Past years have seen increasing global geopolitical tension, prompting debates in economic geography on ongoing processes of de-globalization, and questions on changing geopolitical and geoeconomic strategies. Within this context and as part of renewed considerations of sovereignty, governments have identified science and higher education as an important field for international relations. While universities have long been shown to be permeated by geopolitical dynamics and international power structures, they now become increasingly active as geopolitical instruments and actors. One particular transnational form of higher education is the development of offshore campuses (or OCs) by universities, which some governments seek to attract. In this article, we conceptualize offshore campus development as a geopolitical strategy under the knowledge-based economy, unfolding across three dimensions: global reputational hierarchies and power asymmetries, global competitiveness and positionality, and territorial logics of power and security. Based on an analysis of qualitative interviews with offshore campus executive managers, as well as with senior administrators from government institutions in the Arab Gulf region and Southeast Asia, we show how governments' strategies to attract offshore campuses weave transnational higher education into geopolitical considerations that are informed by rationales of the knowledge-based economy. Our analysis shows not only that the lens of geopolitics can help to better understand the logics of offshore campus development but that these campuses also get mobilized in geopolitical strategies of governments directly. As a geopolitical strategy, offshore campuses blend economic and political objectives, fuse coercive and consensual foreign policy strategies, and reterritorialize flows involving state and nonstate actors.
In responding to the calls to better incorporate the role of the state in economic geographic research, in this article we propose an expanded conceptualization of economic statecraft and explore the role of state capacity that forges industrialization paths. We focus on the rise of hinge states as a particular-and we argue, increasingly prevalent-form of economic statecraft under multipolarity that actively develops state capacity to address power asymmetries between states. By taking the case of the electric vehicle and battery industry, we demonstrate how Hungary, Mexico, and Thailand are hedging alliances, leveraging geoeconomics positionality for market access, and territorializing industrialization paths at multiple scales. As such, hinge states play a pivotal role in the global value chains/global production networks, and navigate the US-China geoeconomic competition by exercising supply chain diplomacy to enhance its own strategic autonomy. By engaging with the interdisciplinary debates on economic statecraft and state capacity, our goal is to develop an analytical framework for economic geography that incorporates the role of the state under multipolarity.
The US-China rivalry is focusing attention on how geoeconomics impacts corporate operations and global production networks. States are seeking to weaponize interdependence through policies like sanctions and export controls, and through instrumentalizing corporations as tools to secure relative gains over geopolitical rivals. This article examines how firms' territorial embeddedness complicates states' weaponization efforts. To illustrate this phenomenon, we investigate Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC has played an important role in the development of China's chip ecosystem and is also critical to securing the competitive advantage of US chip and AI firms. The US government has sought to pressurize TSMC to limit commercial relations with Chinese firms in a bid to impede China's semiconductor industry. However, TSMC itself is deeply embedded in a cross-strait manufacturing ecosystem, integrating Taiwan and mainland China. We find that the potential compliance costs of TSMC fully discontinuing its commercial links with China and the collateral damage that would be experienced by the US and its firms have enhanced TSMC's bargaining power. This has enabled the company, in turn, to further expand its China operations. Operationalizing the concept of embeddedness can significantly enhance understanding of how corporate geographies relate to geoeconomic dynamics.
Economic geography has offered several insights to understand the role of geography in shaping creativity, innovation, and the way they are connected in space. Unfortunately, most attention has been devoted to analyzing cities and urban regions as the ideal context where creativity and innovation come together. Emerging counternarratives are challenging this urban perspective and proposing that creativity-led innovation can also thrive in rural, often more peripheral, places. Theoretically, different arguments have been proposed, yet a clear conceptualization is lacking. Methodologically, most evidence comes from intriguing case studies and country-specific surveys, yet comparative quantitative evidence is missing or misleading. We propose a conceptualization of creativity-led innovation that can be operationalized in comparative analyses of rural regions. Our conceptualization captures two complementary ways in which creativity-led innovation might be at play, either as innovation in creative industries or as creative workers contributing to innovation across industries. We then propose to use trademarks as an alternative indicator to patents, better fitting both dimensions of creativity-led innovation. We illustrate the opportunities from our conceptualization and measurement with a comparative study of European regions. Using a database combining large-scale occupational data with patent and trademark activity for the period 2011 to 2019, we analyze the relationship between creative occupations and innovation activity in rural regions. Our findings suggest that creativity-led innovation processes operate in rural regions but can only be uncovered when using trademarks as innovation indicators. These findings bear key policy implications, since they inform efforts toward formulating and monitoring the role of creativity and innovation for rural contexts.
Geopolitical rivalry between China and the US is profoundly affecting transnational investments. We develop an analytical framework that augments the notion of strategic coupling to capture whether and how transnational investment projects can cohere in a geopolitically charged world. Two cases-Duisburg in Germany and the Royal Albert Dock in London, UK-are used to analyze why local development efforts hinging on Chinese capital failed to materialize. Our cases demonstrate that rather than high-profile ruptures in the coupling process the (re-)emergence of geopolitics is driving a process of dealignment between national-level priorities, such as de-risking, and the developmental aims of city-regions. This dealignment reflects more mundane geopolitical influences that need integrating into our understanding of strategic coupling. We also find that geopolitical factors alone do not determine the success or failure of such transnational investments, and analysis must include the interests of key stakeholders and the possibility of miscalculation. Our findings challenge state-centric narratives and underscore the need to account for contingent, multiscalar coalitions that shape development outcomes in the era of geopolitics.
This article investigates how temporary clusters forge, stabilize, and sometimes erode symbolic associations between places and industries, focusing on the lifecycle of Italy's first international fashion shows, the Pitti shows in Florence (1951-84). Bridging research on geographic (dis)associations and temporary and cyclical clusters, we develop a framework linking knowledge spillovers to image spillovers. We argue that knowledge generated within temporary clusters translates into durable geographic associations only when selectively mediated, narratively anchored, and sustained by high-status participants. Drawing on longitudinal archival research combining participation data and systematic trade press coverage, we reconstruct how the Florence shows initially consolidated Italian fashion as an exportable category, yet later experienced symbolic hollowing. We demonstrate, first, that spillover capacity within temporary clusters is structurally asymmetric: A small number of elite actors disproportionately shape both knowledge release and symbolic value. Second, we show that these actors perform a metonymic function, standing in for broader geographic imaginaries. Third, we theorize temporary clusters as status arenas embedded in hierarchical cyclical event circuits, where centrality is dynamically renegotiated and participant mobility unevenly distributed. Fourth, we highlight the role of symbolic governance and curatorial selectivity, showing how growth without coherence can dilute credibility and accelerate reputational decline. Conceptually, the study advances cultural economic geography by theorizing temporary clusters as historically contingent sites of knowledge and symbolic value production, central to geographic associations yet reliant on fragile alignment among organizers, cultural intermediaries, and high-status participants. Methodologically, we show how historical-geographic reconstruction reveals slow symbolic dynamics obscured in cross-sectional analyses.
Fiscal geography illuminates the uneven ramifications of taxation policies on urban and regional development. In terms of housing governance, however, there remains a notable gap in examining how the spatial selectivity of taxation plays out across scales. This article highlights the interconnection between national regulation, housing market dynamics, and local governance systems. It examines how property development and local regulation have adapted to changes following the 2018 Finance Act in France, through which tax incentives for household rental investment were withdrawn from 1,167 municipalities. We compare the metropolitan regions of Angers and Clermont-Ferrand, two French, medium-sized cities. Detailed quantitative analysis shows that the 2018 Finance Act was followed by an increase in property development and prices in eligible municipalities, and a fall or stagnation in those losing eligibility. However, the regions' distinct local-level governance systems, uncovered through policy analysis and fifteen interviews with public and private stakeholders, exhibit varying responses to these shifts. We argue that these differences are linked to local political strategies and can influence property development dynamics. The entrepreneurial, pro-development urbanism of Angers adapted through the use of incentive tools aligned with national tax subsidies. In contrast, Clermont-Ferrand's more socially protective managerial urbanism responded by reinforcing regulatory constraints on development. We conclude by highlighting the importance of a multiscalar perspective in fiscal geography for connecting taxation policies, housing markets, and local governance systems.
Existing global production network (GPN) literature debates primarily focus on how local contract manufacturers and regions achieve development goals by establishing strategic coupling relationships with global lead firms. Limited attention has been given to whether and how these local firms can establish their own brands and subsequently become global lead firms, let alone identifying the key factors driving this transformation process. By developing an analytical framework comprising regional institutions, domestic consumer markets, and global capital markets, this article unpacks how sportswear firms in Quanzhou, China, have successfully transformed from contract manufacturers to emerging global lead firms with their own brands in GPNs. Through extensive interviews in 2020-24 with Quanzhou-based sportswear firms, local government officials, and industry associations, this article explores how the interplay of the three dynamics has coshaped the brand-centered strategies of local firms in coupling and decoupling from GPNs at different stages. The findings reveal that proactive decoupling from GPNs initiated by contract manufacturers aiming to build their own brands is critical for their further upgrading. Regional institutional support and the rapidly growing domestic market provide confidence and opportunities for local firms to establish independent brands and pursue decoupling strategies. Furthermore, global financing facilitates brand-driven decoupling and further functional upgrading through intensive inputs in research and development and international acquisitions, which enriches our understanding of the significant roles of global financing and its reputational effects in GPN dynamics.
Over the last two decades, strategic emerging global production networks (GPNs) have reshaped advanced manufacturing, challenging the dominance of developed economies. Yet existing GPN theories pay limited attention to the geoeconomic logics driving these transformations. This article develops a conceptual-analytical framework that integrates geoeconomics into GPN analysis, viewing states as geoeconomically competing and strategically selective actors and firms as active agents navigating these dynamics. Focusing on the electric vehicle battery industry, it examines how leading Chinese firms expand into Europe amid the strategic interaction between Chinese and EU agendas, each deploying distinct geoeconomic instruments. The analysis shows how corporate competitive imperatives (cost-capability optimization, market access, and financial discipline) are mediated by geopolitical and regulatory pressures, prompting varied firm coping strategies. The study advances understanding of globalization under hybrid state-firm logics and highlights the rise of emerging GPNs led by non-Western firms in an era of intensified geoeconomic competition.
Outsourcing labor is a well-established strategy that enables lead firms to reduce production costs. Still, it also presents managerial challenges related to coordinating actors across production networks and maintaining uninterrupted production and commodity circulation flows. In this context, operational disruptions caused by worker mobilizations are a key concern for lead firms operating within global production networks (GPNs). This article examines the downstream managerial strategies used by lead firms to impose uniformity and control over the labor process across the production network-a process conceptualized as standardization. Drawing on a case study of copper production networks in Chile-the world's leading copper producer, characterized by high outsourcing rates and frequent labor unrest-this study unpacks how standardization operates as a class-based dynamic, assigning distinct functions to lead and outsourced firms. Lead firms create procurement systems, contractual regulations, and compliance mechanisms to enforce discipline through capital-capital relationships. In turn, outsourced firms manage capital-labor relations by disciplining workers via human resources platforms, supervisory control, and union deterrence. Based on qualitative interviews and document analysis, this contribution advances current debates on labor regimes and GPNs by highlighting how managerial strategies mediate labor control across the division of labor.
