Conference 2017

Conference2017

Conference on Global Production

6-8th December 2017, National University of Singapore

The Global Production Networks Research Centre at the National University of Singapore (GPN@NUS) is pleased to announce that it has hosted the inaugural interdisciplinary ‘Conference on Global Production’ in December 2017.

Background

Global production networks – understood as organizationally and geographically fragmented global production systems coordinated by powerful lead firms – have now become the key structural foundation of the contemporary global economy and the primary shaper of its highly variegated economic development outcomes. The study of this phenomenon, also commonly referred to as global value chains, has become a highly vibrant and truly global interdisciplinary research field encompassing economic geography, international economics, economic sociology, political science, international political economy, development studies and international business studies, and one that has increasing purchase and relevance among international organizations and other important policy audiences.

Rationale

This conference is intended to bring together the research community studying fragmented global production systems in a cutting-edge dialogue that is both truly global and genuinely interdisciplinary. The intention is to generate intense and productive conversations across the interconnected domains of theory, empirics, methodology and policy in a conference that is thematically organised as opposed to being structured along disciplinary lines.

Conference themes

Encompassing, but not limited to, the following:

  • Global production networks and uneven regional development
  • The origins and evolution of global production networks
  • Firm-to-firm trade and participation in global production networks
  • Boundaries of the firm in global production networks
  • Transnational corporations and global production networks
  • Fragmentation of production and trade in value-added
  • Innovation and technological trajectories in global production networks
  • Varieties of national organization, institutions, and global production networks
  • Governance of global production networks
  • The regulatory effects of global production networks
  • The (geo)politics of global production networks
  • Global production networks and international security
  • Global production networks and contentious politics
  • The labour process and global production networks
  • Global production networks and stratification in the world economy
  • Global production networks, environmental standards and sustainability
  • Economic, social and environmental upgrading in global production networks
  • Global production networks and consumption dynamics
  • Financing/financializing global production networks
  • The role of services in global production networks
  • Methodology in the study of global production networks
  • Policy applications and implications of global production networks

About GPN@NUS

GPN@NUS is a cross-department research centre in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences that is funded by a US$4m grant from the National University of Singapore and which launched a four year research programme in October 2014. Bringing together a team of 20 academics and affiliated researchers from economic geography, economic sociology, political science and international trade economics, our work endeavours to understand the configuration of global production structures (a.k.a. global production networks/global value chains) and their impacts on economic development across Asia. Research is ongoing on the auto, electronics, finance, logistics, and oil and gas sectors. The Centre is co-directed by Henry Yeung and Neil Coe. For more on our activities, see: http://gpn.nus.edu.sg/.

Invited speakers

Jennifer Bair (University of Virginia)

Stephanie Barrientos (University of Manchester)

Ron Boschma (Lund University)

Gavin Bridge (Durham University)

Gary Gereffi (Duke University)

Martin Hess (University of Manchester)

Patrick Low (Graduate Institute, Geneva)

Layna Mosley (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Stefano Ponte (Copenhagen Business School)

John Ravenhill (University of Waterloo)

Laura Raynolds (Colorado State University)

Adrian Smith (Queen Mary, University of London)

Yuqing Xing (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo)

William Milberg (New School for Social Research, New York)

Conference organizing committee

Neil Coe (co-chair; Geography, NUS)

Henry Yeung (co-chair; Geography, NUS)

Aidan Wong (coordinator; GPN@NUS)

Davin Chor (Economics, NUS)

Soo Yeon Kim (Political Science, NUS)

Solee Shin (Sociology, NUS)

Dione Ng (GPN@NUS)