Global Production Networks and Nonlinearity

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Global Production Networks and Non-linearity

• Alex Hughes
• (Newcastle University)

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Outline

• Conceptual significance of non-linearity
• Responsibility, ethical consumption and changing
  governance of GPNs
• 1) Networks of responsibility
• 2) Ethical and emotional relations
• 3) Circuits of culture and knowledgeable
  governance
• 4) Spaces of responsible governance
• Discussion revising metaphors of non-linearity?

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Conceptual significance of non-linearity

• Metaphors matter (Coe and Hess Kelly)
• Challenging unidirectional linearity of chain
  metaphor
• Challenging deterministic analysis (Dicken)
• Network metaphor- webs of interdependence,
  complexity, multi-directional flows
• Circuits of culture and knowledge flow

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Responsibility, ethical consumption and changing
governance of GPNs

• Globalisation, trade liberalisation and perceived
  regulation gap
• Proliferation of private codes and standards in
  global economy
• Standards and corporate responsibility
• Ethical trade, ethical consumption and GPN
  governance

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1) Networks of responsibility
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2) Emotional and ethical relations

• Emotional geographies, the economy and GPNs
• Capitalising on affect

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Consumption is itself a series of affective
fields and more and more of the industry that
investigates consumer wants and desires is given
over to identifying possible emotional pressure
points (Thrift, 2006 286).
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2) Emotional and ethical relations

• Emotional geographies, the economy and GPNs
• Capitalising on affect
• Ethical consumption and the unsettled geographies
  of GPNs
• Affective campaigns for ethical trade

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3) Circuits of culture and knowledgeable
governance

• Ethical codes, standards and auditing
• Managerial discourse of responsibility
• Circuits of culture and the knowledge economy
• Spaces of ethical knowledge circulation
  (projects, temporary clusters, mobile knowledge
  workers ... )
• Emphasis on knowledge translation (Williams,
  Faulconbridge)

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4) Spaces of responsible GPN governance

• Spatiality of responsible governance in GPNs
• UK-US comparative analysis of ethical trading
  organisation
• Territorial embeddedness

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Absence of campaigning against other US
supermarkets The US consumers, despite the fact
that theres campaigns around migrant workers and
people recollect, you know, they recollect the
grape boycotts, there are current campaigns
around migrant workers ... There hasnt been a
consumer campaign, so its not very well
integrated with the campaigns around toys and
clothing its not the same campaigners, they
havent worked the same way, there isnt any
equivalent of the Fair Labor Association for food
... If you were to be able to communicate to
shoppers at supermarkets in the US, it would be a
new idea they dont go in thinking about it, the
way they do in Europe. (Interview with
President, Social Accountability International,
24/02/06).
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4) Spaces of responsible GPN governance

• Spatiality of responsible governance in GPNs
• UK-US comparative analysis of ethical trading
  organisation
• Territorial embeddedness
• Network embeddedness
• Constellations of interconnected practices (Coe
  and Bunnell Faulconbridge) for ethical trading
  development and GPN governance
• Trans-local translation of ethical knowledge
  (networks, circuits and/or rhizomes)

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Conclusions

• Addressing call for a cultural political
  economy of global production networks (Coe and
  Hess)
• emotional and ethical practices shaping GPN
  governance
• Developing understanding of knowledge flow in
  GPNs
• knowledge creation and translation
• trans-scalar flows of knowledge translation
  shaping GPN governance
• Developing non-linear conceptual frameworks