‘Playing family’: unruly relationality and transnational motherhood

Scholarly literature on interpersonal relationships between tourist women and local men has been largely discussed under the heteronormative framework of love and sexuality. However, the plenitude of ways in which these intimacies manifest themselves requires that we pay attention to the manifold forms of heterosexual relatedness that these intimacies generate. This article considers how intimate liaisons between Western women and Balinese men that commenced as holiday romances in Bali transform into unruly relationality and transnational motherhood. Focusing the analysis on women's narratives, the article explores how subjects engage in the production of sexual, reproductive, social and economic forms of transnational relatedness wherein the mother and child live permanently in the women's country of citizenship while the Balinese father remains in Bali. Rather than aspiring towards a monogamous relationship and cohabitation as heteronormativity prescribes, the article demonstrates how these non-conventional, transnational families perpetually challenge the nuclear family norm, boundaries of normative motherhood and dichotomies of home versus away.     

消费地理学视角下非物质文化遗产的消费研究——姊妹节中的传统手工艺苗绣

消费研究的爆炸式增长始于20世纪80年代的消费热潮。消费地理的研究领域在过去的三十年里已经大大扩展,超越了经济和文化之间的传统分歧,并逐渐占据了主导的地位。本研究关注传统节庆中非物质文化遗产苗绣的消费实践,从不同的空间主体（在地的身体、流动的身体、固定的空间、临时的空间）对苗绣的消费过程进行分析,采用参与式观察法和深度访谈法解译施洞地区苗族和游客在传统节庆姊妹节中对苗绣的消费实践。研究发现,消费的话语和实践在特定的空间中定位身体,反过来地方又影响着具身化的消费实践。     

BEYOND THE GPN–NEW REGIONALISM DIVIDE IN CHINA: RESTRUCTURING THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY,REMAKING THE WENZHOU MODEL

This article attempts to advance the research on industrial districts and regional development through a study of the restructuring of the clothing industry in Wenzhou Municipality, a regional driver of the Chinese economy. Wenzhou is known for the Wenzhou model of development traditionally centred on family‐owned small businesses embedded in local institutions. The clothing industry is one of the leading industries in Wenzhou, and a cluster with national significance has emerged, where most of the production components can be purchased locally. However, the industry has been scaled up nationally and internationally, with the expansion of sales networks and production facilities across China, and to a lesser extent, abroad. This restructuring has changed the endogenous nature of industrial clusters/districts. The restructuring challenges the orthodox notion of the Wenzhou model and the New Regionalism literature, particularly the orthodox notion of Marshallian industrial districts that overly emphasizes small firms and local assets, and the global production network perspective that highlights coupling with global lead firms in regional development.     

From toys to automobiles: foreign investment,firm heterogeneity and intermediaries in a Portuguese industry

In the literature on territorial innovation systems there is a constant tension between the effect of endogenous and exogenous factors and their relative importance. In order to address this tension several approaches have sought to conceptualize the relational and multi-scalar dimension of innovation and to explain how external knowledge and economic flows in conjunction with regional contexts combine to produce regional growth, stagnation or decline. This paper will contribute to this debate, while also highlighting that even at the local level there is substantial heterogeneity between firms. It will also shed light on the role of intermediary organizations that can help address information and power asymmetries between multinational corporations and less competitive local firms. Empirically it will draw on the case study of the Portuguese moulds industry, which has successfully adapted to shifts in the global economy by drawing on local resources while also remaining integrated into global value chains.     

IMMIGRATION AND FIRM EXPANSION*

ABSTRACT Research generally focuses on how immigration affects native workers, while the impact of immigration on domestic firms is often overlooked. This paper addresses this important omission by examining whether firms respond to immigration by expanding their production activities within a city in order to utilize the abundant supply of low‐skilled workers. Using data on immigration and the universe of establishments in U.S. cities, the results indicate that firms respond to immigration at the extensive margin by increasing the number of establishments. Not surprisingly, immigration has a more positive impact on the number of establishments that are small in size and in relatively mobile, low‐skill intensive industries. Additional evidence indicates that immigration has little impact on employment within existing establishments, the intensive margin, or on the number of establishments in service industries which may expand simply due to immigrant consumption.     

Stitching Professionalism: Female-Run Embroidery Agencies and the Provision of Artistic Work for Women, 1870–1900

The activities of female-run embroidery agencies have been largely ignored in scholarship dedicated to the design professions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This study reveals that embroidery agencies and societies played a key role in organizing and systematizing the female-dominated embroidery workforce, thereby granting women needleworkers new access to the business side of art. In illuminating the material and economic conditions of these women’s working lives, the author unpacks the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, relationship between embroidery organizations and professionalism, at a time when the design industries themselves were becoming increasingly professionalized and commercialized. Two broad categories of embroidery agencies are examined: modest, economically driven work depots; and artistically and philanthropically motivated embroidery societies. In the brief period of time when the popularity of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic and demand for ecclesiastical embroidery made embroidery a viable remunerative business, dedicated agencies and societies gave women with little or no connections to the art world access to a market for their wares. It was this access that allowed female needleworkers to practice as professional art workers according to that term’s most basic definition – they supported themselves monetarily through artistic work.     

Local politics and foreign ventures in China's transitional economy: the political economy of Singaporean investments in China

The re-articulation of China into the global economy since December 1978 has led to a tremendous influx of foreign capital during the past two decades. Constrained by the limited domestic market and encouraged by home-country government, transnational corporations from Singapore are regionalising increasingly into the Asia Pacific region. To date, a significant amount of Singaporean investments abroad has gone to China. Based on personal interviews with parent companies in Singapore and their subsidiaries and/or affiliates in China, this paper aims to examine the political economy of Singaporean investments in China. Specifically, I argue that successful cross-border operations of Singaporean firms are embedded in dense networks of social and political relationships. These relationships provide the political leverage and strategic resources to enable the establishment of Singaporean firms in China. This establishment, however, is contingent on blending with local politics in China through which foreign firms use leverage on the partnership advantage of local governments (difang zhengfu), their enterprises, and business activities. This rise of local corporatism is a key institutional consequence of the recent rescaling of China's political economy. Case studies of ventures by Singaporean firms in China are presented to support my arguments. Taken together, these empirical materials shed light on the importance of understanding the role of politics at different spatial scales in influencing transnational corporations and their international business operations.     

FIRM ENTRY AND EXIT: CAUSALITY TESTS AND ECONOMIC-BASE LINKAGES*

ABSTRACT One of the foundations of applied regional economics down through the years has been economic base theory (EBT). EBT presumes that economic activity within the basic sector unidirectionally causes economic activity in nonbasic sectors. In recent years, however, increasing attention has been given to the possibility that traditionally nonbasic activities (e.g., services) may be quite important in determining a region's total economic activity. In this paper, we examine the nature and direction of causality of economic activity within a regional economy. Using novel data on entry and exit of firms, the empirical analysis provides new insights into the strengths and weaknesses of traditional economic base theory.     

Tradisi and Turisme: Music,Dance, and Cultural Transformation at the Ubud Palace,Bali, Indonesia

This article investigates relationships between music and place through analysis of performances for tourists at a prominent site, Puri Saren Agung (the Ubud Palace) in the Balinese village of Ubud. These performances are representative of ways in which Balinese traditional cultural representation is transformed when it is packaged for tourist consumption. Through a number of readings of the palace, potential meanings for music are shown to be dependent on the past and present identities of this site. This is heightened by a view of changes in the palace's status and uses as a metaphor for ongoing developments in Balinese music and dance, and thus of ways in which tourism has been, and continues to be, a force in Balinese cultural production.     

Mining amid armed conflict: nonferrous metals mining in the Philippines

In recent years the government of the Philippines has attempted to accelerate the growth of the nation's economy by encouraging the extraction of its mineral resources by multinational corporations. The Philippines is also a nation beset by armed violence carried out by anti-state groups. This article discusses how the presence, and activities, of these groups generate problems for a mining-based development paradigm. The article examines: the literature on the topic of natural resource abundance and conflict, how there have been attacks upon mines by armed groups, how mining companies have served as a target of extortion, how grievances related to mining can act as a source of conflict, how mining could disrupt the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and how mines are accompanied by a militarization of the area in their vicinity. Ultimately, violence is a manifestation of poverty and social exclusion inherent in Philippine society. Mining may not diminish, and indeed may increase, this poverty and social exclusion. Unless poverty and social exclusion is alleviated the violence will continue and alternative efforts to develop the Philippine economy will be precluded.     

Adaptation in cultural industry under conservation pressure: case study of two Chinese embroidery clusters

Abstract

In this study, we explore how tension between ‘culture’ and ‘industry’ can be effectively dealt with in promoting cultural industry, taking the Chinese embroidery sector as an example. The diverging performance of two leading centers of Chinese embroidery production suggests that local adaptive and networking capabilities are essential in creating a new path out of the tension, and these capabilities are largely determined by local openness/flexibility, entrepreneurship, and linkage capacity. In Changsha, cultural conservatism prevails, and the local embroidery sector largely maintains traditional product styles and target customers, sticking to the historic path. It is in question, however, whether such a strong bias toward the high-culture segment of the industry is good for cultural heritage protection in the long run, given that the industry at standstill has faced increasing challenges in sustaining a solid local pool of skilled labor. In contrast, Suzhou’s local embroidery sector has actively responded to the changing market environment, through increased product segmentation and customization as well as intra/cross-industry collaboration. Such a flexible, scale-up strategy has helped the industry attract local talent and meet the market demand, while maintaining space for high-end artistic products.     

The networks producing television programmes in the Cologne media cluster: new firm foundation,flexible specialization and efficient decision‐making structures

Based on the example of the production network of television (TV) programmes in Cologne's media cluster, this article will examine two aspects in order to obtain a deeper understanding of how localized production networks arise and how they function. First of all, the role of the founding of new firms within a localized production network will be analysed in detail. As a second step, the decision structures within the production network will be discussed. In this context the question arises as to how the parts of a particular production chain are linked together and how a smooth production flow can be guaranteed. The theoretical findings will be verified by an empirical study of the networks producing TV programmes in Cologne.     

Competitiveness and Technological Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Evidence from the Indonesian Electronics and Garment Sectors

Indonesia is a rapidly growing and internationally competitive economy that is well integrated into globalized production systems. The global value chain (GVC) model has proven to be a popular analytical framework to explain how global lead firms structure and organize global production through dispersed global suppliers. Indonesia's leading export sectors, garments and electronics, are well integrated into GVCs. Engagement in GVCs, often led by leading global brands, is seen as a basis for local producers to become globally competitive and to grow. It also comes with challenges—local producers must meet the demanding pressures from lead firms on prices, on-time delivery, product quality, and social, environmental and labour standards. The possibilities for local producers to learn, acquire new capabilities and upgrade to enhance their competitiveness are often conditioned by the nature of ties that they have with their global lead firms. Yet, this paper argues, the GVC model fails to recognize agency on the part of local firms in this learning process. Moreover, particular forms of governance arrangements within GVC ties can restrict the prospects for local producers to enhance capabilities and upgrade. Drawing on selected case study evidence from the Indonesian garments and electronics sectors, the paper explores the relationship between distinct types of GVC engagements and firm-level learning and upgrading, and considers how some GVC ties may restrict upgrading.     

Beta Phase Communities: Open Source Software as Gift Economy

In this paper, I discuss how gift economy tenets exist within capitalist systems and in what ways the alternative logic of gift economies could be used within capitalist firms to create a more fair economy overall, citing open source software within the technology sector as one example.

To do this, I begin by striking a dialectic between John Milbank's theological and David Graeber's anthropological conceptions of gift economies, illuminating crucial aspects of each to uncover what alternative economic principles are applicable to standard capitalist economic ideologies.

I then turn to a practical application of where these gift economy ideologies are already being utilized to a degree, arguing specifically that open source software provides an alternative economic logic for countless members of the technology sector. On a broad level, I hope to show that capitalism provides the means to alter itself within its own ethos, as certain economic ideologies – like gift economies – could potentially assuage those economic models that contribute to economic inequality. By accentuating these alternative logics within technology firms, they can be expanded and made more substantial, subsequently altering capitalism from the inside out.     

A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR SMALL BUSINESS POLICY

A number of public policy issues have been discussed in this article, the most important of which are: 1. Small business would not need special consideration if our economy were basically a competitive one. 2. A large and growing segment of our economy has sufficient market and political power to make our economy basically non-competitive. 3. Small firms tend to provide price competition, to lead in the development of new products and processes, and to generate new innovations and new employment. 4. Government policy tends to create artificial economies of scale, giving an unwarranted advantage to the very large firm. As a first approximation, a policy of government neutrality on firms of varying size is needed. But, because of discriminations which already exist which favor large firms over small firms, special small business programs may be necessary to provide an equitable policy base. Unfortunately, programs designed to benefit all business, like the investment tax credit, tend to primarily benefit larger firms (Berney, 1979). This is the case for two reasons. First, there is a basic difference in production relationships: large firms tend to be more capital intensive and small firms more labor intensive. Second, the more complex a rule or regulation, the more costly it is for small business to use it. Consequently, even the employment tax credit, which should benefit the small firm is not used by them. Instead, it tends more to benefit the larger firm. Neutrality, as a governmental policy, would appear to demand different treatment for firms of varying size. As an example, the “regulatory flexibility” concept applies different standards to different sized firms so that the burden of regulation is more equitably distributed. The concept of encouraging or requiring financial institutions and other lenders to establish “dual prime rates” is a further example. Since small firms appear to have much higher debt to equity ratios and rely more heavily on shorter-term bank credit, they are more heavily burdened by a tight money policy which forces increases of interest rates. Thus, dual prime rates help to spread the burden of rising interest costs more equally. As many people prefer to work for themselves, equalizing the burden of government policy could only serve to increase the basic growth rate for small business, thus providing an easier start for entrepreneurs and would encourage a more rapid rate of economic growth. None of these discussions, however, argues that small business should be protected from failure. The more efficient firms will succeed and prosper, and the least efficient will not. Many currently successful entrepreneurs learn how to improve their production processes or managerial skills from their failures. What is being recommended as a first step is that government should concentrate on equalizing burdens and benefits in order to achieve true neutrality. If private economies of scale do indeed exist, new firms must grow to survive; what the government should not create are artificial economies of scale with public policy. A strong argument for further action can also be made: it appears that significant external benefits are produced by an economic system with a dynamic small business sector. Since these benefits go to society as a whole rather than entrepreneurs alone in the form of increased profits, a freely operating market without government assistance does not generate as many new small businesses as would be optimal for our society. To internalize the benefits that come from small business, governmental programs need to be devised to increase the rate of return on new, innovative small businesses. Should this happen, we could then anticipate increased rapid rates of innovation and technological change, more rapid rates of employment growth, expanded price competition in all sectors of the economy, and improved export capabilities, in short, true flexibility in our capitalistic system.     

ON THE IMPACT OF COMPETITION ON TRADE AND FIRM LOCATION

We study how the level of trade costs and the intensity of competition interact to explain the nature and intensity of trade within a given industry and the location of firms across countries. As trade costs decrease from very high to very low values, the global economy moves from autarky to two‐way trade, through one‐way trade from the larger to the smaller region. By exploring the intensive and extensive margins of exports, we investigate how the intensity of trade reacts to the degree of competitiveness. Furthermore, when firms are free to change location, they flow from the small to the large country, and the larger country is always a net exported on the manufactured good. Firms located in the big country have a bigger size than those located in the small one. Under one‐way trade, the relocation of firms changes their attitude toward export.     

Agglomeration,foreign firms and firm exit in regions under transition: the increasing importance of related variety in Hungary

ABSTRACT

Related variety of economic activities is widely recognized to induce regional development; however, it is not clear how this mechanism takes place in regions that go through major structural and institutional transformation. Furthermore, foreign direct investment (FDI) is typically a major source of structural change in these areas; and we still need a better understanding on how foreign-owned (foreign) firms affect the dynamics of domestic-owned (domestic) companies. For these reasons we analyse firm-level exit in Hungarian city regions between 1996 and 2011, over the late post-socialist transition in manufacturing industries, focusing on the difference between foreign and domestic firms. Introducing ownership into the related variety calculation, we estimate the probability of firm exit with the region-level related variety calculated separately for foreign and domestic firms. Our results suggest that related variety of foreign firms decreases the probability of domestic firm exit earlier during the economic transition compared to the related variety of domestic firms. This finding supports the idea that FDI plays a formative role in regions under transition, and shows that domestic firms benefit from being in agglomerations where foreign firms are technologically related to each other.     

International regulation and regional development: Consequences of the single European market for small and medium sized enterprises in Portugal

In seeking to understand contexts for regional development an increasingly important element is the growing influence of international institutions and agreements in the regulation of economic systems. Within Europe the economic liberalization and increased market competition encouraged by the Single European Market (SEM) has been widely predicted to benefit larger elements of capital and core regions of economic activity at the expense of Europe's smaller firms and less favoured peripheral regions. Through analysis of results from empirical research, this paper will analyze the impact of the SEM on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in north and central Portugal. The significance of sectoral and spatial variations in impact are examined by considering two industrial sectors, food and clothing, and the effectiveness of firms’ responses and policy initiatives in mediating the potentially negative impacts of Single Market competition are evaluated.     

Technological change and Post Office communications in Britain, 1918–1945

The pressures of both World War I and World War II made the British Post Office a central concern in national politics. Yet this development has received little attention in the historiography of the Post Office or the British state. The demands of war and expectations for service from individuals living in a consumer society raised questions as to how to improve technology and infrastructure to satisfy these divergent needs. The Post Office’s position as a department within the Civil Service meant that debates over the nature of technology, and the levels of spending required to sustain and improve Post Office services inevitably led to heated discussions concerning the practicalities of increased spending during the economic downturns of the 1920s and 1930s, and the subsequent pre-war planning period from 1937. This article will explore these issues by examining the nature of the Government-Post Office relationship in this period, and trace how the relationship evolved to accommodate the growing needs of the domestic and wartime economy. It will show the growing centrality of the Post Office to the nation’s communications planning. Moreover, it will demonstrate how a mixture of new technology, and an adaptation of working practices helped it adapt to both the peacetime economy of the 1920s, and the pressures of the World War II.