Labour in Global Value Chains: Work Conditions in Football Manufacturing in China,India and Pakistan

A critical challenge facing developing country producers is to meet international labour standards and codes of conduct in order to engage in global value chains. Evidence of gains for workers from compliance with such standards and codes remains limited and patchy. This article focuses on the global football industry, a sector dominated by leading global brands that manage dispersed global value chains. It assesses the working conditions for football stitchers engaged in different forms of work organization, factories, stitching centres and home‐based settings in Pakistan, India and China. It draws on detailed qualitative primary field research with football‐stitching workers and producers in these three countries. The article explains how and why work conditions of football stitchers differ across these locations through an analytical framework that interweaves both global and local production contexts that influence work conditions. In doing so, it argues that current debates on the role of labour in global value chains have to go beyond a narrow focus on labour standards and corporate social responsibility compliance and engage with economic, technological and social upgrading as factors that could generate sustained improvements in real wages and workers’ conditions.     

Networks and place in Montreal's independent music industry

The significance of networks for independent music producers has been well established in the urban‐economic geography literature and the literature centred on cultural industries. In this article, we seek to build on this literature by considering how place‐based attributes mediate network development; that is to say, how the unique characteristics of place (such as historical and cultural attributes) determine networking outcomes among spatially proximate actors. Specifically, we consider the importance of place through an examination of Montreal's independent music industry. Drawing on 46 semi‐structured interviews with key actors in the industry, we illustrate how Montreal's bilingual identity contributes to network dynamics within the industry.     

IDENTIFICATION,PROCESSING AND USE OF RED PIGMENTS (HEMATITE AND CINNABAR) IN THE VALENCIAN EARLY NEOLITHIC (SPAIN)

The results of the first elemental and structural physicochemical analyses (SEM–EDX, TXRF, XRD, FTIR, GC and EDXRF) of Early Neolithic red pigment samples from the region of Valencia confirm one of the earliest uses of cinnabar (HgS) in Spain (5300 to 5000 cal bc ). They also inform on the storage of massive quantities of hematite and the development of specific technologies of hematite‐based paint production and use. The samples were recovered at the three most significant Early Neolithic sites of the Mediterranean coast of Spain: Cova de l'Or (Beniarrés, Alacant), Cova de la Sarsa (Bocairent, Valencia) and Cova Fosca (Vall d'Ebo, Valencia), which together have provided the most important European collection of Cardial ceramic ware (chronoculturally diagnostic of the Early Neolithic).     

A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Groundwater Level Changes in Relation to Urban Growth and Groundwater Recharge Potential for Waukesha County,Wisconsin

The main objective of this study was to analyze spatially and temporally groundwater level changes using geographic information systems and spatial analysis with respect to urban development, groundwater withdrawal, and groundwater recharge potential. The study focused on Waukesha County in southeastern Wisconsin, where urban development has been accelerating while groundwater has been declining over the last several decades. We analyzed data about groundwater withdrawal, groundwater level, land use/land cover, and precipitation utilizing correlation analysis, geographically weighted regression, land use change analysis, and map overlay. Our findings include the following: the extent of urban areas expanded faster in regions with high recharge potential than in those with low or moderate recharge potential; the correlation of urban growth with groundwater level is highly variable over time and space; and changes in groundwater level are strongly related to the spatial distribution of groundwater withdrawal. The study pinpointed the need to consider the spatial unevenness of groundwater withdrawal in understanding the changes in groundwater level and groundwater recharge potential for better management of groundwater resources. Un análisis espacio‐temporal de los cambios de nivel de aguas subterráneas en relación con el crecimiento urbano y de las aguas subterráneas de recarga para el Condado de Waukesha, Wisconsin El objetivo principal de este estudio es analizar espacial y temporalmente los cambios del nivel de aguas subterráneas utilizando sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) y análisis espacial con respecto al desarrollo urbano, la extracción de agua subterránea, y el potencial de recarga. El área de estudio es el condado de Waukesha, en el sureste de Wisconsin, donde el desarrollo urbano se ha acelerado mientras que las aguas subterráneas han disminuido en las últimas décadas. Se analizaron los datos sobre la extracción y nivel de aguas subterráneas, la cobertura vegetal/uso del suelo, y la precipitación utilizando un análisis de correlación, una regresión ponderada geográficamente (geographically weigted regression ‐GWR), un análisis de cambio de uso del suelo, y la superposición de mapas (map overlay). Los resultados muestran que: (1) la extensión de las zonas urbanas se incrementó más rápidamente en regiones con alto potencial de recarga que en áreas con potencial de recarga de bajo o moderado; (2) la correlación entre el crecimiento urbano y el nivel de aguas subterráneas es muy variable tanto temporal como espacialmente; y, (3) los cambios en el nivel de aguas subterráneas están fuertemente relacionados con la distribución espacial de las actividades de extracción del recurso. El estudio identificó la necesidad de considerar la irregularidad del patrón espacial de la extracción de aguas subterráneas con el fin de mejorar la comprensión de los cambios en el nivel y el potencial de recarga y así promover una mejor gestión de los recursos hídricos subterráneos. 本研究主要目的在于通过地理信息系统(GISs)和空间分析的时空视角,对城市发展的地下水水位变化,地下水开采和地下水潜在补给进行分析。本文研究区为威斯康星州东南部的沃基肖县,该区在过去近几十年里城市快速增长而地下水急剧减少。通过地下水开采、地下水水位、LUCC（土地利用/土地覆盖LULC）和降水的数据分析,采用方法包括相关分析、地理加权回归模型（GWR）、土地利用变化分析和地图叠加分析。研究结果包括：（1）高地下水补给的城市地域范围的扩大幅度快于中等或低补给地区;（2）城市增长与地下水水位的相关性在时间和空间上是高度变化的;（3）地下水开采的空间分布与地下水位的变化呈强相关。研究精确地指出,为更好管理地下水资源,在理解地下水位变化和地下水潜在补给时需考虑地下水开采的空间不均匀。     

An archaeological test of the “Exchange Expansion Model” of contact era change on the Northwest Coast

Recent anthropological studies show that traditional views of indigenous communities in the wake of European colonialism are constrained by Eurocentric biases. These biases can be overcome, in part, by greater reliance on archaeological data as an independent line of evidence and increased attention to indigenous internal sociocultural processes. This study uses these strategies to examine colonial era shifts in indigenous exchange systems on the Northwest Coast of North America. Obsidian artifact data from late precontact and early postcontact deposits are used to test what I call the “Exchange Expansion Model” (EEM) of colonial period shifts in Northwest Coast exchange systems. According to the EEM, both the volume and geographic scope of supralocal exchange among indigenous communities increased as a result of European influences. This study tests the model using obsidian artifact data from three Lower Columbia River sites – Cathlapotle (45CL1), Clahclellah (45SA11), and Meier (35C05). The results support the hypothesized increase in volume, but not the hypothesized increase in geographic scope, of indigenous supralocal exchange. To explain the departure from expectations, I propose a revised version of the EEM which considers more fully how Native demography and internal sociocultural dynamics developed in the context of introduced diseases, horses, and the fur trade. I suggest these variables facilitated increases in the flow of prestige goods, but declines in the flow of less valued goods such as obsidian, from interior sources to the Lower Columbia River. Exchange alliances between Lower Columbia Chinookans and nearby Willamette Valley inhabitants were more resistant to disruption, so obsidian importation from the Willamette Valley to the Lower Columbia stabilized, and perhaps intensified, during the postcontact era. These findings illustrate the power of archaeology for empirically testing ethnohistorical models of colonialism and for illuminating the significance of indigenous internal sociocultural processes in colonial entanglements.     

Landscapes of death: GIS-based analyses of chullpas in the western Lake Titicaca basin

The western Lake Titicaca basin is marked by above-ground funerary towers, known as chullpas, located in a variety of geographical contexts and dating to the Late Intermediate Period, or LIP (AD 1100–1450), and Late Horizon (AD 1450–1532). Over the years, interpretations of these tombs have concentrated upon their roles as loci for ancestral veneration and their abilities to perpetuate memory, delineate social ties and territories, and demarcate access to resources. These views share the implicit or explicit assumption that these mortuary structures were intended to be highly visible. Yet this assumption has never been formally tested. By using GIS-based geospatial tools and statistical analysis, this paper investigates the extent to which chullpas surveyed in the western Lake Titicaca basin visually dominated the landscape. These tombs were not positioned in random locations; they exhibit a high degree of clustering and were built in highly visible areas that could be seen from sites of occupation and regions of economic importance such as Lake Umayo. This paper suggests that this landscape of death was deliberately constructed to have an enduring social impact.     

ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC CAPITAL STOCK USING THE NEG WAGE EQUATION: A SPATIAL PANEL DATA APPROACH

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between the level of public infrastructure and the level of productivity using panel data for the Spanish provinces over the period 1985–2004, a period that is particularly relevant due to the substantial changes occurring in the Spanish economy at that time. The underlying model used for the data analysis is based on the wage equation, which is one of a handful of simultaneous equations which when satisfied correspond to the short‐run equilibrium of New Economic Geography (NEG) theory. This is estimated using various spatial panel models with either fixed or random effects to allow for individual heterogeneity. Using these models, we find consistent evidence that productivity depends directly on the public capital stock endowment of each province, but also there is evidence of negative spillover effects from changes in capital stock in neighboring provinces.