Spaces of Global Production: The Territorial Dimensions of Global Production Networks and World City Networks

科学网络旨在通过推进迄今为止在很大程度上被忽视的全球生产网络和全球城市网络的领土成果，为经济地理学领域做出重大贡献。在过去的几年中，已经发展出了关注从事商品和服务生产的行动者之间的全球和跨国关系的理论方法。两种突出的关系方法是“全球生产网络”方法和“世界城市网络”方法。两者都在经济地理学中获得了很大的关注，并能够解释当代全球化的关键特征。然而，这些基于网络的方法仍然存在一个“盲点”，那就是它们对特定地区的区域和城市发展的影响。我们将系统地努力加强这些基于网络的理论中目前未被理论化的地域维度。该网络的所有成员都参与了各种大型研究项目，这些项目涉及全球生产网络和不同区域和部门的基于地点的转型。在三年的六次会议期间，成员们将从理论上和经验上增进对领土层面的理解。科学网络将作为一个平台，使讨论和更好地传播研究成果，在现有研究网络成员的项目之间创造协同效应，并使不同案例和地域的更高层次的理论化成为可能。其核心目标是：(i)提高全球生产网络和世界城市网络方法的地域维度；（ii）结合不同理论和实证研究项目的见解，将全球网络跨部门和地区整合所导致的空间转变理论化；（iii）为经济地理研究制定新的研究议程，将网络和基于地点的视角结合起来，与其他人文地理视角（如城市地理学）相结合；（iv）使特别是早期职业学者能够从与同行和更成熟的研究人员（在德国和国外）的网络中受益，并在科学网络之外获得曝光。该网络的具体成果包括在国际同行评议期刊上发表两期特刊、制定联合拨款提案，以及在国家和国际地理会议上组织会议。

The scientific network aims to make a significant contribution to the field of economic geography by advancing the so far largely neglected territorial outcomes of global production networks and global city networks. Over the past years, theoretical approaches that pay attention to the global and transnational relations between actors engaged in the production of goods and services have been developed. Two prominent relational approaches are the ‘global production network’ approach and the ‘world city network’ approach. Both have gained much traction in economic geography and have been able to explain crucial features of contemporary globalisation. A remaining ‘blind spot’ of these network-based approaches, however, is their impact on regional and urban development in particular places. We will systematically work towards strengthening the currently under-theorised territorial dimension of these network-based theories. All the network’s members are involved in various larger research projects that deal with global production networks and place-based transformations in different regions and sectors. During six meetings over the course of three years, the members will theoretical and empirically advance an understanding of the territorial dimension. The scientific network will serve as a platform that enables the discussion and better dissemination of research findings, creates synergies between existing research networks members’ projects, and enables a theorization at a higher level across the different cases and geographies. Its core aim is to: (i) improve the territorial dimension of the global production network and world city network approach, (ii) combine insights from different theoretical and empirical research projects to theorise spatial transformations resulting from global network integration across sectors and regions, (iii) develop new research agendas for economic geographic research that combines networks- and place-based perspectives, in engaging with other human geographic perspectives (e.g. urban geography), and (iv) enable particularly early-career scholars to benefit from networking with peers and more established researchers (in Germany and abroad) and gain exposure also beyond the scientific network. The specific outcomes of the network include two special issues in international peer-reviewed journals, the development of joint grant proposals, and the organisation of sessions at national and international geography conferences.