Global Conference on Economic Geography Wish List

The Third Global Conference on Economic Geography is being held this week in Seoul, and I'm excited to be participating in the meeting. Following a similar post that Matt Wilson put together for the AAG, I've compiled a wish list of sessions that I hope to attend. Please let me know there is anything that I've overlooked related to development, knowledge, ICTs, social theory, value chains, or clustering. Day 1 is below, and I'll be adding the other days soon…

Wednesday June 29

Clusters and Development Ⅰ | June 29, 8:30-10:00 AM | COEX 318A
Chair: Byung-Min Lee (Konkuk University)
§   Raja Bashir (University of Birmingham) Clusters and economic development advantage in a knowledge-based economy
§   Martin Wrobel (Institute for Employment Research) Do regional clusters and networks protect firms in the German mechanical engineering industry against the fallout of the economic crisis?
§   Younghun Lim (Seoul National University) New industrial development path based on regional policy: a case study on the photonics industry’s growth in Gwangju, Korea

Plenary | Opening / Invited Lecture | June 29, 10:20-11:50 AM | COEX Inter-Continental Hotel Harmony Ballroom
Opening Address: Sam Ock Park (President, Institute of Space & Economy)
Welcome Address: Se-hoon Oh (Mayor, Seoul Metropolitan Government) 
Congratulatory Address: Un-Chan Chung (Chair, Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea)
Invited Lecturer: David Angel (President, Clark University)
§   Strengthening the practice and the profession of economic geography: Where next?

Actors in Innovative Clusters | June 29, 1:30-3:00 PM | COEX 308A
Chair: Javier Revilla Diez (Leibniz University Hannover)
§   Michela Lazzeroni (University of Pisa) and Andrea Piccaluga (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa) University-industry relations and firms’ performances at regional level: empirical evidence from the Tuscan innovative system in Italy
§   Jerker Moodysson (Lund University) and Lars Coenen (Lund University) Regional innovation systems and institutional transformation: The case of “biorefinery of the future”, North Sweden
§   Wenying Fu (Leibniz University Hannover), Javier Revilla Diez (Leibniz University Hannover) and Daniel Schiller (Leibniz University Hannover) An emerging innovative milieu in the Pearl River Delta, China? The role of social and organizational proximity for product innovation
§   Richard Shearmur (Université du Québec) and David Doloreux (Ottawa University) Collaborative behaviour and the geography of innovation in P-KIBS and T-KIBS
 
Clusters and Knowledge | June 29, 3:20-4:50 PM | COEX 318A
Chair: Päivi Oinas (University of Turku)
§   Kaiyuan Long (Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development) Collective efficiency and external knowledge search
§   Caterina Marchionni (University of Helsinki) and Päivi Oinas (University of Turku) The explanatory puzzle in the interdisciplinary literature of spatial industrial clustering
§   Eirik Vatne (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) The spatiality of knowledge flows. Learning and adaptation of process technologies.
§   Veronique Schutjens (Utrecht University), Sierdjan Koster (University of Groningen) and Peter Vaessen (Radboud University Nijmegen) Spin-offs, local knowledge diffusion and cluster policy

The (Re)Production of Difference in Cultural Industries | June 29, 5:10-6:40 PM | COEX 327C
Organizer: Norma Rantisi (Concordia University)
Chair: Sally Weller (Victoria University)
§   Norma Rantisi (Concordia University) Gendering Fashion, Fashioning Fur: The Reproduction of a Gendered Industry in Montreal, Canada
§   Iris Dzudzek (Goethe University Frankfurt) Welcome to DiverCity! Difference and diversity as urban mode of governance and accumulation
§   Lech Suwala (Humboldt-University of Berlin) The production process of cultural creativity from a spatial perspective
§   Dominic Power (Uppsala University) The difference principle? Regions, differentiation and difference machines


Thursday June 30

Agenda 2020: Rethinking Economic Geography ①: Panel Session | June 30, 8:30-10:00 AM | COEX 307A
Organizer: Yuko Aoyama (Clark University) and Dariusz Wójcik (Oxford University)
Chair: Yuko Aoyama (Clark University)
§   Yuko Aoyama (Clark University)
§   Christian Berndt (University of Zurich)
§   Ewald Engelen (University of Amsterdam)
§   Peter Lindner (Goethe University, Frankfurt)
§   Dominic Power (Uppsala University)
§   Matthew Zook (University of Kentucky)
§   Dariusz Wójcik (Oxford University)

Agenda 2020: Rethinking Economic Geography ② | June 30, 10:20-11:50 AM | COEX 307A
Organizer: Yuko Aoyama (Clark University) and Dariusz Wójcik (Oxford University)
Chair: Dariusz Wójcik (University Of Oxford)
§   Andrew Jones (University of London) and James Murphy (Clark University) After relationality: Future directions for economic geography
§   Matthew Zook (University of Kentucky), Dominic Power (Uppsala University) and Yuko Aoyama (Clark University) In defense of the firm: Digital warriors, do-gooders, and reinvention of the firm-centric approach in economic geography
§   Chris Benner (University of California) Creating just growth: Regions, epistemologies and new economic paradigms
§   Stefan Ouma (Goethe University Frankfurt) Creating, maintaining and rethinking global connections: Multinational agrobusiness and the precarious making of agri-export markets in the Global South
§   Dariusz Wójcik (University Of Oxford) Rethinking economic geography after the global financial crisis: Towards a positive and normative agenda

Spatial Aspects of Value Chain | June 30, 1:30-3:00 PM | COEX 308B
Chair: Jerry Patchell (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
§   Jerry Patchell (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) The geographic value cycle
§   Ermann Ulrich (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) Value in economic geography: considerations on perspectives of subjectivist and consumer-orientated concepts
§   Knut Bjørn Lindkvist (University of Bergen, Finnmark University College) Conventions and value chain development in a Norwegian – Spanish seafood trade
§   Boris Braun (University of Cologne) Environmental governance in global value chains – the example of trade with shrimps from Bangladesh and Indian leather goods

Geography of Knowledge Creation and Diffusion | June 30, 3:20-4:50 PM | COEX 308B
Chair: Johannes Glückler (University of Heidelberg)
§   Johannes Glückler (University of Heidelberg) and Ingmar Hammer (University of Heidelberg) Organized networks and the creation of network goods
§   Alejadro Mercado (Metropolitan Autonomous University) When spatial proximity in clusters is not enough for competitive learning; The segmentation of information flows from multinational corporations among regions
§   Chris Van Egeraat (National University of Ireland) and Declan Curran (Dublin City University) Social networks and actual knowledge flow in the Irish biotech industry
§   Konrad Czapiewski (Polish Academy of Sciences) Channels of knowledge transfer to Polish farmers

Contested Power in Global Supply Chains | June 30, 5:10-6:40 PM | COEX 318C
Organizer: Peter Dannenberg (Humboldt-University of Berlin) and Martin Franz (Philipps-University Marburg)
Chair: Peter Dannenberg (Humboldt-University of Berlin) and Martin Franz (Philipps-University Marburg)
§   Amelie Bernzen (University of Cologne) Impact of institutions on quality management in organic food imports
§   Peter Dannenberg (Humboldt-University of Berlin) The impact of cross regional influences in international value chains – The case of horticultural value chains between Kenya and the EU
§   Martin Franz (Philipps-University Marburg) Resistance and strategic responses in food supply networks: Metro Cash & Carry in Bangalore


Friday July 1

Geography of the Internet and the Mobile | July 1, 8:30-10:00 AM | COEX 308B
Chair: Edward J. Malecki (Ohio State University)
§   Mark Graham (University of Oxford) Broadband internet and expectations of altered development trajectories for Kenya
§   Krzysztof Janc (University of Wrocław) Geography of hyperlinks – local government websites in the region of Lower Silesia, Poland
§   Edward J. Malecki (Ohio State University) Clouds in boxes: The infrastructure of the new internet
§   Gernot Grabher (HafenCity University Hamburg) and Oliver Ibert (Leibniz-Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning) Distance as asset? Knowledge collaboration in hybrid online communities

Hiring a Research Assistant (or Postdoc) to work on a Project to Study the Impact of Broadband Internet in East Africa

I am currently hiring a 28 month Research Assistant (or Postdoctoral Research Fellow) to work on an ESRC-DFID funded project titled "The Promises of Fibre-Optic Broadband: A Pipeline for Economic Development in East Africa."

Employing case-studies, interviews, surveys and textual analysis in Kenya and Rwanda, this project examines the expectations and stated potentials of broadband Internet and compares those expectations to on-the-ground effects that broadband connectivity is having in three economic sectors: tea production, ecotourism, and business process outsourcing.

Applicants should have a graduate or postgraduate qualification in one of the social sciences, experience of social science research, and be willing to conduct extended fieldwork in East Africa. The successful candidate will be able to take a lead in project management, data collection and analysis, and the dissemination of results.

Based at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, this position is available from 1st October 2011 for 28 months in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter funding permitting. It may be possible to hire at Postdoctoral Research Fellow level given the right candidate.

Full job details and online application are available at this link.
Salary £25,751 - £30,747 p.a.
More details about the project available here.

Please share this position widely and feel free to get in touch with any questions about the position or the application procedure.