|
|
|
Economic Geography
ContentsNEW To receive contents alert e-mails for future issues of Economic Geography, please sign up here. Please note that only Economic Geography subscribers can view the full text of articles. To subscribe, please see the subscription page. ArticlesThe Gendered Politics of Remittances in Ghanaian Transnational Families A Tale of Three Tomatoes: The New Food Economy in Toronto, Canada Plant Location and the Advent of Slab Casting by U.S. Steel Minimills: An
Observation-Based Analysis Extraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational
Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast Italy Book ReviewsEconomic Geographies: Circuits, Flows and Spaces, by Ray Hudson The Geography of the Internet Industry:
Venture Capital, Dot-coms, and Local Knowledge, by Matthew A. Zook A Brief History of Neoliberalism, by David
Harvey Trading Down: Africa, Value Chains, and the Global Economy, by Peter
Gibbon and Stefano Ponte Globalization and Its Outcomes, edited by John O'Loughlin, Lynn
Staeheli, and Edward Greenberg Globalisation, Policy and Shipping: Fordism, Post-Fordism and the European
Union Maritime Sector, by Evangelia Selkou and Michael Roe AbstractsThe Gendered Politics of Remittances in Ghanaian Transnational Families, by Madeleine WongAbstract: Using interviews with Ghanaian women in Toronto and members of their families in Ghana, this article extends the literature on remittances by drawing on insights from feminist scholarship on migration to investigate the social dynamics of remittances in transnational families. The growing literature on migration and remittances focuses on large-scale quantitative analyses of data on remittances. Less explored is how gender and kinship bonds (particularly, matrilineage affiliation) influence complex decision-making processes underlying remittances. I argue for a conceptualization of remittances as constituting relationships between senders and receivers that are continually being negotiated and contested in and across different places. Specifically, I focus on the cultural and gender-specific ways in which women and their families negotiate remittances, highlighting dilemmas that transnational families experience when they encounter contradictory aspects of remittances. Despite their material realities and struggles in Canada, the women in this study remitted to fulfill gendered obligations in highly contested and negotiated contexts. Their remittances were important, however, for the production and reproduction of families and households that are structured transnationally. While this case exhibits specific features that are particular to Ghanaian migration and transnationalism, it highlights how broader social dynamics underlying remittances operate at multiple scales and intersect with differential social and economic structures and agency in producing meanings of remittances. Key words: remittances, transnational families, gender, matrilineal, Ghana, Toronto.  TopA Tale of Three Tomatoes: The New Food Economy in Toronto, Canada, by Alison Blay-Palmer and Betsy Donald Abstract: Drawing upon research from a cluster and innovation systems perspective, we counter the argument that the food industry is a mature and dying industry and point to evidence of a vibrant, dynamic food sector that has made a substantial contribution to regional growth. Since the mid-1990s, the most dynamic component of the Toronto urban food economy has been the small- and medium-sized enterprises, comprised mainly of specialty, local, ethnic, and organic food-processing firms that are thriving in response to consumers' demands for high-quality, local, fresh ethnic and fusion cuisine. However, these newer firms face challenges, and our results raise the question about how a more stimulating innovative milieu can be created for them. In answer to this question, we suggest multiscaled approaches to cluster formation and policy and discuss the implications of our research for theories of innovation systems, firms, city creativity, and governance. We situate this "new food economy" within the core literature of economic geography, seeking to relocate the "agrifood" literature away from a traditional rural setting to a dynamic city-region context, underscoring the essential role of the consumption side of agrifood chains. Moreover, we use the food sector as a lens through which to argue that mature sectors and "ordinary" activities in a city are every bit as important to the long-term health, viability, and sustainability of a city-region economy. Key words: food, innovation, city-region, Toronto. TopPlant Location and the Advent of Slab Casting by U.S. Steel Minimills: An Observation-Based Analysis, by Frank Giarratani, Gene Gruver, and Randall Jackson Abstract: The advent of slab casting for steel that is produced in electric furnaces resulted in a wave of new investments in the construction of steel minimills. From 1989 to 2001, 10 new plants were constructed in the United States on the basis of new technologies. Some were built in established steel industry agglomerations, while others were built in greenfield locations -- regions that had little or no prior steelmaking activity. This research brings new evidence to bear on location decisions concerning modern steelmaking. The findings are based on direct observation and visits to the plants of all the new mills that were created by these investments. While the analysis reinforces the importance of transfer costs in decision making, it also argues that critical locational elements cannot be fully understood unless analyses take account of the characteristics of specific products, plants, and firms. Key words: plant location, technology diffusion, steel industry, minimills, slab casting. TopExtraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast Italy, by Markus Perkmann Abstract: This article reevaluates the regional embeddedness of multinational manufacturing branch plants in view of recent work on global production networks and extraregional links. It argues that the predominance of extraregional production linkages is not necessarily detrimental to regional economies and that such linkages can even compensate for weak territorial innovations systems in noncore regions. The arguments are supported by a case study of the South Tyrol region of Italy, using firm-level data from surveys and interviews, complemented by evidence on institutional conditions. The findings suggest that neither the branch plants nor the locally owned manufacturing firms are strongly embedded in the region in terms of material linkages and interorganizational relationships, indicating that the ownership status of firms is not a good predictor of embeddedness. Second, compared to local firms, branch plants are more innovative and hence contribute to a larger degree to regional upgrading processes. Third, South Tyrol's core institutional structures, such as those governing the labor force, play a decisive role in the competitiveness of branch plants and therefore create codependencies that bind these producers to the territory. The results suggest a more differentiated assessment of the role of branch plants within noncore regions.Key words: regional economy, regional innovation system, multinational corporation, branch plant, Alto Adige, Italy. Top |
e-mail alertsReceive content alert notifications for future issues of Economic Geography 
|
||||
