An economic and financial geography of the Australian superannuation industry

The Australian superannuation industry has grown enormously over the past 30 years. Whereas working people are automatically enrolled at their workplaces, the head offices of many industry funds are in Melbourne rather than Sydney. Melbourne’s dominance of the superannuation industry is explained, in part, by happenstance—the location of major unions and employer groups and their initiatives in response to the enabling legislation. Other factors identified include opportunism, cooperation, and the advantages of growth. Government-prompted mergers and acquisitions have also reinforced the dominance of Melbourne, notwithstanding attempts by Sydney-based superannuation funds to out-compete their Melbourne rivals. Whereas the geographical bifurcation of the Australian superannuation industry has been mediated by the formation of a Queensland-based superfund “champion,” it is suggested that it faces numerous challenges. In conclusion, avenues for future research are sketched, focusing upon the future of Melbourne as the centre of the superannuation industry, the role of digital platforms in service delivery, pension adequacy, and the increasing importance of Australian funds in global financial markets.     

Codification, patents and the geography of knowledge transfer in the electronic musical instrument industry

Recent research in economic geography has emphasized tacit knowledge as the basis of industrial learning. In contrast, codification and the practices of industrial writing have received little attention for the roles they play in mobilizing knowledge across space. This paper offers insight into the geographies of codification through an examination of technology transfer in the electronic musical instrument industry between 1965 and 1995. The research draws on a variety of primary and secondary data that include interviews with inventors, biographical accounts and patent analysis. These sources offer perspective on the career trajectories of three U.S. inventors who transferred knowledge from various contexts in California's high-tech industry to the Japanese firm, Yamaha. Conceptually, the paper draws on the actor–network theory and Latour's idea of translation to highlight the detours inventors must take to register novelty. The analysis reveals the problematic nature of codified knowledge and its transfer; in this case codified knowledge was mobile internationally but not locally, at least until it reached Japan. The paper argues for the need to understand how texts such as patents are produced—the context of their authorship, the geographies of their circulation and their efficacy for shaping further innovative practice.     

Tacit knowledge and the economic geography of context, or The undefinable tacitness of being (there)

Within economic geography and industrial economics, interestin the concept of tacit knowledge has grown steadily in recentyears. Nelson and Winter helped revive this interest in thework of Michael Polanyi by using the idea of tacit knowledgeto inform their analysis of routines and evolutionary dynamicsof technological change. More recently, the concept has receivedcloser scrutiny. This paper offers a further contribution tothis project by offering a critical analysis of the prevailingimplicit and explicit economic geographies of tacit knowledge,focusing on the relationship between tacit knowledge and institutions.While much of the innovation literature focuses on a singlequestion – can tacit knowledge be effectively shared overlong distances – the paper argues that this issue cannotbe properly addressed without considering a broader range ofrelated questions. It highlights three tacit knowledge problemswhich, together, provide a more complete view of this issue.First, how is tacit knowledge produced? Second, how do firmsfind and appropriate tacit knowledge? Third, how is tacit knowledgereproduced or shared – that is, how does tacit knowledgepromote social learning processes, and must the participantsbe geographically proximate in order for effective learningto occur? The paper revisits Michael Polanyi's original conceptionof tacit knowledge, showing it to be limited by its experientialand cognitive emphasis, with insufficient attention devotedto the role and origins of social context. Alternatively, thepaper argues that one cannot sort out the geography of tacitknowledge without inquiring into the foundations of contextand culture, and the institutional underpinnings of economicactivity, taking the work of another Polanyi – Karl –as the logical starting point.     

The geography of community and political organisation in London today

Set in the context of growing concern about the lack of a coherent political response to the economic crisis, and in the aftermath of devastating urban violence in English cities, this paper highlights the pressing need for new forms of political organisation in countries like the UK. The paper focuses on the remarkable growth and prominence of community organising in the UK. The largest community alliance, called London Citizens, now commands significant support and influence in the capital and is attracting attention from politicians, journalists and commentators from across the UK. The rising profile of community organising flies in the face of much scholarship in the social sciences which has long declared the death of geographical community – and its socio-political significance – in the modern metropolis. The paper provides an overview of this literature and highlights the particular importance of population turnover, increased diversity and stretched social networks. In this context, the paper then explores how London Citizens has been able to use a particular geographical architecture to work with and against these challenges. The paper argues that London Citizens’ territorial but institutionally networked structure is particularly important to its growth and impact. This model of politics locates institutional islands of social solidarity and forges connections between them, creating a new community that is able to mitigate some of the effects of population turnover and stretched social networks in the city-at-large. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of this geo-political architecture, drawing attention to the importance of institutional affiliation, identity-making, the reproduction of collective memory, and the issue of funding.     

On economic geography in economic theory: increasing returns and pecuniary externalities

Our objective is twofold. First, we show why there is a spatialquestion in economic theory – why a free competitive marketis unable to cope with agglomeration and regional imbalancein the absence of market distortions. Second, using a new andsimple model, we review what has been accomplished in economictheory during the 1990s when due allowance is given to increasingreturns, while market structure is given by monopolistic competition.     

Innovation in knowledge intensive industries: The nature and geography of knowledge links

Knowledge has become a key source of competitiveness for advanced regions and nations, indicating a transformation of capitalism towards a “knowledge economy”. Knowledge intensive sectors in production and in services have a lead in this respect, they can be considered as role models for the future. The innovation process, the mechanisms of knowledge exchange and the respective linkages in those industries differ quite markedly from those in other sectors. Clustering and local knowledge spillovers are frequently stated phenomena, although it is still unclear as to what the nature and geography of those knowledge links are. The aim of this paper is to examine the character of the innovation process and the type of interactions in those industries, in order to find out how strongly they are related to regional, national and international innovation systems. We will analyse the sources and the mechanisms of knowledge exchange and their relevance for innovation. The paper develops a typology of innovation interactions and provides empirical evidence for Austria based on data from a recent firm survey.     

Temporary organisations and spatial embeddedness of learning and knowledge creation

It is the overall aim of this article to investigate theoretically how spatial embeddedness of learning and knowledge creation might be challenged by alternative organisational forms (i.e. temporary organisations). The article presents development coalitions as an alternative to projects as a form of temporary organisation. They are potentially able to combine the promotion of radical change with collective and localised learning, thus eliminating some of the characteristic shortcomings of project organizations with regard to collective learning and transfer of knowledge.     

Theoretical economic geography and spatial econometrics: dynamic perspectives

Theoretical economic geography has received significant newimpetus from so-called ‘new economic geography’theory, and this provides the basis of the spatial econometricmodel developed in this paper. The model, which is seen as partof an attempt to bridge the gap that presently exists betweenthis new body of theory and reality, is fitted using 3SLS todata on manufacturing productivity growth data for 178 regionsof the EU covering the periods 1975–81, 1981–89,1989–95. The resulting estimates point to the continuedexistence over time of increasing returns, and thus providessupport for one of the main tenets of new economic geographytheory. The results also highlight urbanization, peripherality,the initial level of technology and across-region spilloversas determinants of regional productivity growth variations,operating via the rate of technical progress and labour efficiencyvariations. There is no evidence that these variables are diminishingin significance systematically over time, leading to the conclusionthat spatial polarization in productivity will persist. Thepaper points to the need for further testing of fundamentalassumptions of the underlying theory, and for developments inthe theory to accommodate interdependence between model parametersand the socio-economic context within which the process is operating.     

Inter-firm knowledge creation: A re-appreciation of embeddedness from a relational perspective

Embeddedness studies often follow a structural approach, arguing, for example, that long-term relations are necessary for trust to develop. A case study of the Dutch company Océ shows that such need not be the case. Taking the process of knowledge creation as the starting-point of analysis, this can be explained. However, it is the content of network relations, what is going on inside them, that needs to be examined rather than their structure. This approach is more in line with Granovetter's original embeddedness argument. After all, it is not the fact that actors are embedded that matters, but how this affects their actions.     

Situationally Sherpa: race,ethnicity, and the labour geography of the Everest industry

Following Tenzing Norgay’s historic ascent of Mount Everest, western mythmaking transformed Sherpa ethnicity into a signifier for a labour category, a place, and a set of cultural characteristics. Westerners have come to link Sherpa-ness with stereotypes of superhuman strength, mountain skill, and loyalty. However, most labourers in the Everest industry are not Sherpas; they are upland ethnic minorities who migrate seasonally from the lower hills to the high Khumbu. Many of these ethnic minority labourers also pass as Sherpa. Becoming “situationally Sherpa” is a common practice, but little is known about how, why, and with what effects claims to Sherpa-ness are formed and deployed. This paper explores how and why this identity practice emerged alongside new labour geographies in the Everest region. The case of “situational Sherpas” reveals how racial, ethnic, and labour hierarchies intersect and blur to produce new experiences of oppression, and new possibilities for resistance.     

A capabilities approach to higher education: geocapabilities and implications for geography curricula

A geographical education offers more than skills, subject knowledge and generic attributes. It also develops a set of discipline-specific capabilities that contribute to a graduate’s future learning and experience, granting them special ways of thinking for lifelong development and for contributing to the welfare of themselves, their community and their world. This paper considers the broader purposes and values of disciplinary teaching in contributing to individual human development. Set in the context of recent debates concerning the role of the university and the neo-liberalisation of higher education this paper explores approaches to developing the geography curriculum in ways that re-assert the educational value of geographical thinking for students. Using international examples of teaching and learning practice in geography, we recognise five geocapabilities: use of the geographical imagination; ethical subject-hood with respect to the impacts of geographical processes; integrative thinking about society–environment relationships; spatial thinking; and the structured exploration of places. A capabilities approach offers a productive and resilient response to the threats of pedagogic frailty and increasingly generic learning in higher education. Finally, a framework to stimulate dialogue about curriculum development and the role of geocapabilities in the higher education curriculum is suggested.     

Reconsidering path creation in economic geography: aspects of agency,temporality and methods

The emergence of new industrial development paths is an important topic in economic geography. However, current perspectives emphasizing the constraining forces of historical trajectories on innovation and change have shortcomings in accounting for how and where new industries arise. This article argues that more attention needs to be paid to agency, and that agency must be seen as inter-temporal in the sense that actors’ activities and strategies are framed by combinations of experiences and expectations. As such, the article combines insights from economic geography, transitions studies and the sociology of expectations (SoE) literature to expand extant theory on path creation. A brief analysis of the emerging Norwegian offshore wind power (OWP) sector serves to illustrate how experience (the past) and different types of expectations (the future) have tangible effects on agency, and in effect on path creation processes. These insights have methodological implications, essentially favouring qualitative approaches over quantitative ones to understand formative phases in industrial development.     

Renewing the purpose of geography education: Eco-anxiety,powerful knowledge,and pathways for transformation

Concerns about the decline in uptake of secondary geography education continue despite arguments supporting the value of geography education, the power of geographical thinking, and geography’s critical role in preparing students to deal with complex challenges. Already constrained by neoliberal politics of disadvantage, young people must plan and prepare for chaotic futures. Consequently, young people are becoming distressed and worried about their futures and feeling powerless as society fails to adequately address these issues. In this article, we ask what schools and universities can do as place-based public institutions to serve young people to effectively respond to eco-anxiety and build capacities to surf the unrelenting waves of change. We draw on journeys that brought three young doctoral candidates to study geography. From their stories, we sketch what a geographical education could offer in terms of relevance, practicality, and engagement with transformative system change. We think that under current world conditions, this is a moment to revive geography education and give it renewed purpose to encourage young people to develop skills and competences to tackle wicked problems.     

Adaptation,interaction and urgency: a complex evolutionary economic geography approach to leisure

Local and regional governments in western European peripheral areas aim to spur leisure-led regional development. We explore planning for leisure by applying an evolutionary economic geography (EEG) approach from a complexity perspective. We identify conditions which enable and constrain leisure development and its effects on the region as a whole. This means combining the local level of individual adaptations with the institutional setting and with the regional scale. We examine the Dutch province of Fryslân and explore by means of case study analysis how current leisure development processes can be explained in a complex evolutionary manner. We explore economic novelty as a result of individual adaptations; how such adaptations through interactions create emerging spatial patterns; how these spatial patterns form self-organizing new types of order; and the way this process is dependent on previous paths whilst also creating new pathways. Our findings show that although development is dependent on individual adaptations often stemming from a few actors, for such adaptations to have an effect on the region requires a connectivity between actors and a sense of urgency amongst those actors. Using a complex EEG approach allows us to explain leisure-led regional development as the product of these conditions. This can help planners deal with the complexity and unpredictability of this process, focusing not on a desired end goal as such, but on creating the conditions in which a more autonomous development can take place.     

Regional embeddedness,relatedness and inter-regional linkages among less developed regions in Central Europe

This paper aims at a comprehension of existing intra-/inter-regional production flows in a dynamically transforming, export-oriented economy in Central Europe. Drawing on evolutionary economic geography combined with input–output approaches, we have assessed the sectoral compositions and relationships between regions from a buyer-supplier interactions perspective. Inspired by contemporary literature we applied concepts of regional embeddedness, relatedness and vertically related variety. Conceptually we argue that the degree of embeddedness of regions is differentiated and spatially non-random. The differences will depend to a large extent on the economic characteristics and on the ability of key actors and institutions in these regions to respond actively to changing opportunities and threats. Empirically we have found: that economically more developed regions are relatively more embedded in terms of production flows and have greater sectoral variety, whereas regions with high export-dependence are economically backward, and have higher concentration of industry and negative associations with innovation activity and overall innovation potential. The intensity of interregional production flows increases as the regional economies vary more from each other, but beyond a certain level of structural difference the rate of mutual flows decreases; and that the intensity of interregional relations depends on the relatedness of the economic bases.     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Veblen goods and urban distinction: The economic geography of conspicuous consumption

A fundamental observation of 21st century cities is that they have become great centers of consumption. In this paper, we seek to understand the geographic variation in consumer behavior. Using Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), we analyze how consumption differs across 21 major U.S. metropolitan areas, and the association between urban characteristics and consumption. We extend previous geographic analysis of consumption to include luxury goods that are socially visible (conspicuous consumption) and luxury goods that are relatively less visible (inconspicuous consumption). Our analysis shows that conspicuous consumption is more sensitive to an urban context than is inconspicuous consumption.     

Grounded capital: venture financing and the geography of the Internet industry, 1994-2000

Despite the rhetoric in the popular and business press trumpetingthe removal of ‘the limitations of geography’, anumber of researchers have demonstrated that rather than simplydispersing, the Internet in fact exhibits an uneven spatialpattern throughout the United States and world. Using a combinationof interview and regression methodologies, this article arguesthat the regional distribution of venture capital investingplayed a central role in determining the location of new Internetstartups. This was largely due to the premium that entrepreneursplaced on one of the hallmarks of venture capital, i.e. speed,and the reliance of venture capitalists upon local networksand knowledge for their investments. The ability to providethese types of value-added inputs in a timely manner is greatlyassisted by geographic proximity. Rather than being an easilymoved and fungible commodity, venture capital investing dependsupon non-monetary inputs such as knowledge about possible investmentsand prefers to be close to companies in order to monitor andassist them. Thus, despite telecommunications technologies andglobal financial markets that have vastly expanded the geographicrange of economic interaction, regions remain central to economicdevelopment in the current economy.