Prof' Dominic Power Uppsala University dominic'powerkultgeog'uu'se Technology forces behind globaliz

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Prof. Dominic Power Uppsala Universitydominic.po
wer_at_kultgeog.uu.se Technology forces behind
globalizationEkonomisk geografi
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Next 3 lectures

• Next 3 lectures based on Dicken part 2
• Technology an inevitable force underpinning
  globalization?
• TNCs the firms that drive globalization and
  internationalization?
• The state and governance is politics and society
  reacting to globalization or in fact laying the
  groundwork for it?

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CH. 3. Technological Change Gales of Creative
Destruction

• The evolutionary perspective on technological
  change and economic development
• Distance shrinking technology
• New products, new production processes
• The geography of innovation

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An evolutionary perspective?

• Many people see technological change and economic
  development as tied together in an evolutionary
  relationship
• Marx and the technological base
• But we should not forget that evolution is always
  contingent and is far from inevitable
• Technological development is far from isolated
  from the rest of the world (and thus we should be
  careful to give it causal primacy and think it is
  the base)
• War is the locomotive of history Trotsky
• Necessity is the mother of invention

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Technological change a typology

• incremental innovations (stegvisa förändringar av
  existerande teknik)
• radical innovations (uppfinningar ny produkt,
  ny process)
• changes in technology system (innovationer som
  leder till uppkomst av helt nya
  företag/branscher)
• changes in the techno-economic paradigm
  (innovationer som förändrar alla branscher/hela
  samhället)

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• Idea that economic growth happens in long waves
  brought about by technology development
• 5 Kondratiev-waves and their characteristics

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Better transport (of things, people and
information) shrinks the world - The death of
distance?
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Uneven time-space convergence
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Trains, planes and automobiles (and boats - 95
percent of world cargo volume still moves by ship)

• 1807 - Comet, first steamship
• 1825 - Stockton to Darlington railway opened
• 1843 - Launch of Brunel's Great Britain, the
  first screw-propellor-driven steamship to cross
  the Atlantic
• 1866 - First successful transatlantic cable the
  technologies of communication the telegraph and
  the telephone (1880s) revolutionise commerce
• 1877-81 First refrigeration ships - frozen meat
  to Britain from Argentina, Australia and New
  Zealand
• 1930-90s - Air and road haulage of goods made
  increasingly serious inroads into sea-borne trade
  
• 1950s Bulk carriers (e.g. oil tankers) and
  Container ships developed faster, cheaper,
  lower labour costs
• Bigger and faster - container ships are now on
  average 8 times bigger than in 1970.
• Containers spelled the death of distance for
  manufacturing

London Docks - unloading port wine from Oporto,
1909
Chiwan Container Terminal 2005 - MSC Pamela, the
world's largest container ship room for 9300
containers/1,2 million 29inch TVs
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The 5th Kondratiev cycle IT Information tech
seen as the driver Increased capacity
inter-continental under water cables
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Broadband/optical cables takes over Atlantic
traffic from satellites But it is not just
increased capacity we are also able to get more
into the capacity we have
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Uneven access communications technology
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• Uneven access Internet infrastructure and
  backbones 2002

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Technical and product development the product
life cycle model
Innovate or evaporate!
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Stages of technological development?

• 7 stages (Edling)
• 1. LIght industry, low capital intensity (raw
  materials, hand crafts)
• 2. Assembley and light manufacturing (Toys,
  clothes)
• 3. Heavy industry, consumer electronics (TV, CD
  players)
• 4. More technology intensive processes and
  investments in own brands
• 5. High class electronics, export of capital
  intensive prodcuts (chemicals, cars, advanced
  electronics)
• 6. Domestic consumption begins to drive the
  market, world leading position in certain
  high-tech forms of production (but not
  innovation)
• 7. Innovation at the forefront of technology

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Technology leading to more effective production
processes historical phases

• Manufacture
• Machinofacture
• Scientific management (Taylorism)
• Fordism
• Post-Fordism/Flexibel specialisering

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Fordism
Flexible specialization

• Standardization
• Scale economies
• Mass production
• Production process
• Vertical integration
• Hierarchial
• Price competition
• Global spread of routine production

• Tailored to the customer
• Flexibility
• Many parts to production
• Product innovation
• Vertical disintegration
• Network
• Dynamic competition
• Agglomerations/ clusters of innovative businesses

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Variation on the same theme
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But despite all the changes in technology (and
their time-space affects) some places are more
central than others
This is what the agglomeration/cluster/innovation
theories etc try to answer