Call for Papers: AAG 2012, New York, 24th – 28th February: Ten Years of Global Production Networks (GPN) Research: Prospects and Future Directions?****
*Session Organizers: Neil M. Coe (University of Manchester, UK), Martin Hess (University of Manchester, UK) and Henry Wai-chung Yeung (National University of Singapore)*** Over the last decade, a strong and growing body of literature has emerged in economic geography and cognate disciplines that uses a global production networks (GPN) framework to investigate and explain economic globalization and regional development. Starting with an overarching theoretical framework first published in 2002 in *Review of International Political Economy* which built on and provided a sympathetic critique of earlier Global Commodity Chain and Global Value Chain approaches in economic sociology and development studies, the GPN framework has since been progressively refined conceptually and applied to a wide variety of economic sectors and geographies. Two full special issues in *Environment and Planning *A (2006) and *Journal of Economic Geography* (2008) have been published to advance these GPN-inspired studies. As it has evolved, GPN research has made steady progress in theoretical as well as empirical terms and produced valuable results while at the same time it has faced ongoing ontological, epistemological and methodological challenges. **** Firmly grounded in geographical political economy, the concept has sought to incorporate ideas from poststructuralist theory and the “relational turn” to better account for the networked nature of the global economy. However, the focus of GPN analysis on socio-spatial relations and networks at multiple scales has recently been said, by some commentators at least, to be in danger of ignoring fundamental capitalist imperatives and to be too all-encompassing to retain explanatory power. Others have concerns about GPN methodologies which are largely qualitative and cross-national in nature and thus may limit the ability to generalise from specific case studies. Despite these challenges, however, the GPN approach has from the outset been conscious of acknowledging different on-the-ground social and economic realities. It has gained considerable currency and impact and has travelled well beyond economic geography’s disciplinary boundaries, demonstrating its potential to establish an effective language and analytical platform from which to undertake sophisticated analysis of socio-economic development at scales ranging from the global to the local. **** This session of both paper presentations and invited panel discussion seeks to take stock of ten years of collaborative and geographically-diverse intellectual endeavour. It aims to explore the directions GPN research has taken and evaluate its viability as a heuristic device underpinning social science research into economic globalization and its impacts. We therefore welcome paper submissions addressing (but not limited to) one or more of the following topics:**** **· **Theoretical foundations of GPN analysis**** **· **Developing GPN methodologies**** **· **Structure and agency in GPNs**** **· **GPNs and (regional development): ruptures and frictions**** **· **Variegated capitalism, GPNs and development as a ‘moving target’**** **· **The politics of GPNs in a post-political world**** **· **Notions of power, value and embeddedness in GPN research**** **· **Labouring in GPNs**** **· **Cultural specificities of GPNs**** **· **Sectoral specificities of GPNs: industrial upgrading and economic restructuring**** **· **Evolutionary approaches to GPNs**** **· **GPNs and environmental economic geographies**** **· **GPNs and alternative conceptualizations**** ** ** Anyone interested in presenting a paper in this session should submit an abstract of up to 250 words to Neil Coe (neil....@manchester.ac.uk ), Martin Hess (martin.h...@manchester.ac.uk ) and Henry Yeung (henryye...@nus.edu.sg) by 15th September 2011.**** ** ** ** ** ---**** Dr Martin Hess**** Geography, School of Environment and Development**** University of Manchester**** Oxford Road**** Manchester M13 9PL**** **** Phone: +44 (0)161 275 3643**** email: martin.h...@manchester.ac.uk**** web: http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/geography****
