矿产资源战略、规划、政策的制定具有一定参考价值.     

美国全球变化数据共享的经历对我国数据共享决策的启示

美国对国家投资获取的科学数据采取"完全与开放"的共享政策。这一政策分两步落实：第一步侧重于数据中心建设。由NASA在全国优选 9个数据中心组成国家级分布式数据中心群（DAACs）。第二步侧重于法规和网络共享建设。由白宫设立总统长期专项---美国全球变化研究项目（USGCRP）,其中包括"全球变化数据信息系统"（GCDIS）。历经十年,建造了世界上最强大的科学数据共享体系：GCDIS。在此过程中,政府主持总体规划,并通过预算、法律法规,以及管理条例使规划得以实施。美国在科学数据共享方面的经验表明：公益性科学数据共享的工作应由国家负责;国家综合使用行政、经济和法律手段执行对该工作的领导;分布式国家级数据中心群是实现科学数据共享经济有效的途径;科学数据与科学研究的结合是科学数据发展的动力。这些对我国科学数据共享工作总体方案的确定和战略方针的选择具有一定的启发和借鉴作用。     

中国海洋生态系统动力学研究发展战略初探

在概要介绍海洋生态系统研究的发展背景、有关国际计划的研究内容与发展动向的基础上，提出了我国海洋生态系统动力学研究的发展原则、战略目标、“九五”优先领域、重点研究问题、典型实验区等设想、建议及具体的实施对策。