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Purpose –Tourism development can provide a sustainable path through which to diversify the economy. The aim of this research is 1) to assess the current economic diversification of a potential tourism region in an emerging economy, that of the Ulytau region of Kazakhstan; 2) to detail the impediments to economic diversification through tourism development, and 3) to recommend ways to foster economic diversification. Methodology/Design/Approach – The research uses secondary data to assess the current situation of the region and in-depth interviews with tourism and economic development experts to understand the current obstacles to economic diversification. Findings – This rural region of Kazakhstan is relatively concentrated in terms of its economic diversification and investment in infrastructure such roads, airports, and telecommunication as well as marking and promotion of the natural and cultural attractions will be a path to diversify the economy through tourism development. Originality of the research – This research uses evolutionary economic geography as a useful framework through which to view how destinations change over time. The research provides a model through which other destinations, dominated by non-renewable resource extraction can pivot towards tourism as a way to diversify the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the asymmetric effects of international and domestic tourism on economic complexity worldwide. Despite the significant contributions of international and domestic tourism to a country's economic activities, their potential impacts on economic complexity remain underexplored in the literature. Using the Dynamic Fixed Effects Autoregressive Distributed Lag (DFE ARDL) model, this research estimates the short- and long-term effects of domestic and international tourism on economic complexity for 123 economies from 1995 to 2018. The empirical analysis reveals that domestic tourism spending has an insignificant negative impact on economic complexity in the short term. However, in the long run, it exerts a significant positive effect, suggesting that domestic tourism could be a powerful driver of the long-term geography of economic activities. In contrast, international tourism contributes to economic complexity in the short term, but its long-term impact is less significant. These findings affirm the instrumental role of tourism development in enhancing economic complexity and underscore the importance of a balanced approach to tourism development, considering its short‐ and long‐term effects on economic complexity. The study contributes to the literature by providing the first evidence of a connection between the tourism industry and economic complexity from a global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the complex interaction between environmental damage and location in space of firms and entrepreneurial households. We use a New Economic Geography (NEG) framework, suitably extended to account for environmental damage and the two mobility processes. The resulting model is a two-dimensional piecewise smooth map with two constraints for each variable, and we use analytic and numerical tools to explore its long-run dynamics. We pay special attention to the different types of fixed points and the structure of the respective basins of attraction. Their complexity re-enforces a core theme of the NEG: History matters for the long run location in space of economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia y Sociedad (01218417) is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of URVIO - Revista Latinoamericana de Seguridad Ciudadana is the property of FLACSO - Ecuador (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the Second Industrial Revolution and subsequently, it is widely believed that Black Americans contributed disproportionately little to the economic development of the United States, especially in comparison to European Americans and immigrants from Europe. Yet, Black Americans tended to live in entirely different institutional environments than other Americans, particularly in the South under Jim Crow laws. Using a new database that matches inventors to census records, we find that patenting rates for Black Americans living in the North were very similar to patenting rates for White Americans from 1870 to 1940; in some decades and states, Northern Black patenting rates exceeded the patenting rate for White Americans. In the South, patenting rates were low for both Black and White Americans, while patenting rates for Northern Black residents were far higher than those for Southern White residents. We additionally find that Black Americans from all regions were responsible for more patents than immigrants from all but two countries (Germany and England). In total, we estimate that African Americans invented more than 50,000 patents over the period. Thus, when freed of extreme political oppression, Black Americans demonstrated a level of inventiveness that matched the most inventive groups in US history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs the economic model to consider the economy in cities from the waste management perspective. Specifically, we analyze the link between migration, natural capital, and waste management by applying the new economic geography model. We show the results; the population distribution pattern in the long run varies depending on the congestion effect of natural capital and waste management's technological level. In particular, a full agglomeration equilibrium realizes in the long run for higher technological levels of waste management (lower congestion effects), an interior asymmetric equilibrium does for intermediate technological levels (intermediate congestion effects), and the symmetric dispersion equilibrium realizes for the lower technological levels (higher congestion effects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackling spatial inequalities needs to make sure that it improves the lives of people in rural and peripheral regions. Whilst local metrics and key indicators may be improved by measures implemented, this does not always translate to local people 'feeling' that development has improved their lives. Using ethnographic fieldwork and embodied and conversational research techniques, this paper adds to the place-based, evolutionary economic geography and resilience literature to develop the concept of the complex adaptive region assemblage, which draws on Deleuzian-based theory. I question whether this might be a lens to explore and better understand the measures that can be put in place in order to address the gap between regional development programmes, and the experiences of members of the public. The starting point was to explore the positionality of local people, and the paper finds that in the case studies (Cornwall UK and Southwest Virginia USA), systems put in place to revitalise these areas could be more effective if they pay attention to connecting spaces between local residents, and how they navigate their localities. • Place-based development needs to understand how local people experience rural regions. • Often, certain gaps make it more difficult for people to participate effectively in their regions. • Rural development needs to connect (missing) gaps in how people navigate place. • Viewing rural regions as complex adaptive assemblages helps to understand these gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The impact of different factors on BCEs is nonstationary in geographical space. • The impact of climate geographical factors shows north‒south gradient characteristics. • The impact of economic geographical factors decreases gradually from northeast to southwest. • It is necessary to formulate emission reduction policies based on local conditions. Due to its vast territory, the climatic conditions and socioeconomic development of different regions in China are closely related to geographical location, and their impact on city-level building carbon emissions (BCEs) shows significant spatial differences. Ignoring this difference will hinder the building sector from achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. This study integrates climate and economic factors into a unified analysis framework from a geographical perspective, uses the global regression model ordinary least squares (OLS), local regression models geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) for comparative verification, and explores the gradient impact of China's climate and economic geographical factors on city-level BCEs. Furthermore, BCE reduction policy recommendations for different regions are proposed. The model comparison results show that the effect obtained when using the global regression model to analyze influencing factors related to geographical location may be biased. The local MGWR results show that the impacts of climate geographical factors heating degree days (HDD) and cooling degree days (CDD) on city-level BCEs have obvious north‒south gradient characteristics, while the impacts of economic geographical factors population (P), tertiary industry GDP (GDP3), urbanization rate (UR) and floor area (FR) on city-level BCEs show obvious gradient decreasing characteristics from northeast to southwest. These gradient characteristics cannot be ignored when promoting building carbon emission reduction work. This study expands and deepens the driving mechanism of BCEs and provides a reference for formulating building carbon emission reduction policies based on local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we suggest that far too often economic geographic theory has been based on simple core-periphery dualism that mask the reality of creative work in rural or peripheral areas. We take a relational approach and suggest that being on the periphery does not necessarily mean isolation from the centre nor does it mean relegation to lower levels of professional and creative possibilities. The study examines a sample of female contemporary visual artists in the rural Swedish region of Värmland and suggests that affordability and work-life balance are the essential reasons for the locational choices of these peripheral artists. Once settled they employ two strategic coping mechanisms: embracing the creative possibilities of being on the edge; active creation of network spaces and relations. We suggest that for creative workers' binary spatial divisions are not appropriate and that more nuanced relational geographies support both rural and individual creative careers. In particular, we emphasise one such binary: the presumption that whilst urban creativity is collective, rural creativity is individual and lacking the benefits of closeness and agglomeration. Rather than the dualism presented in the creativity literature, we suggest that the case exposes the importance of thinking relational, spatially and temporarily in terms of project and career life cycles. These artists are not making black or white choices between the social city and the isolated rural but attempting to mix the advantages of both together through translocal processes and networks. • We draw attention to how peripheral settings give female professional artists space for their working lives. • Locating to the periphery does not imply a divide between the core and periphery. • Professional cultural careers and creativity are possible in the rural and periphery. • Female professional artists use translocal spaces and practices to aid creativity and make connections to sectoral cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first three chapters investigate China's rail development, the Pan-Asian Railway, and the BRI. It also explores China's domestic HSR industry, arguing that rail resources, technological know-how, labor, and finance were built up domestically as a precursor to global railway expansion. I Rivers of Iron i will undoubtedly serve as a foundation for future research on railway development in Southeast Asia and global China as a field of power. [Extracted from the article]

'Insurantial imaginaries' describes the shared structures of comprehension and action that establishes the social value of insurance and its practical influence. As insurance is a bricolage of economic, legal, political, cultural and moral elements that vary across time and space, for insurance to be intelligible and functional, these imaginaries render this dynamic complexity into stable and discrete forms. In this paper, we explore one such imaginary constituted through the intersection of housing and insurance norms, vis a vis house and contents insurance, in home-owning democracies. Drawing on the cases of Australia and the United Kingdom, we observe how a rise in renting in these countries is resulting in an increase in underinsurance, with renters less likely to insure their assets. This is refashioning a long-standing insurantial imaginary shaped by socio-cultural aspirations for home-ownership, liberal norms of individual autonomy, and links between home-ownership and democracy, including participation in voting. In observing that this imaginary valorises home-ownership and insurance, and problematises renting and underinsurance, we draw attention to the covert power of insurance in co-constituting everyday practices and identify a novel spatialised insurantial imaginary. In grounding our analysis within home-owning democracies, we also make a broader contribution to economic and financial geography by extending understanding of the complex spatial nature of financial mechanisms and processes, and how market-based economies appear to be reconfiguring democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conceives of technology legitimation as a trans -regional process of strategic coupling. • Presents a cross-regional 'distended' case study of a floating wind power (FWP) technology. • Shows that the FWP technology was gradually legitimated in a pragmatic sense over three phases. Building upon recent work in sustainability transitions studies and economic geography, this paper is concerned with the process of legitimation by which emerging technologies are aligned with broader societal rules and norms. Challenging the assumption of earlier research that legitimation occurs within regional and national borders, the paper views legitimation as set of transregional processes whereby the actors behind emerging technologies seek support from different regional and national organizations on an international basis. Inspired by the Global Production Networks (GPN) approach, the paper argues that technology legitimation can be understood as a trans -regional process of strategic coupling between the strategic needs of the industrial actors advancing new technologies and the efforts of national and regional organizations to promote their territories as leading nodes in emerging production networks. Empirically, the paper adopts a micro-level focus on the legitimation of a particular renewable energy technology: the Hywind floating wind power (FWP) technology, developed by the Norwegian energy firm, Equinor. The paper shows that the FWP technology was gradually legitimated in a pragmatic sense over the three stages of Hywind. The demonstration phase generated a temporary and conditional form of legitimacy at an intra-national scale, while the next phase, Hywind Scotland, generated a stronger and more durable form of legitimacy as the world's first floating wind farm. This led to the internalisation of legitimacy from outside into the Norwegian energy regime (absorption) in the third stage of Hywind Tampen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Latecomer countries or regions can find new ways to break away from the existing global development trajectories. • "Transformative leapfrogging" requires attention to both knowledge and valuation development strategies. • Latecomers can steer industrial development by shaping new socio-technical configurations. • They can simultaneously leapfrog in industries and sustainability transitions. • We propose a typology of latecomer development pathways that informs a future research agenda. Latecomer countries are increasingly confronted with the simultaneous challenge of achieving industry competitiveness and sustainability transitions. We revisit the long-standing debate on how latecomers may break free from the trajectories of the developed countries and leapfrog into more sustainable directions. Connecting insights from the fields of catching-up, socio-technical transitions, and economic geography, we propose a heuristic typology of four development pathways for latecomers. While the catching-up literature has focused on knowledge development as a main strategy, we posit that to address grand challenges, it is imperative for latecomers to implement valuation-focused strategies, which include shaping technology legitimacy, markets, and finance flows at the systemic level. We showcase the shifting trajectory of the Chinese solar photovoltaic industry from technology catching-up to forging ahead in pre-existing global value chains, and eventually towards transformative leapfrogging aimed at reconfiguring the entire socio-technical system of the electricity sector. We conclude with a research agenda for latecomer development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal is the property of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of EURE is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the contributions of critical Latin American geography, this paper proposes an alternative understanding of territories to explore the transformation of regional and local economies towards environmentally friendly and conscious modes of production while tackling uneven development. We argue that economic geography is well-suited to study these transformations due to its emphasis on understanding the spatial distribution and organization of economic activities. However, most of its theorisations are based on the Global North, leaving out discussions in the Global South. A decolonial approach to territories can help understand economic change towards sustainability and inclusiveness, considering alternative institutional and social arrangements that mediate socio-economic relations. The concept of 'territories as practice' emerges from critical Latin American geography and challenges monolithic and colonial conceptions of development and modernity. As proposed here, territories as practice allows explaining and planning for regional transformations in non-core regions, while paying attention to how global networks and extra-territorial factors influence economic change. We advocate for a practice-based spatial approach that acknowledges the practices shaping territories, helping us comprehend how localities and communities resist and adopt economic transformations. Territories as practice capture the multiplicity of visions, contradictions, and constructions defining a territory, leading to more inclusive and context-specific approaches to economic transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper takes Beijing as a case to study regional economic resilience. • We systematically explore the effects of COVID-19 on industrial dynamics. • Individual-owned firms located in high-risk regions are more vulnerable. • The epidemic shock leads to cascading effects among the local industrial network. The COVID-19 epidemic has altered the economic geographies of cities. However, the academic focus on urban industries and their structural dynamics is far from enough. In this paper, we integrate literature from economic geography, business studies and network sciences, and design an adaptation framework to theorize urban economic resilience. Taking the COVID-19 outbreak in Xinfadi, Beijing during the summer of 2020 as a case study, we use Logit regressions and DID estimations to identify the impacts of the epidemic on local industrial dynamics. Our results support that the COVID-19 outbreak significantly increases the number of business exits. The negative impacts are concentrated in high-risk regions, pointing to specific industries and individual-owned firms. Furthermore, we use a machine learning method to visualize the dynamics of industry networks in a small-scale urban area, and then simulate the transmission paths of industry-failure. In doing so, we contribute to current economic resilience literature that firm-level adaptation and industrial dynamics complement regional adaptation theory, while the cascading effects in the industry network underpin the micro foundations of resilience formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Utilizes 111 expert interviews and 50 site visits to examine UK industrial decarbonization. • Explores sociotechnical pathways, capabilities, and learning processes. • Harnesses a challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CoRIS) framework. • Reflects on deeper issues of incumbency, innovation, and incremental vs. transformative change. Few sectors in the global economy need deep decarbonization as much as heavy industry, which is currently the largest and fastest growing source of global carbon emissions. Based on an original dataset of 111 expert interviews and 52 site visits, this paper asks: what sociotechnical pathways, capabilities, and regional innovation systems are emerging to support industrial decarbonization? It combines and applies insights from evolutionary economic geography and transitions studies, such as sociotechnical capabilities and learning, as well as spatial frameworks such as challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CoRIS) and green industrial restructuring. It utilizes these collective concepts of pathways, capabilities and CoRIS to explore the organizational and technological, individual, and systems level dimensions of industrial decarbonization efforts ongoing across Great Britain. We find that within industrial net-zero clusters, spatial and technological proximities are being effectively leveraged, especially through new forms of networking, collaboration, and partnerships. CoRIS provides the basis for greater reflection on perennial transitions issues, both within and across clusters, related to incumbency and innovation, in addition to spotlighting emergent issues such as light versus deep green restructuring and incremental versus transformative change. In simpler terms, industrial decarbonization unfolds as a multi-scalar process. Industrial decarbonization exhibits both incremental and transformative patterns of change. Industrial decarbonization lastly involves dynamic processes that coevolve across a spectrum of sociotechnical attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Migrant-serving NGOs both resist and reify humanitarian governance frameworks. • These tensions shift in the context of volatile immigration politics. • (Dis)embedding provides a lens for examining such negotiations across time and space. A broad body of scholarship has examined how states and intergovernmental organizations like UNHCR and the IOM mobilize discourses of humanitarianism and political neutrality to legitimize and depoliticize "migration management," which is imagined as an orderly, economically productive, and humane endeavor that is in line with state security interests, prevailing growth and development objectives, and human rights norms. The article contributes to more recent work that has tended to frame smaller grassroots humanitarian organizations as either subversive or subordinated to migration management. We engage with long-standing conversations in economic geography and related social science disciplines to consider embeddedness as a conceptual framework that highlights the spatial and temporal nuances of how migrant-serving NGOs negotiate intersecting moral, legal, and political interests. We suggest that conceptualizing embeddedness as a spatio-temporal process nuances recent conversations regarding the ambiguous role of NGOs as either subordinated or subversive relative to migration management. Approaching (dis)embeddeding as a dynamic relational process, we argue, provides a framework for understanding how NGOs simultaneously align with and contest the interests of migration management amid shifting social, economic, and political conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economía, Sociedad y Territorio is the property of El Colegio Mexiquense and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reflecting the geography of economic activities, economic complexity may be important for the shadow economy. This study is the first attempt to analyse the influence of economic complexity on the shadow economy. Analyses are carried out for 115 economies and three subsamples (i.e., 45 low- and lower-middle-income economies (LMEs); 32 upper-middle-income economies (UMEs); and 38 high-income economies (HIEs)) from 1995 to 2017. Several estimates are applied to panel data, providing robust results. First , increases in economic complexity are found to (i) reduce the relative size of the shadow economy (% official GDP); while (ii) increasing the absolute size of the shadow economy (constant USD). This implies that economic complexity might have benefits for both the official and shadow economies, but the benefits for the official economy are likely dominant over the shadow economy. Second , economic complexity appears to have a negative influence on both the relative and absolute size of the shadow economy in the long run. Third , the analyses for the three subsamples add further findings. The influence of economic complexity on the shadow economy is found to be consistent in HIEs and LMEs, while economic complexity has a negative influence on both the relative and absolute size of the shadow economy in UMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the recent years the world has experienced a shift towards complex relations being formed in the growing interlacing between geoeconomics and geopolitics. This paper aims at bringing geoeconomics and geopolitics on the macroeconomic level together with the potential implications for Japanese firms operating in Europe and more specifically within the EU Single Market. The paper grounds the analysis within international political economy, international business and economic geography. This broad, eclectic theoretical foundation enables the analysis to contribute to a deeper understanding of how firms respond to and potentially drive the political development of trade and investment relations. Hence, the paper strives to examine how geopolitics alter the flows of trade and investments, but also to map a new configuration taking place in parallel on the firm level of industrial dynamics and economic geographical footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Geografia: Revista Colombiana de Geografía is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Contemporary economic systems are characterised by the increasing volumes and flow of goods. This attribute highlights the importance of logistics wherein one of the key focus areas pertains to the movement and storage of freight at different geographical scales. Objective: In the light of the importance of theory in research as well as the significance of geographical location in logistics processes, the objective of the paper is to analyse the extent, scope and gaps of theory utilisation in logistics-related research. Method: The paper is based on a systematic literature review approach that encompassed 243 sources. The searches were conducted on the Internet database platforms using keywords such as logistics, logistics activities, geography of logistics activities, supply chain management, logistics theories and freight models. Results: The relationship between logistics research and theory is ambiguous in that the majority of the research does not explicitly incorporate theory. Logistics particularly benefits from theory originating from other disciplines, such as economics, strategic management and marketing; however, the use of theories that originate from human geography has been limited in logistics research. Conclusion: The drive to understand the movement and storage of freight at different scales has relevance to human geography, particularly the subdisciplines of transport geography and economic geography. It is therefore recommended that logistics research consider the theoretical frameworks originating from human geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper pursues a novel focus on the economic geography of supplementary education during the coronavirus pandemic. • COVID-19 dealt a heavy blow to the economic vitality of the private tuition industry. • The pandemic transformed the spatiality of business practices in this 'shadow education' sector. • It raised ethical questions about this valuable yet regressive commercial service. • COVID-19 is reshaping education markets: this affects educational entrepreneurs and unequal consumer outcomes. This paper challenges geographers to examine the lucrative, but vastly understudied, global supplementary education sector (e.g. private tuition; learning centres; cram schools). It marks a break from research in Geographies of Education on locational, socio-cultural and political-economy issues, by concentrating directly on the economic geography of this metaphorically monikered 'shadow education' sector. Centred on the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the paper's aim is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economic vitality, business spatiality and societal value of private tuition in England. Methodologically, it utilises in-depth interviews with tutors providing one-to-one instruction in English, maths or science in the regionally-differentiated tuition market. The findings demonstrate business vitality was impacted: COVID-19 related disruption to schooling produced a profound economic shock for the tuition industry, though new opportunities also emerged from the crisis. Business spatiality was fundamentally rewritten, not only in terms of delivery but also as local markets became national ones. The social value of the industry was drawn into question, as the service was both vital and regressive in its distribution. In conclusion, the paper argues geographers of education must: (i) Embrace research on supplementary education in its own right and as it articulates with state education provision; (ii) Pursue economic analyses which consider both how markets work to produce unequal outcomes for potential consumers, and how they emerge as a space of educational entrepreneurship for those seeking to make a living; and (iii) Urgently examine how the coronavirus pandemic is rewriting processes across the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multi-scalar competitive and cooperative strategies and practices in the GPN. • Forward and backward integration trends in the production networks. • Placed-based interpretation of the global production networks of lithium. • Central role of states as inter-scalar mediators in strategic coupling relations. • Deeper understanding of the local development outcomes of production networks. This article provides the first detailed analysis within economic geography of the GPN of lithium and of the Bolivian strategy of brine industrialization. Considering extractive and manufacturing chains of the lithium industry, it demonstrates how the production networks' organizational structures and practices are shaped by interconnected relations of cooperation and competition. Specifically the article targets two key points in the GPN literature: i) how the multi-scalar competitive and/or cooperative strategies and practices of forward and backward integrations create and sustain the production networks and their evolution; ii) a combined analysis of the GPN approach with a placed-based interpretation of the political economy of the lithium industry focusing on the central role of states as inter-scalar mediators in strategic coupling relations for the insertion of national economic actors and assets to global markets. We then propose a new interpretation of the global reconfiguration of the extractive chain and its spatial forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical contribution to interrogate and elucidate a term commonly used (but rarely interrogated) from the perspective of the economic geography field within which we work: peripheries. As researchers of "peripheries" we are all too familiar with the fuzziness and problematic nature of this term, and our long-standing research agenda is to work towards clarifying and nuancing it, addressing its role in either stigmatizing or assuming some predetermined destiny for different regions and territories. This paper reviews the work conducted on peripheries within economic geography, and identifies a number of gaps or problems in the way in which this term is used. The paper proposes a way forwards for addressing these problems, in a series of "suggestions" as to how we can do better in researching economic geographies of peripheries. The final discussion reorients our debate towards possible avenues for the research community to anchor peripheries in theoretical advancements and a more systemic approach to empirical investigations. Finally, this paper proposes a holistic framework for studying peripheries in economic geography, which take into account environmental, socio-cultural, and political elements as well as pure economic issues. • In-depth literature review of the treatment of the concept of the periphery within economic geography. • Pinpoints four "problems" with the way that the concept has been used in the past and provides some solutions. • Develops a research agenda for peripheries which takes account of economic, environmental, socio cultural and political dimensions. • Provides specific research questions and themes for the field of peripheries research within economic geography to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the concept of refiguration of spaces proposed by KNOBLAUCH and LÖW (2017), in this article I emphasize interfaces for theory building, methods, and comparative research from an economic geography and regional economics perspective. Since the refiguration of spaces offers an abstract frame capable of grasping spatial relations of any order and across various scales, I will discuss the utilization of concepts of space in both subdisciplines by employing a textbook analysis. Moreover, I will include two examples of current economic phenomena where refiguration takes place. Namely, I will analyze the internationalization of companies and world trade interdependencies according to concepts of space, their implication on methods, and comparative research. In my findings, I show that the abstract frame of refiguration of spaces unlocks great potential if applied consistently. Economic geography has a great deal to offer for the micro-foundation in the refiguration of spaces, working with qualitative methods and forwardthinking concepts of space (e.g., relational or topical points of view for comparison). Regional economics allows for progress concerning the macro-foundation in the refiguration of spaces through the increased availability of regional or big data and advanced quantitative methods (e.g., manifold indexes capturing refiguration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence on Europe integration indicates a process of convergence between countries, but not within regions. We aim to assess the relationship between spatial and social inequalities in the EU regions for the 2000–2016 period. Our results revise existing evidence about the evolution of some descriptive measures of inequality, showing that: (i) inequalities exist at the regional level with a growing disconnection between the geography of production that becomes more unequal, as do the geography of incomes; (ii) when analyzing the positive relationship between the growth of regional inequalities and the gross domestic product (GDP), a trade-off between spatial equity and growth seems possible. Our econometric results indicate that inequalities persist and create a type of path dependence, correlated to proximity in space. Spatial inequalities in the GDP strongly affect interpersonal inequalities. The per capita expenditure on social transfer negatively affects social inequalities; however national redistribution only mitigates the impact of spatial inequalities without compensating them completely. Other variables of spatial inequality such as the unemployment rates' regional dispersion in each country and the geographic concentration of economic activity (i.e., the effects of agglomeration on social inequalities) are significant. Thus, more agglomeration, which increasing returns of scale in production induce, increases inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we examine the labor and human capital dimensions of the United Arab Emirate's (UAE) efforts to transition from an oil rich country to a solar energy hub. Building on research from energy geography and evolutionary economic geography, we study the path dependence of oil development, the structural differences between oil and solar labor markets, and the ability of solar energy to serve as an alternative source of employment for the citizens of a rentier state. We accomplish this by presenting results from an original survey of UAE solar firms and key informant interviews with industry representatives. Our findings indicate that despite the predilection for framing renewable energy investment as a transition, solar energy development in the UAE is enabled by the presence of an oil economy and is both co-constructive and restrained by these dynamics. We conclude with the implications of the study for renewable labor market transitions in oil economies of the Middle East and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of International Social Research is the property of Journal of International Social Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Usual economic analyses skip the web of social relations rooted across global chains. • Social brokerage follows varied stances: as social broker, researcher or scientist. • An ethnographic approach proposes a relational pathway for social brokerage. • Material quality shall not be the only guiding knowledge and coordination constructs. • Collaborative approaches yield a sense of fairness and humanity across global chains. The usual economic analyses skip the web of social relations where economic but also social influences are equally relevant. Reinecke et al. (2018) offer a conceptual perspective to study social brokerage (the 'social turn') across global value chains. This paper aims: 1) to reveal how Colombian producers and Austrian roasters start social ties (i.e. through social brokerage) and eventually become business partners with the illustrative example of specialty coffee chains, 2) to propose a research-based relational pathway for social brokerage, and 3) to unpack how encounters between producers and roasters originated and developed as well as to identify the required knowledge and coordination devices used. The encounters follow an ethnographic approach relying on participant observation (e.g. in Vienna, Austria and in selected Colombian coffee regions). Coffee is one of the many commodities suitable to analyze social interactions across global chains. Colonial patterns are still embedded in the economic geography of global value chains. The involvement of researchers (including non-Europeans) was key to enhance social brokerage (e.g. structural holes, boundary work) and in that way allowed disadvantaged chain actors to uninhibitedly voice whatever discomfort resulted from those interactions. Although material quality is paramount in the trade of specialty coffee, it shall not be the only guiding coordination device and knowledge construct to be followed by chain actors. Building collaborative relationships is not an easy or static task. Nonetheless, it is key to encourage knowledge sharing, to yield a sense of fairness and humanity across global chains and to cope with opportunistic gatekeepers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Development corridors function as spatial imaginaries for strategic coupling processes. • Spatial imaginaries unfold through emptying the future and claiming space. • Creation of territorial and networked insides and outsides as power resource. • SAGCOT as empirical example for the coupling with a fertilizer GPN. This article contributes an economic geography perspective on the envisioning and implementing of mega-infrastructure projects in Africa. Focusing on development corridors and their implicit spatio-temporality of "global integration," we conceptualize corridors as spatial imaginaries for strategic coupling processes. We distinguish between emptying the future and claiming space as two fundamental mechanisms of spatial imaginaries. Together, these mechanisms can render crucial territorial and relational "insides" and "outsides" available for coupling processes. Spatial imaginaries are then sources of power in the coupling between corridor regions and global production networks. Empirically, we focus on the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) in relation to the coupling process between global fertilizer manufacturer YARA International and the Tanzanian agricultural market. Facing unfavourable coupling conditions with Tanzania's fertilizer sector, the early mobilization of SAGCOT served to promote a narrow imaginary of Tanzania's agrarian future, thereby making a soft claim to territorial (through the corridor) and networked space (through a network of corridor stakeholders). Although YARA and Tanzanian counterparts initially capitalized on SAGCOT's mobilization due to its promise to transform Tanzanian agriculture, a gradual disenchantment with SAGCOT's vision and its subsequent disintegration jeopardizes these coupling process today. Approaching corridors as spatial imaginaries reveals therefore their instrumental but fragile power in coupling processes. Such power is not about blunt domination or coercion, but rather builds on persuasion and consent. Only when spatial imaginaries succeed in maintaining persuasive arguments about the future, is their function of initiating and stabilizing otherwise unfavourable coupling processes available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Documentación Científica is the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goal of this research is to explore through evolutionary and relational economic geography how the human agency of local communities, organized armed groups, and the central government together shape the evolutionary trajectory of a national natural park as a tourist destination where armed conflict is present. The research was conducted in El Cocuy National Natural Park in Colombia and focuses on the period after the arrival of the High Mountain Battalion in 2003. Data collected from 11 key informants in semistructured interviews were analyzed with Atlas. ti and complemented with documentary analysis. The results show the dynamics of human agency in the National Natural Park and its effects at three levels: 1) local communities see their creative capacity and decision-making conditioned by power and control/pressures exerted by organized armed groups and the government; 2) the actions of organized armed groups control and limit ecotourism development; and 3) public regulations restrict these places' evolutionary pathways. Overall, actions derived from power relations exercised by the organized armed groups and the central government determined the evolutionary trajectory of the destination, reducing its adaptability to change, the empowerment of local communities, and its prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide adoption of the Internet worldwide, virtual space (or cyberspace) has become a key concern for geographers. Virtual space and physical space are increasingly recognised as interwoven, interdependent, and complementary. However, extant literature has offered insufficient explanations of how virtual and physical spaces are entwined. Specifically, little attention has been drawn from an economic geography perspective to understand how virtual space and physical space complement each other to facilitate economic relations and activities. To fill this gap, this study—through a case study of the creative ceramic industry in Jingdezhen, China—unpacks the interwoven nature of virtual and physical spaces and reveals how the interdependence between these spaces facilitates the two most important dimensions in economic geography: knowledge exchange and market transactions. Identifying certain limitations of virtual space alone in enabling knowledge exchange and market transactions, this study finds that knowledge transfer and co-production via virtual communities and electronic commerce via online retail and social media platforms occur most effectively when being combined with some interactions in physical space. It shows that relational networks, trust, and mutual understanding established through offline interactions could significantly encourage knowledge exchange and market transactions in virtual space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using technology space analysis, the paper examines how and where the world city network is digitally transforming. • The paper cross-fertilizes insights from world city research, financial geography and evolutionary economic geography. • The paper utilizes near real-time data as an alternative to patent data to build technology spaces. • The paper shows that specializing in digital technologies allows some cities to gain prominence in the world city network. The Advanced Producer Services (APS) sector, long considered to be the vanguard of the knowledge economy and world-city formation, is undergoing a digital transformation. Digital transformation entails an increased engagement with digital technologies in the operation, product offerings and strategies of APS firms, with potentially transformative implications. Such digitization processes are well-established in the morphing of finance into FinTech, with the other APS sub-sectors now allegedly catching-up as evidenced by the arrival of LegalTech, AccountTech, RegTech, PropTech, and AdTech. Moreover, the digital transformation could imply that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) services are again becoming central to the APS complex after two decades of being largely omitted from world city research. Adopting an evolutionary economic geography perspective, we introduce a new approach that utilizes near real-time data sources to compare local technology spaces with the global picture of digital transformation in world cities. Building a dataset containing information from 40,754 APS start-ups and scale-ups derived from Dealroom.co , this paper explores the geographically uneven digital transformation of the APS sector across European and North American world cities. This allows gauging the extent of digital transformation within APS sectors for each selected city, develop new understandings of the division of labour between world cities, and highlight where sector coalescence between APS sectors is occurring and is more likely to occur. In the process we develop new technological indicators of world-cityness that can be used alongside the classic world city connectivity indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition intermediaries are recognized as key actors in sustainability transitions. While the structural embeddedness of intermediaries has been explored in innovation studies and economic geography literature, few transition studies have systematically examined how the agency of transition intermediaries is affected by institutional contexts. Without a deeper understanding of this interplay, the literature risks a naive perception of transition intermediaries as free agents. This study investigates transition intermediation in diverse institutional contexts using a typology of organizational fields that draws on institutional theory. Cases of local government commitments to fleet electrification and cycling infrastructure show that crises allow incumbent organizations to diverge from existing institutional arrangements and intermediate for systems change. Findings also indicate that the social position of transition intermediaries in a field can mute the enabling effect of crises on transition intermediation. Similarly, findings show that transition intermediaries can legitimize their visions for systems change by using collective action framing to draw attention to conflict between existing institutions to diverge from existing institutional arrangements. As such, this study provides new insight into conditions affecting the agency of transition intermediaries for low-carbon mobility transition. • A study of intermediation for vehicle fleet transition and pop-up cycleways. • Transition intermediaries are examined in a local government context in Australia. • A conceptual framework draws on institutional entrepreneurship literature. • Crises allow incumbent organizations to intermediate for systems change. • Intermediaries' social position may prevent diffusion of institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EURE is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Road increases vulnerability to food insecurity in multiple ways in the Himalaya. • As much as it connects, road is also a source of distantiation and disconnection. • Infrastructural orthodoxies proliferate at multiple scales and are problematic. • Infrastructural orthodoxies obscure the unintended effects of infrastructures. • We need more counter-stories of the messy and uneven effects of infrastructures. National and international development narratives frame Nepal's Karnali region as synonymous with remoteness and food insecurity. These narratives often position food insecurity as a direct outcome of geographical remoteness associated with the lack of motorable road. Road building is thus presented as the solution to food insecurity. I challenge this orthodox narrative using the concept of "infrastructural orthodoxies". Drawing on interdisciplinary literature on infrastructures and critical human geography scholarship on vulnerability, I argue that rather than resolving food insecurity, road increases vulnerability. This occurs in at least two ways: 1) through the proletarianization of wage workers and petty contractors in the road building market, and 2) through increasing dependence on cash and distant markets for the production and reproduction of local social lives. However, I neither suggest road building as inherently negative nor limit my discussion to the normative evaluation of the success or failure of road. Instead, I ask: what is it that these road projects are actually doing? This question helps turn our attention to the multivalent effects of road and illustrate why the orthodoxy is problematic. I thus present two unintended effects of road that exceed and are obscured by the orthodoxy: 1) road as key sites of electoral politics, and 2) road as vectors of new economic and labor geographies in the Himalayan borderlands. This paper contributes to the knowledge on the relationship between road and food (in)security, and to the interdisciplinary literature that view infrastructures as contingent and always in the process of becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses expanding of global economic systems by studying Sámi strategies addressing Norwegian High Northern Policies (NHNP) launched by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2005. NHNP attracted global economy, labour and knowledge to the Arctic region. The Sámi responding are analysed by using agency theories in economic geography, and contributes to expand the content of agencies e.g. by understanding its embedding in specific historical shaped structures as well as in debates on new opportunity spaces in the wake of globalism. The study demonstrates three strategies debated and launched by the Sámi Parliament: (i) In grounding its resistance the Sámi Parliament argued that the entry of international industries into areas with Sámi population threaten the fundamental conditions for Sámi livelihood. (ii) By entering global governance the parliament emphasized the importance of Sámi negotiation with multinational companies in global governance frameworks. (iii) And by changing the historical understanding of Sámi territories in order to include research and higher education milieus outside remote rural districts. • A Sámi public space rooted in rural Norway do not meet actual economic globalization with a one-sided stubbornness. • The Sámi Parliament of Norway responding to new globalization by reproduction and by transforming developing paths. • Reproduction agency is based on developing law protection supported by international organizations as UN, OECD and ILO. • One new agency is entering global governance for negotiations with multinational companies. • Another new agency is redefining of Sámi territories by including Sámi outside rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Contrasting theoretical approaches towards unemployment within economic and political geography. • An agentic understanding of unemployment through engagements with community organising practices. • Acts of care and support within austerity contexts. • An emerging form of community unionism. This paper will consider the enduring acts of care, support and activism associated with unemployment in the North East and Midlands regions of England. It will draw upon literature relating to unemployment, labour geography and feminist economic geography to illuminate different forms of agency and resourcefulness found within the examples considered. The paper engages with Unemployed Workers' Centres in Newcastle upon Tyne and Chesterfield, focusing mostly upon their activities in response to UK austerity policies. These centres provide advice and support for unemployed people, particularly those who may be facing difficulties, such as work capability assessments, tribunals and debt. This supporting role is complimented by the campaigning activities of volunteers within these groups that actively contest related issues, including campaigns relating to zero-hour contracts, organising against austerity policies and wider educational projects as part of a relationship with Unite Community. The paper suggests that the associated organising practices indicate a varied and sustained form of unemployed political agency that articulates and contests multiple unemployed grievances. This engagement with a wider political realm, alongside the intimate acts of support and care found within the centres, suggests a more nuanced and agentic understanding of unemployed resistance within an austerity context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rurality is a regional geographical characterization that defines the nature of the external economic environment and consequently affects the performance of SMEs. However, the concept of rurality comprises a heterogeneous group of areas. In this paper, we examine the economic performance of 98 Municipal Regional Counties (MRCs) in the province of Quebec (Canada) in an urban-rural perspective. In a first step, we propose an extended and multidimensional typology defining rurality, using a set of spatial and industrial variables, from which we obtain 15 rural/urban types of MRCs. In a second step, we test for significant differences between these types, for a wide range of variables measuring firm performance, internal firm capacities and the regional economic competitiveness. Our results indicate that rurality may be too broad a concept to categorize the economic situation of "non-urban" regions. We do observe significant differences between regions, but not always on an urban-rural division. We show that geographic remoteness and the nature of the regions' industrial base may be more useful to characterize their particular economic environment to the economic performance of SMEs. • Rurality represents a large group of heterogeneous regions. • Heterogeneity in SME and regional economic performances. • Using a multi-dimensional regional typology on a full urban/rural continuum. • Importance of geography and regional industrial structure, beyond rurality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City logistics as a research field offers a wide range of potential solutions and technologies for advancing toward modern and sustainable mobility. As societies demand environments that are more ecological and cities tackle the effects of growing e-commerce, innovative tools to regulate urban economic traffic become increasingly important. Based on the theoretical approach of the multi-level perspective, this case study combines findings from city-logistics research with evolutionary economics to gain a deeper understanding of the development of smart sustainable cities. The study strengthens the view on the geography of a transition with a focus on the interplay of changed practices, involved actors, and pathways. The analysis is based on qualitative social research, including interviews with various stakeholders. It examines the implementation of an app-based technology to regulate economic transport and delivery traffic in Barcelona. The municipal administration introduced the innovation in the Urban Mobility Plan and quickly integrated it across the city. The commitment of a software developer resulted in an enhanced version of the technology by a startup company. The development of the original innovation thus led to geographic diffusion of the upgraded technology through processing actors' feedback and targeting new markets outside the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Crowdfunding invoked in urban governance that valorizes social entrepreneurship. • Berlin shapes its distinctive and multiple crowdfunding ecologies. • Crowdfunding facilitates social entrepreneurship in Berlin. • Crowdfunding supports real-estate speculation in Berlin. • Crowdfunding enables solidarity economies in Berlin. Situated at the intersection of urban and economic geography, this paper develops and illustrates a three-step research agenda to further critical understanding of relations between crowdfunding and cities. First, we explore how crowdfunding is enrolled in shifting programmes of urban governance that valorize entrepreneurship in North America and Europe in particular. When invoked in urban governance, crowdfunding is increasingly the 'go to' method for mobilizing the cash, capital and collective enthusiasm necessary for social entrepreneurship and civic renewal in cities. Second, we offer a situated, qualitative case study account of crowdfunding in Berlin. In contrast with existing research, we show how a specific urban context contributes to shaping the distinctive crowdfunding ecologies that emerge in a city. Third, we interrogate the multiplicity and diversity of crowdfunding-city relations, identifying and analyzing three distinctive ecologies that have emerged to date in Berlin. While crowdfunding is indeed enabling social entrepreneurship in particular ways in Berlin, it also contributes to capitalizing speculation in booming real-estate developments and facilitates the solidarity economies of community groups and charities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most work in economic geography is on the Global North and developing Asia. However, this geographical bias occludes other(ed) places that could inform theory. This intervention conceptualizes Africa's experience in the global economy through the development of a typology of globalization (Globalization 1, 2, 3). It also reflects on the future of the continent in the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]