Hege Merete Knutsen

Black entrepreneurs, local embeddedness and regional economic development in Northern Namibia

The article addresses possibilities and barriers to economic activity and development in the Oshana region of Northern Namibia. The focus is on the role of local embeddedness of economic activities in attaining economic development. A network perspective, based on theories of value chains that are embedded both in social relations and spatially, is selected as the analytical framework. The value chains of local black entrepreneurs in the study area are short. Moreover, the analysis reveals that social obligations may impede economic development, but that such practices are diminishing. The economic dominance and competition from South Africa is the main impediment to economic development in Northern Namibia. Local political embeddedness is shallow and political measures have not significantly reduced the implications of this dominance.

Globalisation and the garment industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract The objective of this article is to explain how globalisation, the phase-out of MFA and regionalisation affect the development of the garment industry in Sri Lanka. The article starts with a discussion of the key concepts of globalisation and regionalisation, followed by a presentation of the analytical framework, including a theoretical discussion of winners and losers in commodity networks. It is argued that regionalisation may exacerbate the problems that the Sri Lankan garment industry has already experienced in terms of globalisation. In addition to the limited industrial development effects that are the outcome of the functional division of labour, regionalisation makes it even harder to obtain market access. It is likely that Sri Lanka continues to be tied in, both to the European and American trading blocks for the production of some good quality and reasonably priced standardised garments for the middle market. However, to be tied in as a supplier of standardised products for the middle market is a vulnerable position, especially when the market is flat and lead firms and buyers in the network pass down adjustment costs to the suppliers. When manufacturers earn low levels of profits, the prospects of reinvestment in production and sustained industrial upgrading are negligible.

Environmental practice in the commodity chain: the dyestuff and tanning industries compared

The combined restructuring–commodity chain approach is applied to shed light on processes that explain changes in the spatial and functional division of labour in the dyestuff and tanning industries. Both industries are pollution-intensive and are experiencing a locational shift from the north to the south and increasingly widespread sourcing. A distinction is made between producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains. This helps to highlight differences in technological characteristics and explain the relationships between the different nodes in a chain. Price competition may take place in both types of chains, and the strong focus on price competition in both industries is a key factor in explaining their environmental practice. The findings suggest, however, that it may be easier to advance beyond strong price competition in the producer-driven dyestuff chain.

Homeland Orientation of War-torn Diasporas: Remittances and Cultural Practices of Tamils and Somalis in Norway

could have given it a more prominent position. The determination was a milestone that marked the end of the interstate water-allocation process and the beginning of the planning process studied in the thesis. The significance of the determination goes much further than the interstate allocations of water, and it legitimated the claims of both proand anti-dam camps. The determination is also a rich source of primary data on the core theme of the thesis that ideas matter. At the tribunal, ideas from various standpoints, including those of the technocrats, were systematically developed and argued. The positions adopted by the different actors at the tribunal could have provided interesting insights into the thinking of the actors she interviewed for the thesis. Nevertheless, the thesis makes a valuable contribution to studies of development within human geography. It advances our understanding of both the Narmada project and India’s developmental regimes. In particular, it adds to our understanding of the changing ideas of development. Aandahl’s work also opens up possibilities for theoretically and methodologically informed inquiries in the future. The spatialtemporal tension that underpins development research is one such possibility. Another possibility is an exploration of politicians’ and planners’ unsettled attitudes towards democracy in developing countries. Finally, the thesis also adds new primary data to the literature on dams and development, which will be valuable for researchers in the future. References

Globalization and international division of labour: two concepts–one debate?

In this article three main approaches to the concept of globalization are distinguished between, and it is demonstrated that arguments in the ‘new’ debate on globalization and the sss‘old’ debate on a new international division of labour are in many respects similar.

Preferential treatment in a transition economy: the case of state‐owned enterprises in the textile and garment industry in Vietnam

The article examines the role and contribution of preferential treatment of state enterprises to growth in the textile and garment industry. State enterprises are still the largest single sector in the textile and garment industry in Vietnam, but are losing market shares to private Vietnamese enterprises and foreign‐owned enterprises despite the benefits that they enjoy. However, in the present context of economic transition and keen competition in the global market, well‐managed state enterprises are attractive to foreign buyers of their products and have a role to play in market access abroad. This contrasts with the neoliberal notion that privatization is essential to competitiveness in the global market.

Labor, Geography of

Labor geography has been shaped in a ‘dialogue’ between social theory and empirical studies that encompass the real-world experiences of contemporary labor geographers. Three themes recur in debates on this subfield: the agency of labor, constraining and enabling structures, and spatiality. In reviewing these themes, the authors present studies undertaken by labor geographers.

Transfer of ‘Western’ Institutions to a Transition Economy Context: Experiences from the Vietnamese Petroleum Sector

The article addresses possibilities and challenges in the transfer of ‘western’ institutions to a transition economy context. It examines how the transition economy context and attention to context can explain the outcome of a health, safety and environment (HSE) project that was implemented in the petroleum sector in Vietnam 1997–2011. This was part of a larger programme to convey insights and experiences from the Norwegian petroleum sector to petroleum-rich developing countries. Norwegian attention to context and Vietnamese adjustments of Norwegian experiences made it possible to enhance competence and systematic thinking on HSE in Petrovietnam (PVN) and to develop a more modern regulatory framework for HSE. The fact that PVN still holds a strong political position in Vietnams market-oriented state socialism has facilitated this and ensured fast enactment of the regulations. Implementation of the new regulatory framework in the industry has been more demanding however. Control of information as a basis of power is important in explaining this. Moreover, the industry complains that enforcement of the regulations develop at a slower pace than norms and cognition in the part of the industry that competes internationally. The findings clearly underscore the notion that institutions may at best be imported, never exported.

Restructuring and socially managed flexibility in the Norwegian hotel industry

The article explores processes of restructuring firms in the Norwegian hotel industry in the light of constant negotiations between neoliberalisation and countermeasures in the social-democratic welfare state, and the effects of this restructuring on labour. Inspired by scholarship on neoliberal restructuring, the article examines how competitive strategies in the hotel industry are shaped by intensified competition, by the interface of industry regulations, labour market regulations, and social security, and by the labour movement. Social-democratic welfare states are not insulated from neoliberal currents in either accumulation or regulation, and the concept of socially managed flexibility proves helpful in examining regulatory resistance to neoliberalisation. As in other advanced economies, the Norwegian hotel industry faces increased competition through intensification of labour efforts and strategies to increase flexibility, especially numerical flexibility aimed at cutting costs. Norwegian labour market regulations to some extent curb numerical flexibility for cost-cutting purposes, and the centralised labour movement plays an important role in this regard. Nonetheless, the hotel industry has found room to manoeuvre. The article reveals the states difficulties in managing flexibility in a way that permits numerical flexibility, yet prevents cost-cutting that leads to intensified labour efforts at the lower end of the service sector.

A Review of “Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization and Poverty in Africa”

as soil erosion or air quality, are ill-equipped to address the more complex challenges of global climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource consumption. To successfully address these challenges, Break Through argues that the United States must first address deeper issues related to its current condition of “insecure affluence” (p. 160). The book points out that, despite having more material wealth, Americans are increasingly insecure, with the prosperity and optimism of the civil rights, antiwar, and student movements of the 1950s and 1960s now replaced by fear and pessimism resulting from an eroding social safety net. Break Through draws from philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines to explore this problem and provide a basis for a new vision of prosperity that ties social well-being to environmental concerns. The one fly in the ointment is the book’s treatment of the environmental justice community in chapter 3, “Interests Within Interests” (pp. 66–88). In a tone that can only be described as hostile, Shellenberger and Nordhaus argue that there is no basis to claims that intentional discrimination is responsible for the disproportionate impact people of color suffer with regard to pollution and other environmental ills. Although recognizing that such inequalities exist, they argue that the environmental justice community would be better served by abandoning claims of racism and instead focusing on public health problems includingobesity and asthma. This characterization of environmental justice is problematic on several levels. First, it too narrowly defines the efforts and interests of the environmental justice community. The movement might have initially focused acts of intentional discrimination, but it now encompasses all situations in which people of color suffer disproportionately from acts of environmental exploitation and economic development (Rechtschaffen and Gauna 2002). The book’s suggestion that environmental justice advocates focus on health issues is condescending. As Shellenberger and Nordhaus themselves acknowledge, people of color have the same breadth of interests and concerns as anyone else. Finally, and perhaps more important, the book’s treatment of environmental justice is troubling because, regardless of the veracity of its claims, this chapter fails to serve the book’s larger purpose. No matter what one’s opinions are about the environmental justice community, it shares many of the same societal critiques found in Break Through. Both are concerned with how the current sociopolitical climate in the United States creates a culture that is more concerned with political power and economic growth than basic human wellbeing. Shellenberger and Nordhaus would be better served to align themselves with and learn from people of color rather than denigrate the environmental justice concerns they raise. Overall, Break Through offers a biting critique of past efforts to engage environmental concerns, which they argue were steeped both in scientific rationality and an overabundance of negativity. Shellenberger and Nordhaus point the way toward a new path, a “politics of possibility,” and invite their readers into a conversation regarding a new and more vibrant path to sustainability. With an anticipated paperback edition coming out later this year, Break Through may be of particular interest to geographers who teach in the areas of environmental geography, including environmental management, sustainability, and political ecology. Courses that examine the role and continued viability of the environmental movement in the United States would benefit from a familiarity with the ideas brought forward in Break Through.