THEORIZING GLOBAL BUSINESS SPACES

Over the last decade, geographers have paid a great deal of attention to transnational firms (TNCs) and global production networks (GPNs) in the global economy, to the emergence of a mobile transnational business class and also to the development of global or globalizing cities. All three literatures have made important contributions to understanding the spatiality of global economic activity, but each adopts a fairly discreet theoretical and empirical focus. This article aims to outline a number of theoretical dimensions for thinking about how these key strands to the globalization debate can be brought together through the concept of global business spaces. It will propose a framework for understanding the spatialities of global economic activity that seeks to capture the complex interaction of material, social, organizational and virtual spaces that form the context through which it is constituted. With reference to business travel as a key form of economic practice which plays a central role in (re)producing these spaces, it assesses how these emerging spaces of global economic activity present problems for the conceptual categories commonly used by both urban and economic geographers. In so doing, it proposes a series of ways in which a different research agenda can produce new insight into the complex forms of social practice at the centre of global economic activity.     

THE AIRPORT HOTEL AS BUSINESS SPACE

This article seeks to contribute to debates about the mobile nature of contemporary economic practice, through a discussion of some key themes in the evolution of airport hotels as business spaces. It argues that despite being emblematic of a hypermobile business elite, the nature of hotels as business spaces requires careful unpacking. The article begins by discussing the evolution of the airport hotel, charting the shift from basic lodging standards to recent developments of five star airport hotels. It then seeks to explain the locational geographies of airport hotel development, in response to these new trends. Finally, the article describes how the business traveller is conceived of and (speculatively) catered for by airport hotel operators and designers within a discourse of connectivity, before providing some counter-examples of how such claims fail to address the hotel's place within the complexity of airport spatial organization.     

'GLOCAL' MOVEMENTS: PLACE STRUGGLES AND TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZING BY INFORMAL WORKERS

This paper investigates the scalar practices of collectively organized informal workers and the political implications of such practices. It illustrates how the studied group organizes across scales – hence, a 'glocal movement'– and stresses the importance of an analysis that integrates these multiple scales of collective organizing, as they may have a bearing on each other. In so doing, it contests a common tendency to analytically privilege one or other scale of resistance and agency. In particular, I argue that networking across scales may be of significance for local struggles and thus play a role in local politics. The transnational activities of the studied group assist it in challenging local power relations and dominant place projects that repress informal livelihood activities. This paper comprises a conceptual discussion of notions of scale, of conceptions of the spatialities and scales of resistance as well as of place, followed by an empirical illustration that refers to an association of informal vendors in Maputo, Mozambique, and its international connections. The analysis is based on interviews with vendors, leaders of the association and with the international partners of the association.     

SHADOWS OF PLANNING: ON LANDSCAPE/PLANNING HISTORY AND INHERITED LANDSCAPE AMBIGUITIES AT THE URBAN FRINGE

The history of vernacular landscapes at the urban fringe is poorly studied, limiting our understanding of the contemporary character of the fringe and our knowledge of the urbanization process. This article argues the necessity of a combined analysis of the legacies of planning and the footprints of former landscape ideals in order to understand the conditions for spatial planning at the urban fringe. After first introducing the methodological use of landscape/planning history, the article focuses on the Swedish discourse on landscape change and landscape planning concerning the urban fringe in the 1930s. Particular focus is placed on the discourse on agricultural landscapes at the urban fringe. The third section of the article presents an examination of the footprints of the ‘landscape convention’ (i.e. an agreement on the meaning of landscape in relation to law and justice) resulting from the landscape discourse of the 1930s. The article argues that the legacy of the 1930s explains some of the difficulties arising when planners of today aim to utilize the farm landscape as a resource for recreation at the urban fringe. The shadow of the landscape discourse of the 1930s also creates difficulties in dealing with peri‐urban landscapes in Swedish planning and Swedish law. With the ongoing discourse on how to implement the European Landscape Convention, such knowledge is particularly useful.     

NETWORKING, KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATIONS AND AEROMOBILITY

This article explores networking and travel in two international knowledge organizations located in Denmark. It shows that these knowledge organizations are organized in various ways through different types of network on different scales. Therefore the individual employees in both organizations are dependent on their ability to create and maintain relations within networks. The article argues that such networking activities cannot be understood separately from air travel. However, work and travel decisions are also highly individualized, meaning that a number of more individual and non-work rationalities are also significant in employees deciding whether to travel or not. Therefore the article concludes that, in a number of social situations, individual rationalities function as a barrier to the increased use of video technology. It is therefore necessary to create new mechanisms to support the increased use of virtual communications in order to reduce the environmental impact of air travel in knowledge organizations.     

RAPID REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT IN SWEDEN: A PHENOMENON MISSING AN EXPLANATION

According to Swedish register data, regional size and the extent of commuting have both increased rapidly in recent decades. From the perspective of policy-making authorities, this would indicate good prospects for regional development, as small regions could be integrated into larger ones resulting in increased economic growth. However, there are few concrete manifestations of such regional enlargement, and alternative datasets give other impressions of the effects of commuting. Here we argue that this apparent growth might stem from several problems inherent in a register-based way of measuring changes in commuting patterns. Thus, regional enlargement and the extent of commuting may be exaggerated when measured conventionally, and the high hopes of using such enlargement to lever regional development might be misplaced. More generally, this study considers the problems arising as census or other enquiry and interview based data are replaced by register data.     

INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

In investigating ways to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards it is essential to recognize the interaction between indigenous and scientific knowledge bases. Indigenous and scientific knowledge bases are dynamic entities. Using a Process Framework to identify how indigenous and scientific knowledge bases may be integrated, three communities impacted upon by environmental hazards in Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing State, have established how their vulnerability to environmental hazards may be reduced. This article explores the application of the framework within the communities of Kumalu, Singas and Baliau, and how this could impact upon the future management of environmental hazards within indigenous communities in Small Island Developing States.