{"title":"Translating Fairtrade. Contact zones and discursive power in the global production network of certified Darjeeling tea","authors":"Miriam Wenner, Andri Heidler","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbaf004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaf004","url":null,"abstract":"The mechanisms through which voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) become effective as means of private governance and how they influence power relations in global production networks (GPNs) of certified goods are not well understood. Focussing on the last mile of VSS’ travel, we scrutinize the discursive dimension of power as it operates through the translation of Fairtrade in a local contact zone, namely Fairtrade trainings with workers at Indian tea plantations. Drawing on insights from postcolonial translation studies and actor-network-theory we show that the ways in which VSS are translated by cultural brokers are critical to processes of (dis)empowerment of workers. By showing how translation informs discursive power, our research offers a novel framework to unpack the power structures associated with private regulation as set within the context of multi-polar governance structures and the postcolonial legacies of places.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"120 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bit by bit: colocation and the death of distance in software developer networks","authors":"Moritz Goldbeck","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbaf002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaf002","url":null,"abstract":"Digital work environments potentially facilitate remote collaboration, thereby decreasing geographic friction in knowledge work. I examine spatial collaboration of 190,637 software developers in the USA on the largest coding platform, GitHub. Using a gravity framework that accounts for cluster size, I find that colocated developers collaborate about nine times more frequently than non-colocated developers. This colocation effect is about two to four times smaller than in less digital settings in inventor or social networks. Increased distance beyond colocation has little impact on collaboration. Heterogeneity analyses demonstrate the colocation effect is smaller within large organizations, among experienced developers, and for sporadic interactions. Results suggest geographic proximity is less important for collaboration in digital knowledge work.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"139 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Place-based policies: first-mover advantage and persistence","authors":"Ying Chen, Teng Huang, Xiaochen Xie","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbaf001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaf001","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers have explored various place-based policies for promoting economic growth, but the long-term effects and drivers of successful policies have not been thoroughly studied. In this article, we first document significant heterogeneity in growth trends between early and late national development zones in China. Then, we develop a theoretical framework to analyze the influence of their establishment timing on the spatial equilibrium dynamics. Using new archival data and novel empirical strategies, we demonstrate that the early zones consistently have higher firm entries, innovation, and labor pooling. These results highlight the importance of agglomeration for the long-term success of place-based policies.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142989596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unveiling geographical patterns of hierarchy in the Greek labor market network: toward a multilayer “status-polus” model","authors":"Dimitrios Tsiotas, Dimitris Kallioras","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae052","url":null,"abstract":"This article develops a comprehensive framework for understanding labor markets’ spatial configuration and development dynamics, across multiple spatial scales. It applies to the Greek Labor Market Network and delineates five geographical zones of topological similarity, proposing a “status-polus” model capturing the coexistence between spatial development patterns, structural units, administrative scale, intermodality, and their underlying economic geography theories, by distance. The analysis reveals hierarchical structural variations, a transformation from continuous to point spatial patterns; a reduction and escalation of structural units; a U-shaped rule describing the hubs participation; and the challenges faced by insular regions to integrate this labor market.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142962803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local income inequality and product variety: empirical evidence","authors":"Dieter Pennerstorfer, Nora Schindler, Biliana Yontcheva","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae050","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the relationship between local income inequality and firms’ location and product choices. Using detailed information on income at a regionally disaggregated level and individual data on Austrian restaurants, we show that product variety crucially depends on the distribution (in addition to the level) of income. Local markets with higher income inequality are characterized by a larger number of firms, offering a wider range of products and less common product variants. These findings suggest that local demand is substantially influenced by the heterogeneity of consumers’ income endowments, resulting in large differences in product variety.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142961654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why do labor regimes change? Worker power, the supplier squeeze, and structural transformation in the global apparel industry","authors":"Kristoffer Marslev, Lindsay Whitfield","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae049","url":null,"abstract":"Debates on labor regimes situate worker outcomes at the intersection of globalized production and specific social formations, but they do not specify how and why labor regimes change over time. This article presents a new approach to explaining how labor regimes change in the global apparel industry, the labor-led profit squeeze approach, combining insights from global production networks (GPN), development economics and labor studies. This approach argues that workers’ bargaining power is largely conditional upon processes of structural transformation. The article demonstrates this conceptual approach through a comparative analysis of the apparel export industries in Madagascar, Cambodia, and Vietnam.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142935039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Business politics as a causal mechanism shaping uneven regional development across Romania’s automotive industry","authors":"Ioana Jipa-Muşat, Liam Campling, Martha Prevezer","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae051","url":null,"abstract":"We develop and deploy a business politics lens to examine the mechanisms and processes of negotiation through which multinational enterprises (MNEs) and various host country actors interact, leading to different regional trajectories of economic development. We assess two contrasting lead firms from differing home country contexts investing in the automotive industry in Romania, operating in two regions with distinct historical-spatial industrial organization and economic development. We advance a contribution on business politics as dynamic, relational, multi-scalar, and influenced by varied conjunctural factors—historical, geographical, political, institutional, and firm-driven—exposing how MNEs and territorial actors co-shape distinct processes of international economic (dis)integration.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142908295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Doloreux, Claudia De Fuentes, Jahan Ara Peerally, Stephen Quilley
{"title":"New industrial path development in “less glamorized regions”: actors, agencies, and rural opportunities","authors":"David Doloreux, Claudia De Fuentes, Jahan Ara Peerally, Stephen Quilley","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae045","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the case of the wine industry in rural Nova Scotia (Canada) and addresses the following question: what sparks a new wine industry path in rural regions that lack supportive preconditions and local assets? We examine this from the perspective of different actors and their agencies when creating the conditions and structures for shaping new path development. Our findings provide a novel, empirically based understanding of individual and system-level agency and a nuanced account of new industrial path development in rural regions, which is often missing in contemporary debates.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142832638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shifting agrarian labour regimes, ecology, and the crisis for Dalit women’s work in India","authors":"Shreya Sinha","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae047","url":null,"abstract":"Building on the differentiated analysis of India’s agrarian crisis, this article argues for centring ecology in understanding the crisis faced by agricultural labour. The empirical case is of landless Dalit women in Punjab, India, experiencing the shift from a cotton-dominated labour regime to a paddy-dominated one. It delineates the materiality(s) of commodity, workplace, and body associated with the two regimes and explores its contingent intersections with social reproduction, caste oppression, capital’s strategies, and the state. Overall, the article argues that labour’s agrarian crisis is both produced through ecology and manifests in/as ecology across different moments and levels of analysis.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142815785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Airports and regional development: the expansion of the Norwegian air network, 1950–2019","authors":"Jørn Rattsø, Nicholas Sheard","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae044","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies how airports affect regional growth in population and employment, considering heterogeneity in the circumstances of an airport’s opening. We use synthetic controls with staggered adoption and data on the whole airport system in Norway for 1950–2019. We find positive overall effects of airports on population and employment growth. Addressing heterogeneity, we find relatively strong effects of airports opened in the 1950s, more distant from other airports, with longer runways, or with links to major cities. We also find stronger growth if an airport is opened in a region with a university, college, or hospital.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142645896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}