Chapter 3

Tangled Webs: Unravelling Complexity in the Global Economy

Review

• Concepts to Review – Globalization – Hyper-globalizers, sceptics, transformationalists • Key Words – Global production networks, transnational corporations, processes of globalization, connectivity, complexity, geographical clusters

Global Production Networks • Definition of GPNs – GPNs are networks which are geographically extensive and functionally integrated across national boundaries rather than actually span the whole world • Traits of GPNs – Turning inputs into outputs through production circuits – Unevenness of power relations – Involved in both cooperation and competition at the same time.

– Integrate firms into structures which blur traditional organizational boundaries

… GPNs (continued)

• Infrastructure of GPNs – Formation of GPNs – Deterritorialization of capital – Multiscalar regulatory systems and their impact on GPNs – Relationship of state to GPNs

Actors within GPNs

• Transnational corporations • Labour • Consumers • Global civil society organizations

Geographical Clusters

• The nature of geographical clusters – Generalized versus specialized – Formation – Structure – Territorial embeddedness • Networks – Geographical – Organizational